Allah’s Apostle said, “The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas [like-for-like punishment] for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims.”
Actually you will find that some scholars say that the true punishment was not for apostasy but for treason, in that in the days of the Prophet, in many cases of those who converted from Islam, the apostates ended up joining enemy forces, or attempted to smear Islam's reputation. Fadel Soliman, an Islamic apologist (please look him up and take the time to watch his video on the matter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUapOf7R-0Y), talked about this and about how the word "apostate", or rather the Arabic word "mortad", had a more encompassing meaning back then than it does now. Political groups back then were based on religious affiliations, and as such apostasy was more about treason and political threat. Even note that the hadith that you shared doesn't speak simply of killing a convert, but of one who leaves the community, or as I tried to elaborate "betrays" it.
There is also a hadith that covers the case of a man who converted from Islam peacefully and the Prophet allowed him to leave Madinah without any punishment being incurred.
Let us also not forget that the Quran, the main source of all Islamic law, states that there is no compulsion in religion, that no one is to be forced into or out of any relgion; it's a person's free choice. "Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth has been made clear from error." (2:256) This is the Quranic, thus strongest base which will re-enforce the argument that there is no penalty for apostates per se unless for the reasons stated.
Where is the penalty here? There is no HUMAN agent at all in this verse. "never will their repentance be accepted" by God. He chooses to do what He sees fit and it really is none of any human's business. What does this have to do with human-afflicted penalty, seriously?
But I don't see this as a logical argument Sammur. To me, it's all about human error. God has created US flawed, and we are making flawed decisions accordingly. And this is where the testing comes in, and thus the reward and punishment, and thus MEANING to existence. This is the way I find my mind perfectly making sense of it.
1) No one has the right to judge who is a "real" anything, it all goes back to God because only he knows about the inner souls. But in the end, it is all about adherence to law. If for instance, you know the laws of Islam well, and you see someone deviating from these laws for whatever purpose, be it political, then you would right then and there be able to tell that this is a deviating Muslim. And that this person is warping Islamic law for a political purpose, using it as a cover for political gain/disturbances/etc.
2) ANY text on Earth, if taken out of context, is subject to faulty interpretation. Manipulation of texts can occur very easily if one is selective of the words and phrases which serve his/her purpose while excluding other words which, had they been kept unexempted, would change the meaning completely. This is exactly what happens in the case of justifying terrorist acts with Islamic texts. One of these "justifiers" would take a text such as the one mentioned above: "Fight in the way of God against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! God loveth not aggressors.” When a selective process happens, this terrorism justifier would choose to mention only this part of the verse: "Fight in the way of God," and the meaning becomes immediately violent and repulsive. This is the curse of taking words out of context, and as a Muslim I have personally seen examples like this everywhere. And the sad part is this, it is unjust to people like me and the millions of Muslims who are wronged, maltreated, and misunderstood everyday...
In reply to your comment containing the hadith:
Allah’s Apostle said, “The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas [like-for-like punishment] for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims.”
Actually you will find that some scholars say that the true punishment was not for apostasy but for treason, in that in the days of the Prophet, in many cases of those who converted from Islam, the apostates ended up joining enemy forces, or attempted to smear Islam's reputation. Fadel Soliman, an Islamic apologist (please look him up and take the time to watch his video on the matter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUapOf7R-0Y), talked about this and about how the word "apostate", or rather the Arabic word "mortad", had a more encompassing meaning back then than it does now. Political groups back then were based on religious affiliations, and as such apostasy was more about treason and political threat. Even note that the hadith that you shared doesn't speak simply of killing a convert, but of one who leaves the community, or as I tried to elaborate "betrays" it.
There is also a hadith that covers the case of a man who converted from Islam peacefully and the Prophet allowed him to leave Madinah without any punishment being incurred.
Let us also not forget that the Quran, the main source of all Islamic law, states that there is no compulsion in religion, that no one is to be forced into or out of any relgion; it's a person's free choice. "Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth has been made clear from error." (2:256) This is the Quranic, thus strongest base which will re-enforce the argument that there is no penalty for apostates per se unless for the reasons stated.
Where is the penalty here? There is no HUMAN agent at all in this verse. "never will their repentance be accepted" by God. He chooses to do what He sees fit and it really is none of any human's business. What does this have to do with human-afflicted penalty, seriously?
This is true, there isn't.
But I don't see this as a logical argument Sammur. To me, it's all about human error. God has created US flawed, and we are making flawed decisions accordingly. And this is where the testing comes in, and thus the reward and punishment, and thus MEANING to existence. This is the way I find my mind perfectly making sense of it.
There is NO penalty for apostasy in Islam. Please let me know where you get this statement from.
1) No one has the right to judge who is a "real" anything, it all goes back to God because only he knows about the inner souls. But in the end, it is all about adherence to law. If for instance, you know the laws of Islam well, and you see someone deviating from these laws for whatever purpose, be it political, then you would right then and there be able to tell that this is a deviating Muslim. And that this person is warping Islamic law for a political purpose, using it as a cover for political gain/disturbances/etc.
2) ANY text on Earth, if taken out of context, is subject to faulty interpretation. Manipulation of texts can occur very easily if one is selective of the words and phrases which serve his/her purpose while excluding other words which, had they been kept unexempted, would change the meaning completely. This is exactly what happens in the case of justifying terrorist acts with Islamic texts. One of these "justifiers" would take a text such as the one mentioned above: "Fight in the way of God against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! God loveth not aggressors.” When a selective process happens, this terrorism justifier would choose to mention only this part of the verse: "Fight in the way of God," and the meaning becomes immediately violent and repulsive. This is the curse of taking words out of context, and as a Muslim I have personally seen examples like this everywhere. And the sad part is this, it is unjust to people like me and the millions of Muslims who are wronged, maltreated, and misunderstood everyday...