an independent chapter within the manuals of jurisprudence entitled “The Ruling on the Apostate.” Concerning the apostate from Islam, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Whoever changes his religion—kill him.” (1)

Allah, exalted is He, mentions apostasy in several places in His Book. He says: “Many of the People of the Scripture wish they could turn you back to disbelief after you have believed, out of envy from themselves, after the truth has become clear to them” (al-Baqarah 2:109). Many Jews and Christians long to turn the Muslims away from their religion as far as they are able—yet how remote their hope! Still, they may at times manage to induce certain individuals to answer their call and apostasize.

He, Most High, also says about the polytheists: “They will not cease fighting you until they turn you back from your religion, if they are able” (al-Baqarah 2:217).

Thus the disbelievers persist in fighting the Muslims with the aim of driving them out of Islam, for this faith is the honor with which Allah has favored the Muslims above others, and the unbelievers envy them for this blessing.

He, blessed and exalted, further says: “They wish that you would disbelieve as they have disbelieved so that you would all be alike” (al-Nisāʾ 4:89). They want the Muslims to fall into disbelief so that everyone would share the same kufr; for once the Muslims apostatize, they match the unbelievers in disbelief while the latter still surpass them in worldly advantages. This is exactly what the disbelievers seek, and the facts on the ground confirm it: today the nations of disbelief labor night and day—especially in our era—to divert the Muslims from their religion by every conceivable means. That is their ultimate objective, and it is likewise the objective of Iblīs; his foremost aim regarding any human being is to make him disbelieve, and if he fails in that, he descends to what lies beneath it, namely drawing him into innovations, then