Bismillahir Rahmaanir Raheem
Few subjects in Islamic law have generated as much discussion in the modern age as apostasy (riddah) and blasphemy (sabb or shatm). These issues are often discussed in isolation from the legal framework in which they developed and without reference to the broader history of other nations. As a result, Islam is sometimes portrayed as uniquely severe, whereas history demonstrates that nearly every major empire has, at one time or another, enacted laws protecting its religion, ruler, or governing ideology.
A fair discussion therefore requires examining the Qur'an, the Sunnah, the understanding of the Companions, the rulings of classical Muslim jurists, and the legal history of other nations.
The Qur'an strongly condemns apostasy. Allah the Mighty says:
"Whoever among you turns back from his religion and dies while he is a disbeliever—their deeds have become worthless in this world and the Hereafter." (Qur'an 2:217)
Allah also says:
"Indeed, those who believed, then disbelieved, then believed, then disbelieved, and then increased in disbelief—Allah will never forgive them." (Qur'an 4:137)
Allaah said regarding insults directed at Him and His Messenger ﷺ:
"Indeed, those who hurt Allah and His Messenger—Allah has cursed them in this world and the Hereafter and prepared for them a humiliating punishment." (Qur'an 33:57)
The Prophet ﷺ said:
"Whoever changes his religion, kill him."
(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: 3017)
He also said:
"The blood of a Muslim is not lawful except in one of three cases: the married adulterer, a life for a life, and the one who abandons his religion and separates from the community."
(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)
These texts formed the basis upon which the classical jurists discussed apostasy and certain forms of blasphemy.
The Islamic schools generally regarded apostasy by a sane, competent adult Muslim as a criminal matter under an Islamic government, although they differed on procedural details such as repentance, evidentiary standards, and the treatment of female apostates. Likewise, deliberate insults directed at Allah or His Messenger ﷺ were generally treated as grave public offenses.
A principle that however deserves particular emphasis is that Islam does not authorize private individuals to carry out criminal punishments.
The Qur'an commands:
"O you who believe! Obey Allah, obey the Messenger, and those in authority among you." (Qur'an 4:59)
Classical jurists consistently discussed criminal punishments within chapters dealing with the authority of the ruler, the judiciary, rules of evidence, witnesses, confession, and due process. A person could not simply accuse another of apostasy or blasphemy and take the law into his own hands.
For this reason, vigilantism, mob violence, and unlawful killings are inconsistent with the orderly administration of justice described in the classical Islamic legal tradition.
Most of the cases bordering apostasy during the time of the Prophet - sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam - were intertwined with armed hostility, treachery, or active aggression against the Muslim community. The case of the Uraniyoon and Abdullah bn Khatal as an instance.
After the Prophet's death, several Arab tribes renounced Islam, withheld zakāh from the central government, and in some instances engaged in armed rebellion. These events shaped much of the later juristic discussion on apostasy as a matter affecting both religion and the political order of the Muslim community.
Under the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, prosecutions for apostasy and blasphemy remained matters handled by state authorities and judges. Historical practice varied across rulers and periods, and political considerations sometimes intersected with legal ones.
Islam was also not the first civilization to legislate against apostasy or blasphemy.
The Torah prescribed severe penalties for several forms of idolatrous practices, and for certain forms of apostasy (Deuteronomy 17:2–7), and for blasphemy (Leviticus 24:16).
Let's see (Deuteronomy 13:1–18) verbatim:
1 "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,
2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, 'Let us go after other gods,' which you have not known, 'and let us serve them,'
3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.
5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
6 "If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which neither you nor your fathers have known,
7 some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other,
8 you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him.
9 But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.
10 You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
11 And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.
12 "If you hear in one of your cities, which the LORD your God is giving you to dwell there,
13 that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which you have not known,
14 then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you,
15 you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword.
16 You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.
17 None of the devoted things shall stick to your hand, that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers,
18 if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.
Ancient Greece condemned Socrates in 399 BC on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. His sentence was death by hemlock.
For much of European history, religious unity was regarded as essential to political stability.
The Spanish Inquisition (1478–1834) and Portuguese Inquisition (1536–1821) investigated and prosecuted individuals accused of heresy, apostasy, and related offenses. The Papal States exercised criminal jurisdiction over heresy, and medieval and early modern Europe witnessed the execution of figures such as Jan Hus (1415), Michael Servetus (1553), and Giordano Bruno (1600).
Even after the Reformation, Protestant territories retained laws against blasphemy. Thomas Aikenhead, a Scottish student, was executed in 1697 for blasphemy. England did not abolish the common-law offence of blasphemy until 2008, while several other European countries repealed comparable laws only in the twenty-first century.
This history does not justify any particular legal system; rather, it illustrates that the criminalization of religious offences was historically widespread and not unique to Muslim societies.
History also shows that secular states have often protected political ideologies with penalties comparable in severity to those used by religious states.
Under Joseph Stalin, criticism of the Soviet regime or alleged counter-revolutionary activity could result in imprisonment, forced labor, or execution.
During the rule of Mao Zedong, public opposition to the Communist Party could bring severe punishment.
Many modern states continue to impose the harshest penalties for treason, espionage, mutiny, terrorism, and violent rebellion because they regard such acts as existential threats to the state.
Thus, while modern societies differ on whether religious belief should receive legal protection, virtually every state maintains severe penalties for conduct viewed as threatening the survival of the political community.
The discussion of apostasy and blasphemy in Islam cannot be separated from the legal tradition in which those concepts developed. The classical Islamic schools generally regarded them as matters of public law to be addressed by the legitimate ruler and judiciary under strict legal procedures, not by private individuals acting on personal zeal.
History further demonstrates that Muslim civilizations were not unique in legislating against religious or ideological offences. Jewish law, Christian kingdoms, the Roman Empire, and various secular regimes all developed legal mechanisms to protect what they regarded as the moral, religious, or political foundations of society.
Aboo Aamir is the Director at Ibn Al-Jazaree Centre, Ibadan.
