to be lawful, or in denying one of Allah’s prophets, or one of His books, or one of His angels whose angelic nature is firmly established, or in rejecting Muhammad’s mission to people other than the Arabs—then the repentance of such individuals, together with the two testimonies, must include an explicit acknowledgement of what they had formerly denied, or a statement such as, “I repudiate every creed that conflicts with Islam,” and the like.
13 – If a disbeliever says, “I have submitted,” or “I am a Muslim,” or similar words, he becomes a Muslim even without uttering the two testimonies. Muslim records the report of al-Miqdam ibn al-Aswad: he said to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), “Messenger of Allah, suppose I meet a man from the unbelievers who is fighting me, and he strikes one of my hands with his sword and cuts it off, then takes refuge behind a tree and says, ‘I have submitted.’ May I kill him after he has said that?” He replied, “Do not kill him.”
14 – Shaykh al-Islam said: “When an apostate embraces Islam, his blood and property are protected, even if no judge has yet validated his Islam—this is the unanimous view of the jurists.”
15 – The phrase “the previously married adulterer” (ath-thayyib az-zānī) implies that a virgin is not stoned; rather, as the noble verse stipulates, his punishment is flogging. Al-Wazīr said: “The scholars are agreed that when two free virgins commit adultery, each of them is flogged one hundred lashes,” and Ibn Rushd transmitted the consensus of the Muslims on this point.
16 – The wording “a life for a life” suggests in its general sense that every soul is subject to retaliation for taking another soul. Yet this absolute statement is in fact qualified; its broad phrasing is explained elsewhere, and its apparent universality is restricted by other texts. The hadith of ʿĀ’ishah provides part of that clarification, and the matter will be set out in full, God willing.
17 – The words “the one who abandons his religion and parts from the community” demonstrate that the true union, the sound connection, and the strongest bond is Islam itself. Nationalism, tribalism, and ethnic allegiance are merely hollow slogans and false ideologies introduced by the enemies of Islam to scatter the Muslims, dissolve their unity, and reduce their numbers.