The Punishment for One Who Insults the Divine Essence, the Messenger, or the Companions, or Mocks the Religion
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The questioner: Some preachers demand that anyone who publicly, or in any public place, or in a place where those present can hear or see, by speech, writing, drawings, images, or other means of publication and media, or by any other means of expression, does anything that affects the Divine Essence, or the Prophets, or the Companions, or the religion, or engages in criticism, mockery, ridicule, or defamation, be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years and a fine of not less than three thousand dinars and not more than ten thousand dinars, or with one of these two punishments. They also demand that anyone who publicly, or in a public place, or by any of the means of expression mentioned in the previous paragraph, does anything that criticizes religious schools of thought, or calls for sectarianism, or incites fitnah (trial, discord or temptation), or opposes national unity, be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years and a fine not exceeding one thousand dinars, or with one of these two punishments.
Your Eminence! Do these preachers have a viewpoint for demanding this un-Islamic punishment for one who insults the Divine Essence?Meaning: They say: This is the lesser of two evils.
Or is the obligatory ruling something else? Since Your Eminence’s word is heeded by these people, we wished to hear your opinion.
The Shaykh: I did not understand the question.
These people are demanding that if someone insults Allah (Mighty and Majestic) or His Messenger or His Book or His religion, what is the obligation upon him?The questioner: That he be imprisoned for ten years and fined three thousand dinars, or punished with one of the two punishments.Meaning: If one person insults Allah (Mighty and Majestic) or the religion, the judge may rule that he be fined three thousand dinars as a punishment for him, so he is not punished with a punishment lighter than this. Therefore, they demanded these punishments.
The Shaykh: But whoever insults Allah or His Messenger or His Book or His religion is an apostate who must be killed. He is killed as a disbeliever, so he is not washed, not shrouded, not prayed over, and not buried in the graves of Muslims. Rather, he is taken out to the wilderness, a hole is dug for him, and he is thrown in it, just as a dead sheep is thrown in, and he has no other treatment.
But the scholars differed on whether his repentance is accepted if he repents.So one of them said: His repentance is not accepted, whether he is an apostate or an original disbeliever.And some of them say: If he is an original disbeliever, we accept his repentance due to the saying of Allah the Exalted: [Al-Anfal: 38] This is general. But if he is an apostate, his repentance is not accepted; rather, he is killed in all cases, and his repentance is between him and his Lord on the Day of Resurrection.
Some of them detailed this matter.So he said: As for the one who insults the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), he must be killed even if he repents, even if he praises the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in every place. We kill him. But if we verify his repentance, we treat him in the rulings of the Hereafter as a Muslim, meaning: we wash him, shroud him, pray over him, and bury him with the Muslims. If his repentance does not appear to be sincere, we treat him as an apostate.
As for the one who insults Allah (Mighty and Majestic), if he repents and we know of his repentance and that he is sincere, we lift the killing from him and rule that he is a Muslim.
This detailed opinion is the correct one. But if the one in authority sees that this person who insulted Allah, despite his repentance, should be killed so that no one like him would dare to do so, he has that right. In this case, his killing is ta'zir (discretionary punishment), not for apostasy.
The questioner: Is what you have mentioned the Islamic ruling?It is said: If we demand the ruling, it will not be heeded.They are demanding these rulings, saying: Since the rulers do not apply the ruling you have mentioned, at the very least, we should demand this, which is that he be fined or imprisoned. I mean, is this demand Islamic or not?The Shaykh: This demand is wrong and not valid. Rather, it is obligatory for us to demand the Islamic ruling. Then, if Allah guides the rulers to apply this demanded ruling, that is well. Otherwise, the Islamic ruling remains established. Because if we concede from the Islamic ruling to a lighter punishment, this punishment remains a legal law, and no attention is paid to the fact that an apostate is killed or the like. So I do not see any concession in the religion of Allah.As if he said, for example: If I ordered a person to pray the five prayers, he would never pray.But if you said: Pray Zuhr and 'Asr while you are awake from them, and do not pray 'Isha' and Fajr. Do we accept the concession? We do not accept it.
Your Eminence! Do these preachers have a viewpoint for demanding this un-Islamic punishment for one who insults the Divine Essence?Meaning: They say: This is the lesser of two evils.
Or is the obligatory ruling something else? Since Your Eminence’s word is heeded by these people, we wished to hear your opinion.
The Shaykh: I did not understand the question.
These people are demanding that if someone insults Allah (Mighty and Majestic) or His Messenger or His Book or His religion, what is the obligation upon him?The questioner: That he be imprisoned for ten years and fined three thousand dinars, or punished with one of the two punishments.Meaning: If one person insults Allah (Mighty and Majestic) or the religion, the judge may rule that he be fined three thousand dinars as a punishment for him, so he is not punished with a punishment lighter than this. Therefore, they demanded these punishments.
The Shaykh: But whoever insults Allah or His Messenger or His Book or His religion is an apostate who must be killed. He is killed as a disbeliever, so he is not washed, not shrouded, not prayed over, and not buried in the graves of Muslims. Rather, he is taken out to the wilderness, a hole is dug for him, and he is thrown in it, just as a dead sheep is thrown in, and he has no other treatment.
But the scholars differed on whether his repentance is accepted if he repents.So one of them said: His repentance is not accepted, whether he is an apostate or an original disbeliever.And some of them say: If he is an original disbeliever, we accept his repentance due to the saying of Allah the Exalted:
Say to those who have disbelieved [that] if they cease, what has previously occurred will be forgiven for them
قُلْ لِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِنْ يَنْتَهُوا يُغْفَرْ لَهُمْ مَا قَدْ سَلَفَSome of them detailed this matter.So he said: As for the one who insults the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), he must be killed even if he repents, even if he praises the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in every place. We kill him. But if we verify his repentance, we treat him in the rulings of the Hereafter as a Muslim, meaning: we wash him, shroud him, pray over him, and bury him with the Muslims. If his repentance does not appear to be sincere, we treat him as an apostate.
As for the one who insults Allah (Mighty and Majestic), if he repents and we know of his repentance and that he is sincere, we lift the killing from him and rule that he is a Muslim.
This detailed opinion is the correct one. But if the one in authority sees that this person who insulted Allah, despite his repentance, should be killed so that no one like him would dare to do so, he has that right. In this case, his killing is ta'zir (discretionary punishment), not for apostasy.
The questioner: Is what you have mentioned the Islamic ruling?It is said: If we demand the ruling, it will not be heeded.They are demanding these rulings, saying: Since the rulers do not apply the ruling you have mentioned, at the very least, we should demand this, which is that he be fined or imprisoned. I mean, is this demand Islamic or not?The Shaykh: This demand is wrong and not valid. Rather, it is obligatory for us to demand the Islamic ruling. Then, if Allah guides the rulers to apply this demanded ruling, that is well. Otherwise, the Islamic ruling remains established. Because if we concede from the Islamic ruling to a lighter punishment, this punishment remains a legal law, and no attention is paid to the fact that an apostate is killed or the like. So I do not see any concession in the religion of Allah.As if he said, for example: If I ordered a person to pray the five prayers, he would never pray.But if you said: Pray Zuhr and 'Asr while you are awake from them, and do not pray 'Isha' and Fajr. Do we accept the concession? We do not accept it.