—the hypocrites, those in whose hearts is a disease, and those who spread rumors in Medina—We will surely set you against them; then they will remain your neighbors there only a short while. Accursed, wherever they are found, they will be seized and killed mercilessly. This was Allah’s established way with those who passed away before, and you will find no change in Allah’s established way.”

When they were threatened with death if they displayed their hypocrisy, they concealed it. Hence the jurists disagreed over whether a zindīq should be invited to repent.

Some said that he should. Those who held this view cited the hypocrites whose outward professions the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, accepted, leaving their affairs to Allah.

The response to this is that such was the case initially. Afterward, Allah revealed:

“Accursed, wherever they are found, they will be seized and killed mercilessly.”

They then knew that if they displayed their hypocrisy as they had previously done, they would be killed, so they concealed it.

A zindīq is a hypocrite. Those who hold that he should be executed do so only when it becomes apparent that he is concealing hypocrisy. They argue: “His repentance cannot be known, because the most he can do is outwardly profess what he professed before; he had already been professing faith while being a hypocrite. If their repentance were accepted, there would be no way to put them to death, yet the Quran has threatened them with death.”

The point is that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, spoke of that slave girl’s faith only in terms of the outward faith upon which outward legal rulings depend. Indeed, it is established that when Saʿd testified that a man was a believer, the Prophet said:

“Or a Muslim.”

Yet that man outwardly displayed as much faith as the slave girl, and more. A distinction must therefore be drawn between the outward rulings concerning believers, which people apply in this world, and the judgment concerning their reward and punishment in the Hereafter. Thus, the believer who deserves Paradise must