We seek refuge in Allah. As for this present world, such a person is a disbelieving apostate. The ruler must summon him to perform the prayer; if he prays, that suffices, but if he refuses, the ruler is to execute him for apostasy—may Allah protect us. After his execution, his body is taken by vehicle far from the town, a pit is dug for him, and he is buried there so that people will not be harmed by the smell and his relatives and friends will not be distressed by seeing him. He has no inviolability that would oblige us to leave him exposed on the earth. For that reason we do not wash him, shroud him, pray over him, or bring him near the mosques of the Muslims for a funeral prayer, because he is a disbelieving apostate.

Someone may say, “What kind of talk is this? Is it random, biased, or driven by emotion?” We reply that it is none of those things; we speak according to the clear evidence found in the words of Allah, the words of His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and the words of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them.

As for Allah’s words, He says in Surah al-Tawbah about the idolaters: “But if they repent, establish the prayer, and pay the zakah, then they are your brothers in religion” (At-Tawbah 9:11). If they do not, then they are not our brothers in religion; and if they are not our brothers, they are disbelievers. Every believer—no matter how great a sin he commits, so long as it does not expel him from Islam—remains our brother. When two factions of believers fight one another, it is well known that fighting a Muslim is an act of disbelief, yet it does not take the perpetrator out of the faith, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Reviling a Muslim is deviance, and fighting him is disbelief.” Nevertheless, that combatant who fights his brother is still our brother and does not leave the fold