Is the hudud punishment applied to an apostate retroactively?
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The fourth question of Fatwa No. ( 4792 )
Q 4: Is it obligatory to apply the hudud punishment to an apostate retroactively, meaning if a Muslim committed a sin that made him an apostate in the past, and then he repented and returned to Allah the Exalted, is it obligatory to apply the hudud punishment to him for the apostasy that occurred at that time? Knowing that the apostasy occurred in a country where the Shari'ah of Allah is not applied. Or is repentance sufficient to erase the sin of apostasy, and thus not apply the hudud punishment?
A 4: One who apostatizes from the religion of Islam and returns to it repentant and regretful, it is not permissible to apply the hudud punishment to him; because the hudud punishment is applied to the one who persists in his apostasy, whereas the repentant person’s repentance wipes out what came before it, as indicated by
the Book and the Sunnah.
Q 4: Is it obligatory to apply the hudud punishment to an apostate retroactively, meaning if a Muslim committed a sin that made him an apostate in the past, and then he repented and returned to Allah the Exalted, is it obligatory to apply the hudud punishment to him for the apostasy that occurred at that time? Knowing that the apostasy occurred in a country where the Shari'ah of Allah is not applied. Or is repentance sufficient to erase the sin of apostasy, and thus not apply the hudud punishment?
A 4: One who apostatizes from the religion of Islam and returns to it repentant and regretful, it is not permissible to apply the hudud punishment to him; because the hudud punishment is applied to the one who persists in his apostasy, whereas the repentant person’s repentance wipes out what came before it, as indicated by
the Book and the Sunnah.
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.