Benarkah orang yang keluar dari Islam, hukumannya adalah hukuman mati? Tetapi, Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq mengumpulkan berbagai catatan, dari sekitar 100 orang ulama dan cendekiawan terkemuka, dari berbagai masa dan tempat, dari berbagai mazhab, yang menyatakan bahwa muslim tidak saja mengakui Islam sebagai jalan menuju keselamatan, tetapi juga mengakui kebebasan berkeyakinan, karena Islam adalah Pilihan.
Lihat di situsnya: http://apostasyandislam.blogspot.com/ Beberapa cuplikan: 1. Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz [d. 97 AH/720 AD] [popularly known as Umar II and regarded as part of the Khulafa-i-Rashidoon] Some people accepted Islam during the period of Umar bin Abdul Aziz, who is called the fifth rightful caliph of Islam. All these people renounced Islam sometimes later. Maimoon bin Mahran the governor of the area wrote to the caliph about these people. In reply Umar bin Abdul Aziz ordered him to release those people and asked him to re-impose jizya on them. [Musannaf Abdur Razzaq, pp. 171-10, cited in M. E. Subhani,Apostasy in Islam (New Delhi, India: Global Media Publications, 2005), pp. 23-24. Abdur Razzaq ibn Humama (d. 211 AH) 2. Ibrahim al-Nakha'i [d. 95 AH] [a leading jurist and traditionist among the generation succeeding the Companions] According to al-Nakha'i, apostate should be re-invited to Islam, but should never be condemned to death. [He] maintained the view that the invitation should continue for as long as there is hope that the apostate might change his mind and repent. [referred to in Chapter: Freedom of Religion in Mohammad Hashim Kamali's Freedom of Expression in Islam Islamic Text Society, 1997]. 3. Sufyan al-Thawri [d. 161 AH] [known as 'the prince of the believers concerning Hadith' (amir al-mu'minin fi'l-Hadith) and is the author of two important compilations of Hadith, namely al-Jami' al-Kabir, and al-Jami' al- Saghir] According to al-Thawri, apostate should be re-invited to Islam, but should never be condemned to death. [He] maintained the view that the invitation should continue for as long as there is hope that the apostate might change his mind and repent. [cited in Kamali, as above] 4. Shaikh Rashid Rida [1865-1935] [Eminent Islamic scholar; disciple of Afghani/Abduh] "This verse reaffirms the one which occurs in Surat al-Baqarah (II:256), and both proscribe compulsion in religion. Both of these passages proclaim and uphold that people are free to pursue religious beliefs of their own choosing. No one is to be compelled to abandon the religion he professes nor must anyone be exposed to punishment and torture for the sake of religion." [quoted in chapter Freedom of religion by Dr. Mohammad Hashim Kamali's Freedom of Expression in Islam, Islamic Text Society, 1997] 5. Shaikh Mahmud Shaltut [1893-1963] [A prominent Egyptian Islamic scholar. He was the shaykh or grand imam, i.e. the leader, of Al-Azhar Islamic Institute in Egypt from 1958 to 1963] "Mahmud Shaltut analyses the relevant evidence in the Qur'an and draws the conclusion that apostasy carries no temporal penalty, and that in reference to this particular sin, the Qur'an speaks only of punishment in the hereafter ..." [mentioned in chapter Freedom of religion by Dr. Mohammad Hashim Kamali's Freedom of Expression in Islam, Islamic Text Society, 1997., Shaltut, al-Islam 'Aqidah wa-Shari'ah, pp. 292-93; al-Samara'i, Ahkam al-Murtadd fi al-Shari'ah al-Islamiyyah, p. 114 f] 6. Shaykh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi [Grand Imam of al-Azhar since 1996] "Shaykh Tantawi's ruling on the subject of a Muslim apostasizing has certainly shed new light on this subject, while making the non-Muslims realise that Islam is a religion of moderation. To Shaykh Tantawi, a Muslim who renounced his faith or turned apostate should be left alone as long as he does not pose a threat or belittle Islam. If the Muslims were forced to take action against the apostate, he said it should NOT be because he or she had given up the faith but because he or she had turned out to be an enemy or a threat to Islam. Shaykh Tantawi, in his views, shows clearly how simple and moderate Islam is, a religion that is tolerant and not coercive on anybody. Shaykh Tantawi repeatedly stresses the need for Muslims to acquire traditional Islamic knowledge as well as the modern ones so that they could add to the strength of the Muslim community to defend the religion." 7. Dr. Jamal Badawi [Professor Emeritus, St. Mary's University, Canada] "The preponderance of evidence from both the Qur'an and Sunnah indicates that there is no firm ground for the claim that apostasy is in itself a mandatory fixed punishment (hadd), namely capital punishment." [Is Apostasy a Capital Crime in Islam?" "when a man in Madinah apostated from Islam, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) neither ordered his execution nor punished him in any other way, and when the man finally left Madinah, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) never sent anyone to arrest him or punish him because of his apostasy." [Apostasy-Dialogue with Dr. Jamal Badawi] 8. Dr. Mohammad Hashim Kamali [Professor of law at the International Islamic University of Malaysia; author of Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, 2003 and Freedom of Expression in Islam, 1994] "The controversy been exacerbated further by reliance on the provision in the Sunnah which authorizes the death penalty for apostasy without due consideration of other evidence in the Sunnah to the effect that punishment by death was meant only for apostasy accompanied by hostility and treason. ... The Prophet did not treat apostasy as a proscribed offense (hadd), but, on the contrary, pardoned many individuals who had embraced Islam, then renounced it, and then embraced it again. ... [T]he Qur'an is consistent in its affirmation of the freedom of belief and it fully supports the conclusion that the objectives of the Shari ah cannot be properly fulfilled without granting people the freedom of belief, and the liberty to express it." [Chapter: Freedom of Religion in Mohammad Hashim Kamali's Freedom of Expression in Islam Islamic Text Society, 1997] 9. Dr. Tariq Ramadan [Swiss Muslim Academic and Scholar] "Q What about apostasy? What happens if you are born and educated a Muslim but then say: I have now decided that Islam is not for me. Would you accept that someone born into a Muslim family has a right to say that they no longer believe, and that families and communities must respect that? A) I have been criticised about this in many countries. My view is the same as that of Sufyan Al-Thawri, an 8th-century scholar of Islam, who argued that the Koran does not prescribe death for someone because he or she is changing religion. Neither did the Prophet himself ever perform such an act. Many around the Prophet changed religions. But he never did anything against them. There was an early Muslim, Ubaydallah ibn Jahsh, who went with the first emigrants from Mecca to Abyssinia. He converted to Christianity and stayed, but remained close to Muslims. He divorced his wife, but he was not killed." [Interview: Tariq Ramadan] 10. Ayatullah Murtadha Mutahari [d. 1979 AD] [Prominent and influential Iranian scholar, cleric, academic, and political figure]. The late Ayatollah Mutahhari highlighted the incompatibility of coercion with the spirit of Islam, and the basic redundancy of punitive measures in the propagation of its message. He wrote that it is impossible to force anyone to acquire the kind of faith that is required by Islam, just as 'it is not possible to spank a child into solving an arithmetical problem. His mind and thought must be left free in order that he may solve it. The Islamic faith is something of this kind. ['Islam and the Freedom of Thought and Belief', Al-Tawhid, p.154, cited in Kamali mentioned above] 11. Dr. Hassan Turabi [Sudanese Islamic leader and intellectual] "Q) You believe that apostasy should not be punishable by death. There has been a recent case of an Afghan who was about to be killed for apostasy but was saved under the pretense of mental illness. The case was recognized internationally as Italy wants to grant him asylum. A) There are too many Quranic verses to recite (regarding this). We are ordered to debate with Christians and Jews except those who are unjust. We believe in their prophets who are our prophets too. We believe in their books even if some distortion took place. We are ordered to treat them cordially." [Interview with al-Sharq al-Awsat] "To be punishable [as a capital offence] apostasy has to be more than just intellectual apostasy. It would have to translate into not only sedition but actually insurrection against society." [quoted in Globalization and the Muslim World: Sub-Saharan Africa in a Comparative Context] 12. Kyai Haji Abdurrahman Wahid [former President of Indonesia and leader of Nahdatul Ulama] "Muslim theologians must revise their understanding of Islamic law, and recognize that punishment for apostasy is merely the legacy of historical circumstances and political calculations stretching back to the early days of Islam. Such punishments run counter to the clear Koranic injunction "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (2:256). People of goodwill of every faith and nation must unite to ensure the triumph of religious freedom and of the 'right' understanding of Islam, to avert global catastrophe and spare millions of others the fate of Sudan's great religious and political leader, Mahmoud Muhammad Taha, who was executed on a false charge of apostasy." [Extremism Isn't Islamic Law] Simak juga pendapat-pendapat dari Khaled Abou el-Fadl, Ayatullah Montazeri, Jamal al-Banna, Rachid Ghannouchi, Council of American-Islamic Relations [CAIR], Fathi Osman, Ingrid Mattson, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Riffat Hassan, Jeffrey Lang, Muqtedar Khan, Adil Salahi, dan lain-lain. Dan tentu saja, fatwa dari scholars of the house, Kyai St. Sabri dan al-mukarram Muhammad Syafei. :-) salam, DWS
