Explanation of the Two Hadiths of Abu Musa.

The Shaykh : And in the hadith that follows is the hadith of 'Abdullah ibn Sabit, the hadith of Musaddad, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Mu'adh ibn Jabal; he sent Abu Musa and followed him with Mu'adh to Yemen. This was in the tenth year of the Hijrah, in Rabi' al-Awwal. In it is the story of the man who embraced Islam and then became a Jew. He came to Mu'adh ibn Jabal while he was with Abu Musa. He said, "What is this?" He said, "He embraced Islam and then became a Jew." He said, "I will not sit until I kill him, by the decree of Allah and His Messenger." He meant that this is the decree of Allah and His Messenger. In this is evidence that the emir or the judge rules with killing without the one above him who judged, namely Mu'adh ibn Jabal, consulting the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). In it is also evidence that whoever embraces Islam and then apostatizes, even if he returns to his previous religion, is killed. And if a Jew or a Christian or a Buddhist or an atheist embraces Islam and then turns away from Islam, even for a moment, he is killed. The apparent meaning of this hadith is that he is not given the opportunity to repent, due to his saying: "I will not sit until I kill him", and that the apostate is not given the opportunity to repent but is killed immediately. The scholars differed on this due to the differing reports on the matter. The correct view is that giving the apostate the opportunity to repent is subject to public interest. If the imam or the one in charge of judgment or execution sees that it is in the public interest to give him the opportunity to repent, meaning to wait three days for him to repent, let him do so. And if he sees that it is in the public interest to hasten to kill him, he hastens to kill him, because when he apostatized from Islam, his blood became lawful, and there is no need to wait. In this is also evidence that whoever changes his religion—wait, my son—this is why the scholars said that if a Jew becomes a Jew, or a Christian becomes a Christian, or a Jew becomes a Christian, and he is from the People of the Book (dhimmis), then nothing is accepted from him but Islam or his own religion. It is not accepted that he kills [himself] to another religion. If he persists in moving to another religion other than Islam, his covenant is broken. Look, the first hadith, its relevance to the chapter.