Din Özgürlüğü Bağlamında İslâm Hukukunda İrtidâd Cezasının Nedeni Ve Mahiyeti

The Qur'an declared that who changed his religion will meet with a painful punishment in the world and in the Hereafter, but did not inform the worldly punishment. In some of the hadiths is declared that the blood of the apostate will be lawful, and in some it is ordered he wiil be killed. But the practice of the Prophet is different in this subject. The Prophet has ordered some of them to be killed, while forgiving some apostates. It was not narrated that he killed someone because of he changed his religion only. For this reason, the İslâmic lawyers acting from the hadiths and the different applications about the subject have disputed the reason of killing of apostate and the nature of the punishment. The Hanafites adopted that the reason of killing the apostate was to fight against the Muslims escaping to the country of idolaters, and that the apostate will not be killed when he reside between muslims and do not interfere in any murder. The majority adopted that if the apostate does not repent, he will be killed because of his mere apostasy whether or not he escaped to the country of idolaters. On the other hand, the majority of Hanafites adopted that this was a punishment politically legitimated to protect public order against the warfare, but the majorty said it was a Hadd. The alliance of scholars that the apostate will not be killed if he repents, does not allow to say that the killing the apostate is a Hadd. Because all the lawyers have allied that the Hadds shall not fall by repentance. For this reason, we need to point out that Hanafites' approach about the reason of punishment of apostasy and it's nature is more accurate.