Teenage Article and the Hullabaloo about the Sudan Convert Growing up with a mixed background of Christianity and Islam, studying and understanding the two religions was something I could not run away from. This process was further enhanced by my Christian ‘twin’ cousin brother who we were always together for over two decades. This is in no way surprising as it’s a typical occurrence in most families of South Western Nigeria and some parts of Kwara State where I was born. On a side is one of my paternal uncles who is a well versed person in Islam-regarded as ‘Alfa’, and on maternal side is another uncle who was pastoring one of the popular Pentecostal churches in Nigeria. I was at one time or the other under the respective tutelage of these two highly respected pontifical men. They both contributed to who I am today in no small measure. Though privileged to be born a Muslim, I make bold to say that the aforementioned background and other similar challenges made me come out a convinced Muslim; as I could as well become a practicing Christian if given birth to by Christian parents just like many other cousins of mine. As a little knowledge thirsty student, I must admit that, of what troubled my mind most was the issue of ‘riddah’ (apostasy). At a young age of 13, I was asking questions, visiting Libraries and consulting ulamas (religious scholars). It was around this time I first heard about Sheikh Ja’afar Mahmood Adam, listened to lots of his audio cassettes and was opportuned to eventually meet him in person. The Sheikh was a graduate of the prestigious Islamic University of Madinah; an erudite scholar of repute and one of the most talented Nigerian scholars of our contemporary. Ja’afar was later assassinated by gun men suspected to be Boko Haram blood suckers. The Sheikh will forever be sorely missed by every student of Islamic knowledge. I’ll never stop praying for the repose of his soul. I wrote a short article on apostasy. That article though unpublished was perhaps my first ever researched article in Islam. Contrary to the popular opinion upheld by many Muslims especially in the northern Nigeria (and of course, some parts of Africa and beyond), I came out convinced that the position of Islam was not death sentence for an apostate. This was the summary of my teenage article; an opinion that was later cemented and concretized as I grew up and got further exposed. Following the imposition of a death sentence on Meriam Yehya Ibrahim by a Sudanese court, the salient question is: does Islam really condemn converts to death? Against this premise, I garnished my teenage article with an edited work of Abed Awad, an attorney, Islamic law expert and adjunct law professor at Rutgers Law School & Pace Law School, USA, and hereby present it for the consumption of sincere and reflective minds seeking the true and correct message of Islam, particularly on apostates and apostasy. The idea of apostasy as a crime within Islam begins with the Islam’s foundational texts of the Quran and the Sunna (Hadith). The Quran is the Muslims’ Holy Scripture revealed by Allah to Prophet Mohammed. It contains Allah’s will, and therefore, is the most authoritative source of the law – the final word. The Sunna is the example of the Prophet, embodied in narrations about his sayings and conducts. Two centuries after the death of the Prophet, Muslim scholars collected and sifted through hundreds of thousands of narratives attributed to him. Few thousands were accepted as likely to be authentic. The Sunna forms the second most important source of legal guidance. Their application to modern life, however, is not always as clear as that of the Quran. What the Quran says about apostasy is crystal clear. It warns apostates that a severe and painful punishment awaits them in the hereafter except those who later repent. “They shall forever be the companions of hellfire.” Q2: 217. There is nowhere in the Quran that Allah commands execution of an apostate here on earth. Abed Awad observed that the omission is key, because the Quran says, “The Lord neglects nothing, nor does He forget.” Q.6. In other words, if Allah wanted apostates killed, He would have said so. Unlike the Quran however, there are conflicting stories and opinions about the Sunna’s stance on apostasy. According to some sayings attributed to the Prophet, he was said to have called for execution of the apostates. According to one hadith, the Prophet was reported to have said: “He who changes his religion, kill him”. Stronger opinion and authenticated sayings allude to the contrary. Suffice to mention that there is no record of the Prophet executing any apostate or directing any particular apostate to be killed. After all, there were established cases of few individuals who left Islam and he never sentenced one to death. The Prophet, as leader of the growing Muslim community, brokered a truce with a competing religious tribe, the Qurayshite. This treaty is known as the treaty of Hudaybiyyah. In the Truce, the Prophet agreed that if any Qurayshite came to join the Muslim community, he would not accept them. On the other hand, Muslims were permitted to join the Qurayshites, no questions asked, no executions threatened. A clearer illustration is found in the Sahih al-Bukhari, one of the most famous collections of books of Hadith. A Bedouin man pledged allegiance to Allah and the Prophet, only to later inform the Prophet that he wanted to cancel his pledge. After the Prophet refused to accept his cancellation for the third time, the Bedouin simply moved to another town. The prophet did not order his execution despite such clear and undisputed apostasy. There are other examples like this in the Muslim historical literature. Regrettably, few conflicting reported lessons attributed to the Prophet is one reason why the Sunna is not always and absolutely considered as authoritative a source of Islamic law as the Quran. This has also always given room to difference of opinions within the Jurists and scholars. In any case, the Quranic texts reign supreme and are always to be fallen back to. As to the question: why is apostasy still a capital crime in countries like Sudan?, which is beyond the scope of my first article, summary of Abed Awad’s answer is thus presented: “The Prophet preached a message of unity and social justice, and his religious community welcomed believers from all tribes, colours, gender and social statuses. At the same time, the Prophet’s growing tribe frequently battled outsiders, from competing Arabian religious tribes to Jewish groups. That means a Muslim who decided to abandon his religion was not simply making a personal choice to follow another God. He was turning his back on his tribe at a time of almost perpetual war. So, you can see why early Muslim jurists and leaders wanted to discourage conversions. To them, it was an act of treason against the community. It was a political crime and not a restriction upon one’s freedom of conscience. A majority of early Muslim jurists thus concluded that male apostates should receive the death penalty. While some say female apostates should also be killed, others argue that she should be imprisoned until she returns to Islam. Many prominent contemporary Muslim scholars have argued that apostasy should never carry the death penalty except in cases where converts take up arms against Muslims. It appears nations like the Sudan have not gotten the correct message. While Meriam Ibrahim is undoubtedly a victim of harsh human judges, there are also larger cultural forces at play. But at the end of the day, the fact remains that the Quran without a doubt supports religious freedom. Allah the most Merciful and Wise said it best: “There is no compulsion in religion.” Q2:256. And this should be the last word.” Abdulwaheed MUSA. twhid2001@yahoo; twitter: @twhid2001
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 12:37:49 +0000
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