— for no more than three days — during which he is admonished and warned in the hope that he will return to his faith and repent. We have already set out the reports of the early generations on this point in al-Tamhīd and the book al-Istidhkār.
The apostate is barred from his property and from any disposal of it, and from intimate relations with the mothers of his children. His wife is separated from him, the moment he first apostasises, by a single irrevocable pronouncement of divorce. If he repents before execution, his property and the mothers of his children are restored to him, but his wife does not return to him except through a new marriage contract. Should he refuse to re-embrace Islam, he is executed and his property becomes fayʾ (communal property), for he is an unbeliever who is not left upon his religion and enjoys no covenant. Neither unbelieving relatives nor Muslim heirs inherit from him; his estate is placed in the public treasury (bayt al-māl) for the benefit of the Muslim community. Slave and free person are equal in this regard, save that a slave owns no property that could be inherited. Man and woman are also equal herein, except that a pregnant woman is not executed until she has delivered.
An apostate’s slaughtered animal may not be eaten, whether he has turned to Christianity, Judaism, or Zoroastrianism. He owes his wife half the dower if the marriage had not yet been consummated; this is the well-known view of Mālik. Some of his companions held that she is entitled to nothing unless the marriage had been consummated. There is, however, no disagreement that if consummation had taken place she is entitled to the full dower.
When the apostate returns to Islam, Mālik treats him as a new convert: the pilgrimage and all other obligations once again become incumbent upon him. He is not deemed muḥṣan until, after his repentance, he has intercourse with his wife. He is not called to make up the prayers, fasting, or other acts of worship he neglected during his apostasy, but he remains liable for everything for which an unbeliever is held accountable: the prescribed penalty for calumny (qadhf), retaliation (qiṣāṣ), and any Muslim’s or dhimmī’s property he consumed—all of that is binding upon him.
As for anyone who apostasises before reaching puberty or menstruation, or whose father embraced Islam while he was still a minor, he is to be detained until he comes of age, at which point he is invited to embrace Islam. Mālik and his companions differed over the details of this ruling.