Reposted
asalamu alaikum,
inshaAllah all is well with you brothers. I had another question posted on the facebook page:
"what is the punishment of an apostate by zaidi fiqh?"
Historically i'm assuming its much like sunni fiqh, which is that apostates get death, however that is only for men. However that being said one of the distinguishing charachteristics of zaidi fiqh is that it did not have a 'closing of the doors of ijtihad' like sunni which basically stopped at 4 madhabs. zaidi is a bit more flexible.
so i guess my questions is that while historically if a person apostated and left islam, did they get the death penelty? and a follow up would be if a person left islam in the modern world (lets say the US, or even yemen) would they still get the death penelty?
fee aman Allah
As salaamu alaykum!
Thank you for your question!
First of all, the question of applying the hadd punishment on an apostate is the prerogative of the imam. If there is no imam, there is no hadd. This is based upon the narration in which the Prophet (sawas) said: ((There are four things for the authority…the hadd)). (Ref: Al-Bihar az-Zakhkhar.)
According to our imams and jurists, if the imam is present, the murtad is invited to repent and return to Islam. He is invited 3 times and over the span of 3 days. During these three days, he is fed, given drink, etc. If he doesn’t repent, then he is killed. (Ref: Ahkam of Imam al-Hadi (as) and the Mahdhab fi Fatawa of Imam Mansour Billah Abdullah bin Hamza (as)). Imam Zayd (as) also narrated this practice from Imam Ali (as).
I’m not sure if any of our contemporary scholars have mentioned anything different from the aforementioned. Also, keep in mind that there are other very detailed conditions and situations that are mentioned in the books regarding apostates. For example, the one who apostates while he was born a Muslim is killed straightaway while the convert to Islam that apostates is given the grace period. (Ref: Al-Bihar az-Zakhkhar)
And Allah knows best!
IRS
