In the name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful I begin by stating any truth is from Allah(SWT) and any

faults are my own. I pose a question to start off, why are people deciding to leave Islam? If someo ne comes to you and asks about the punishment for apostacy We must go to that question of why are they leaving Islam and how are t here actions while they are "leaving" Islam. People tend to look at this very complex and sensative issue in a secular way. F irst of all what is faith in Allah(SWT), faith in Allah(SWT) is submission to Him(SWT). Every person is born with the inate nat ure to know and believe in Allah(SWT). Allah(SWT) says in the Glorious Quran :"...and by the soul and He who perfected it! Then He inspired to it [the ability to understand] what is good for it and what is evil for it. Successful is he who pu rifies it, and failure is he who corrupts it." (91:1-10). The soul is like a bulb which gives light, provided it is not covered with the corruptions of the dunya(world), every person has this light within them. The Prophet(SAWA) elaborates on this by sayin g: "Every child is born with the believing nature (al-fitra), it is his parents who make him into a Jew or a Christian."So with fa ith can it be forcefully imposed on people? The Glorious Qur'an clearly says that, "There is no compulsion in the religion." (2:256) What this verse actually means is that: "There is no compulsion in [accepting] the religion of Islam." The verse continu es to say, "Surely the Right Path is clearly distinct from the crooked path." So Muslims can always show the difference betwe en the right and the wrong paths, but not force the non-Muslims to accept Islam. It is seen that no one can enter into Islam for cefully, thus when they enter into Islam and submit to Allah(SWT) they dont have a choice in their affairs anymore. Once a pe rson becomes a believer they surrender their right of making decisions. Only Allah(SWT) and the Messenger(SAWA) have the right to m ake desicions for them. The Quran tells us on this: "No believing man and no believing woman has a choice in their own affairs when Allah and His Messenger have decided on an issue." (33:36). The idea of apostacy and openly rejecting Islam, Islam does not allow i t, Islam cannot just step aside and see the person go astray from his own nature. It allows dicussions and debates to unders tand and solve there issues but not allow its followers to lower themselves from the status of surrendering to the will of All ah which is Islam. Apostacy is a form of treason. To start off what is treason it is defined by the oran's dictionary of the Law a s a citizen's actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the [parent nation]." So Theref ore Apostacy(treason) is an attack on the faith, the community, and the individual.So why is it that we accept death for the othe r types of secular treason that exist but when it comes to a more inate nature we try to see it as unthinkable and against human r ights? In many nations, it is also often considered treason to attempt or conspire to o verthrow the government, even if no foreign country is aided or involved by such an endeavour.For example, in England if you pollute the royal bloodline or obscure it, that is included in the definition of treason but that is see as a minute action from the individual so we generally just accept it. If you saw treason in this light from the secular point of view imagi ne from the Divine point of view. In Islam there are two forms of apostacy Murtad Fitri and Murtad Milli. In the first one,Murtad Fitri, the apostacy is like treason against God; while in the second one,Murtad Milli, the apostacy is like treason against the M uslim community. Both are extremely aggresive and

offensive but there are a difference in dealing with the two. As in the first ca se if an non-believer becomes muslim then goes back to non-belief, he is given a second chance, if he repents he is not killed. In the second case if he is born muslim then becomes an apostate he is to be killed even if he repents. His repentance may be accepted by Allah(SWT) but he still has to go through the punishment prescribed for his treason in this world. Some may feel t hat that seems unjust with the two but it is really more of a mercy from Allah(SWT). Imagine how you would feel if someone viciously attacked you and slandered you for no reason except they did not believe you to be truthful or go with what they think you should be . Now if that person was from outside you family who then became a part of that family ,then left from it again, it would be ok f or you to demand an apology and then forgive them while letting them leave away from your family with no real effect. Now if that person who attacked you so viciously was from within your family it would not matter if you forgave them or not it would most likely tear apart your family from the inside. The same with the forms of apostacy.This type of punishment is only applicable to men, in the case of women its life-imprisonment, if she repents it is accepted and the punishment is suspended. Sayid Muhammad Rizvi says: "In t he writings of some of the mujtahideen, I have sensed that the punishment of a murtad is to be implemented only in daru 'l-Islam (i.e. , the Muslim world) and not if the murtad flees to daru'l-kufr (i.e., the abode of kufr)". I hope that this can answer some questio ns about it and that this was able to even do a small fraction of justice to the beautiful din of Allah(SWT). May Allah bless all of y ou and your families. There is no poverty quite like ignorance - Imam Ali(AS)