How do we say: The apostate, if he returns to Islam, his deeds are restored to him, while Allah says: “If you associate partners with Me, your deeds will be nullified”?
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The questioner : That Allah called upon the person in them, then he apostatized, then he returned to Islam; in that case, his previous deeds are accepted.
The Shaykh : Meaning they remain as they are. Yes.
The questioner : Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, says that if he associates partners with Him, his life is nullified, so we [consider] all the deeds. Yes.
The Shaykh : And this is a general statement, and its apparent meaning is whether he returns or not. But the one who said[Az-Zumar 39:65] and the one who said [Al-An'am 6:88], the first is regarding the Messenger, and this is regarding the people, which is what he said in [Al-Baqarah 2:217]. And on this basis, the absolute statement is restricted to the case where he dies upon it.
The questioner : That they be demanded.
The Shaykh : Allah says[Al-Baqarah 2:217]. So what do we say? We say: O our Lord, nullify his deed, even if he died upon Islam. Perhaps, perhaps his return to Islam after apostasy is better. Many of the foolish people among us now, here, are Muslims, truly and by ruling, then they apostatize by abandoning prayer and committing open sin and all bad deeds, then Allah guides them, and they become in a much better state than before.
The Shaykh : Meaning they remain as they are. Yes.
The questioner : Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, says that if he associates partners with Him, his life is nullified, so we [consider] all the deeds. Yes.
The Shaykh : And this is a general statement, and its apparent meaning is whether he returns or not. But the one who said
if you should associate [anything] with Allah, your work would surely become worthless
لَئِنْ أَشْرَكْتَ لَيَحْبَطَنَّ عَمَلُكَBut if they had associated others with Allah, then worthless for them would be whatever they were doing.
وَلَوْ أَشْرَكُوا لَحَبِطَ عَنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا يَعْمَلُونَAnd whoever of you reverts from his religion [to disbelief] and dies while he is a disbeliever - for those, their deeds have become worthless
وَمَن يَرْتَدِدْ مِنكُمْ عَن دِينِهِ فَيَمُتْ وَهُوَ كَافِرٌ فَأُولَٰئِكَ حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَالُهُمْThe questioner : That they be demanded.
The Shaykh : Allah says
and dies while he is a disbeliever
فَيَمُتْ وَهُوَ كَافِرٌ
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، [869] كيف نقول: إن المرتد إذا أسلم يرجع له عمله، والله يقول ﴿لئن أشركت ليحبطن عملك﴾؟ - ابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.