The Law of Apostasy in Islam

174 Pages·2004·1.83 MB·English

by  Samuel Zwemer

THE LAW OF APOSTASY
IN ISLAM

www.muhammadanism.org
February 2, 2004
THE LAW OF APOSTASY IN ISLAM

ANSWERING THE QUESTION WHY THERE
ARE SO FEW MOSLEM CONVERTS, AND
GIVING EXAMPLES OF THEIR MORAL
COURAGE AND MARTYRDOM

BY
SAMUEL M. ZWEMER

MARSHALL BROTHERS, LTD.
LONDON, EDINBURGH & NEW YORK
PLASTER CAST OF GERONIMO
As it is found in the Museum at Algiers. (See page 89).
Printed in Great Britain
by
Hunt, Barnard & Co., Ltd.,
Aylesbury.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
7
PREFACE
12
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
I. 13
WHY SO FEW MOSLEM CONVERTS?
II. 31
THE LAW OF APOSTASY
III. 55
HOW IT WORKS
IV. 75
CENTURIES OF INTOLERANCE AND PERSECUTION
V. 103
HIDDEN DISCIPLES
VI. 129
THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA
VII. 163
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"The question of apostasy has furnished detractors of Islam a fruitful source of
alleging all kinds of barbarities against the Faith of Muhammad (peace and blessings be
upon his holy soul!), and never was an allegation more ill-founded than this. The habit
which makes itself responsible for laying such and other baseless and highly unjust
charges at the door of Islam is the psychological result of a mental activity in which the
chief elements are those of an inherent prejudice against Islam combined with ignorance.
It is the ignorance of the true and genuine Islam which manifests itself so frequently in
the Press and on the platform of Christian missionary propaganda in so many ways in
which its tenets are depicted in the blackest of colours."

"Islamic Review," November 1916.
PREFACE.

THE story is told that Damocles, at the court of Dionysius of Sicily, pronounced the latter
the happiest man on earth. When, however, Damocles was permitted to sit on the royal
throne, he perceived a sword hanging by a horse-hair over his head. The imagined felicity
vanished, and he begged Dionysius to remove him from his seat of peril. To-day we read
of new mandatories, of liberty, and of promised equality to minorities under Moslem
rule; and newspapers assert that a new era has come to the Near East. Economic
development, intellectual awakening, reforms, constitutions, parliaments and promises!
Does the sword of Damocles, however, still hang over the head of each convert from
Islam to Christianity? Is the new Islam more tolerant than the old? Will the lives and
property of converts be protected, and the rights of minorities be respected? This little
book is an attempt to answer one aspect of there large questions, which are all of vital
importance to the work of Christian Missions.
Again and again has European pressure, aided by a few educated Orientals,
endeavoured to secure equality before the law for all religions and races in the Near East.
But as often as the attempt was made it proved a failure, each new failure more ghastly
than the last. The reason is that the conscience and the faith of the most sincere and
upright Moslems are bound up with the Koran and the Traditions. Civilization cannot
eradicate deep-seated convictions. Rifles and ironclads, the café, the theatre, written
constitutions, representative parliaments; none of there reach far below the surface. A
truer freedom, a deeper religious experience, a higher life than the one supplied by their
own faith, must come before Moslems can enter into the larger liberty which we enjoy.
Dr. Snouck Hurgronje, who cannot be suspected either of ignorance or of
prejudice in what he writes on this subject, says: "The whole set of laws which, according
to Islam,
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8 PREFACE

should regulate the relations between believers and unbelievers, is the most consequent
elaboration imaginable of a mixture of religion and of politics in their mediæval form.
That he who possesses material power should also dominate the mind is accepted as a
matter of course; the possibility that adherents of different religions could live together as
citizens of the same state and with equal rights is excluded. Such was the situation in the
Middle Ages not only with Mohammedans: before and even long after the Reformation
our ancestors did not think very differently on the matter. The difference is chiefly this,
that Islam has fixed all these mediæval regulations in the form of eternal laws, so that
later generations, even if their views have changed, find it hard to emancipate themselves
from them." 1
Among the laws that regulate the relation between the Moslem community and
those who wish to leave it and join some other faith, is the law of apostasy. To show what
this law is; how it works in the community and towards the individual; what effect it has
had on the relations of Islam to Christianity; and how it is necessary to abrogate this law,
or modify it, that there may be liberty of conscience and freedom to confess Christ—such
is the purpose of this little book.
In its preparation we have consulted the Arabic sources, and other literature given
in the bibliography. We are also indebted to correspondence received from missionary
workers in many lands from Java and Western China, to Morocco and Nigeria. Their
united testimony is the more important, because it covers so large an area, and comes
from unimpeachable witnesses.
Recent Moslem writers, especially those of the Woking school, have attempted to
show that Islam always was and is now a religion of tolerance. They have emphasized the
one Koran text that seems to inculcate such a doctrine. "Surely those who believe, and
those who are Jews, and the Sabaeans, and the Christians—whosoever believes in Allah
and the Last Day, and does good—they shall have no fear,

1 The Holy War, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje (Putman, New York, 1915), pp. 10, 11.
PREFACE 9

neither shall they grieve" (v: 69). This text, however, has not proved a Magna Charta of
liberty for minorities in any Moslem land, not in Arabia during the seventh century, not
even in Egypt or India during the twentieth century. Khwajah Kemal-ud-Din in his recent
book, India in the Balance (p. 136), says, "As to the change of religion and its penalty
under the Moslem rule, there need be no misgiving. In Islam there is no penalty for
apostasy." Such a statement is categorical. He goes on to say, "Islam is not a religion of
the sword. On the contrary, it is a religion of peaceful conversion, tolerant in ideal and
altogether democratic in its world vision. As such it must be judged by its principles and
its laws and not by their breach."
In the Islamic Review (November 1916) we read: "It can be very safely asserted
that Islam does not prescribe any punishment in this world for apostasy. This, for very
obvious reasons, is due to the fact that the greatest triumphs of the True Religion of Allah
have throughout lain in the fact of its being extremely rational, persuasive, and human."
And (to quote one more apologist for Islam) Mohammed Ali, M.A., in his English
translation of the Koran has a footnote on the subject of apostasy, in which he states that
"neither here nor anywhere else in the Holy Koran is there even a hint of the infliction of
capital or any other punishment on the apostate." While the Islamic Review, not satisfied
with this special plea regarding the Koran, makes an appeal to Tradition, saying that "the
life of the Holy Prophet, whose each and every act has been minutely recorded by
historians, likewise is destitute of any direct or indirect reference which might give us
any hint as to the apostate having been condemned to die solely for his change of faith."
Such statements cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged. This little book may be
considered as a presentation of' the facts on the other side of the question; and we leave
the decision to the candid reader.
Cairo, 1924. S. M. ZWEMER.
SYNOPSIS
Page
PREFACE 7

Is Islam a religion of tolerance? — Opinion of Islamic scholars —
Is there no penalty for apostasy? — This book the answer.
CHAPTER I. WHY SO FEW MOSLEM CONVERTS? 13

The indisputable fact that converts are few—Various reasons alleged—The true
reason given is the law of apostasy—Testimony from Egypt, a convert's
letter—Constantinople —Nigeria — India —Algeria — Tunisia —Java—
Sumatra — China.
CHAPTER II. THE LAW OF APOSTASY 31

In the Koran—Texts quoted and explained—The importance of Tradition—How
and when collected—Its authority—Traditions on how Mohammed dealt
with apostates—Woking denies that this Tradition is germane—Hanifi law
regarding the apostate—His property, family and person—The death
penalty—His children—Maliki law according to Capt. F. H. Ruxton—The
law in Turkey—How it was modified—Other authorities—The Minhaj-at-
Talibin—Summary in Al Madkhal—Marriage annulled—Act in India to
mitigate this law of apostasy—How the law produces intolerance towards
missionaries—In the fourteenth century at Trebizond—And in the nineteenth
century the Armenian Massacres and forced conversions.
CHAPTER III. HOW IT WORKS 55

The law not a dead letter—Doughty in Arabia—A convert threatened in East
Arabia—In Michigan University—Instances in Egypt—In the Delta an
inquirer is poisoned—The baptism at Sanabo—Other cases of persecution in
Egypt —In Turkey—In Nigeria—The martyr of Smyrna—Shems id-Din—
Mirza Paulos of Persia—Use of poison in North Africa—Exporting converts
from Syria to Egypt—An Afridi lad stoned to death for Christ—What a girl
convert suffered in Java—An Aden Arab threatened—Conditions in
Palestine —India—Testimony of Sir S. K. Scott-Moncrieff—The martyr of
Afghanistan—A White Father "passed for martyrdom."
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