Once apostasy has been established, the following rulings take effect:

1. The apostate is invited to repent; if he repents and returns to Islam within three days, his repentance is accepted and he is released.

2. If he refuses to repent, he must be executed, in accordance with the Prophet’s ﷺ statement: “Whoever changes his religion, kill him” (1).

3. Throughout the period in which he is urged to repent, he is barred from disposing of his property. Should he embrace Islam, the property remains his; otherwise, from the moment he is executed or dies while an apostate, it becomes the property of the Bayt al-Mal (public treasury). Some scholars hold that it reverts to the benefit of the Muslims from the very moment he apostates.

4. All ties of inheritance between him and his relatives are severed: he neither inherits from them nor do they inherit from him.

5. If he dies or is executed in a state of apostasy, he is neither washed nor prayed over, nor is he buried in Muslim cemeteries. Instead, he is interred in the graveyards of the disbelievers, or simply covered with earth in any place outside the Muslims’ burial grounds.