They also disagreed over the case of a minor who apostasises and over one whose father embraces Islam while the child is still young: must they be compelled to accept Islam once they reach maturity or not? One report from Mālik says that they are forced to do so, even by the sword, for a child is deemed Muslim by virtue of his father’s Islam. A second report from him states that they are not coerced. Some of his associates maintained that they should indeed be compelled, while others held that pressure is merely kept on them until they submit.
Whoever apostasises time and again is nevertheless allowed to return to Islam each time.
Anyone who conceals unbelief yet outwardly professes Islam—whether a clandestine heretic or otherwise—and this is proven against him, is executed without being offered repentance, whether he was hiding outright denial of God or some other religion of disbelief.
According to Mālik, a practising sorcerer is likewise to be put to death. Concerning such people God, Exalted is He, says, “And they surely knew that whoever purchased it would have no share in the Hereafter” (al-Baqarah 2:102). Once his act is established as genuine sorcery, he is executed. Mālik further said that a woman who uses sorcery to incapacitate her own husband—or anyone else—is given a discretionary punishment but is not killed.
Ibn Wahb relates in his recension of the Muwaṭṭaʾ that Mālik likened the sorcerer to the secret heretic who outwardly displays Islam while harbouring disbelief, adding: “How could repentance be accepted from such a person?” He also said, “I do not hold that People of the Covenant should be killed for sorcery unless, by it, they inflict on Muslims a harm not covered by their pact.” He added, “A sorcerer is not taken to task for anything he did while an unbeliever once he has become Muslim.”
Whoever reviles God, His Messenger ﷺ, or any of the Prophets—while openly professing Islam—is executed without being granted repentance. Some scholars treat the offence as apostasy; in that case he is invited to repent, and if he does so he is spared, otherwise he is executed. The first opinion, however, is the settled position of the school.
As for a dhimmī, he too is killed if he insults God or His Messenger, unless he embraces Islam. Another view holds that whoever reviles