The execution is to be carried out by the ruler (imam) or by his delegate, for it is a killing undertaken for the right of Allah and therefore lies within the jurisdiction of the authority in charge.

The wisdom behind obligating the killing of the apostate is that, having once known the truth and then abandoned it, he becomes a corrupter on earth, unfit to remain—like a diseased limb that harms society and brings disrepute upon the religion.

The apostate’s repentance is realised by pronouncing the two testimonies of faith, in accordance with the general import of the Prophet’s ﷺ words: “I have been commanded to fight the people until they say, ‘There is no god but Allah.’ When they say it, their lives and property are protected from me except by right.” If his apostasy stemmed from denying something that is incontrovertibly part of the religion, then along with uttering the two testimonies he must also affirm whatever he had previously rejected.

The apostate is prevented from disposing of his wealth because the rights of others may be attached to it, just as with an insolvent debtor. His debts are paid from that wealth, and he and his dependants are maintained from it for the duration of the ban on his disposal. If he returns to Islam, he regains his property and may manage it freely, the impediment having been removed. But if he dies in apostasy or is executed as an apostate, his estate becomes fayʾ for the Muslims’ treasury (Bayt al-Māl) from the moment of his death. He has no heirs: no Muslim may inherit from him, for a Muslim does not inherit from a disbeliever; nor may any disbeliever—even one of the faith to which he defected—inherit from him, because his apostasy is not recognised. Likewise, the apostate himself does not inherit from a disbeliever, nor