[Dean's World] Ali Eteraz: How The Death Penalty For Apostasy Will Fall

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Ali Eteraz:
How The Death Penalty For Apostasy Will Fall
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1163009893.shtml


   Classical Islamic Law -- where national citizenship was based on one's
   religion -- mandated a death penalty for converting out of Islam. This
   midieval remnant has too long been part of modern Islamic Law. There
   is now a palpable cultural movement against this. We knew that. Here,
   for edification, is an almost airtight legal argumenta against it. I
   posted this is on my blog and I am copying and pasting it.

   *

   A hadith narrative from Bayhaqi's Book of Hadith, regarding the
   Prophet's directive to kill an apostate woman, [1]falls to critical
   evaluation.

   It is interesting to note that the scholars did not even engage in a
   matn (textual) analysis. The hadith was lacking on isnad (chain of
   narration) grounds and they didn't even have to proceed to evaluating
   its text. Assuming the hadith would have passed the isnad test, the
   matn test would have involved looking to see if the hadith was a)
   logical and b) consistent with the Quran.

   My prediction: one by one (here is another [2]one revealed as weak)
   all of these tertiary apostasy hadith will be discredited. Then we'll
   be left with nothing but a couple of hadith which satisfy the isnad
   test -- but which won't be able to satisfy the matn analysis. Why?
   Because the Quran does not legislate an earthly punishment for leaving
   Islam, so when a hadith contradicts that, it has become inconsistent
   with the Quran, and therefore questionable.

   UPDATE: Even as I say that, here is [3]THE authoritative hadith on the
   issue of apostasy (cited in both Muslim and Bukhari), becoming highly
   questionable in light of a matn (textual) analysis. You may not
   realize it now, but this is big.

   Let me say it again: there is no Quranic basis for an EARTHLY
   punishment for apostasy. (Maududi tried to find one but he failed). As
   such, the death penalty for apostasy is rooted in the hadith. Within
   the three links above, the single most important apostasy hadith, and
   a couple of corollary hadith, have been discredited. It becomes really
   difficult, in light of this information, to persuasively argue that
   Islamic Law should permit a death penalty for apostasy.

   Now, the issue is to spread these opinions so more people can get out
   of their ignorance.

References

   1. http://understanding-islam.com/related/text.asp?type=article&aid=247
   2. http://understanding-islam.com/related/text.asp?type=article&aid=245
   3. http://understanding-islam.com/related/text.asp?type=article&aid=241