Islam Hadiths, Hadith 14, Nawawi

Islam Hadiths, Nawawi Forty Hadith, Taught by Sheikh Gomaa – Hadith 14: Adultery, Murder, and Apostasy

Why study the hadiths of Islam? 

If one is to understand Islam, then you must study the hadiths because Muslims believe the Quran and the traditions of Muhammad are revelation (see hadith 41).

As Christians, we need to guard against thinking, “I already know the truth; therefore I don’t need to carefully represent the beliefs of others since I know they are untrue.” Or even worse, to think that our knowledge of the truth is a license to speak what is half-true or untrue of others.

Truth should lead us to humility, and humility involves an honest attempt to truthfully represent what others believe even if we don’t agree.

Another reason to study the hadiths is because the teaching and example of Jesus is superior to Muhammad’s. This is clearly seen in this hadith wherein Muhammad taught that the death penalty for adultery – which was nothing new. However, Muhammad was an adulterer if one believes the teaching of Jesus.

I’m learning about the Muslim religion from Sheikh Ali Gomaa. In the Arabic language, Sheikh means “elder” and in this context means Islamic scholar.  Sheikh Ali Gomaa is one of the foremost Islamic scholars in the world.

The fourteenth hadith compiled by Nawawi, first in Arabic and then in English,

عن ابن مسعود رضي الله عنه ، قال : قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم : ( لا يحل دم امرىء مسلم [ يشهد أن لا إله إلا الله ، وأني رسول الله ] إلا بـإحـدي ثـلاث : الـثـيـب الــزاني ، والـنـفـس بـالنفس ، والـتـارك لـد يـنـه الـمـفـارق للـجـمـاعـة ).
رواه البخاري [ رقم : 6878 ] ، ومسلم [ رقم : 1676 ]”

On the authority of Ibn Mas’ood (radi allahu ‘anhu ¹English Translation from Arabic, May Allah be pleased with him.) who said: The Messenger of Allah (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam) who said : The Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam ²Arabic to English translation, May Allah bless him and grant him peace.  Often abbreviated SAWS.  This Arabic phrase is used after references to Muhammad and his titles.) said :

It is not permissible to spill the blood of a Muslim except in three [instances] : the married person who commits adultery, a life for a life, and the one who forsakes his religion and separates from the community.

It was related by al-Bukhari (صحيح البخاري) and Muslim (صحيح مسلم).

Listen to the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Ali Gomaa teach about the fourteenth hadith. My notes follow,

The Sheikh’s Teaching About the Death Penalty for Adultery

Sheikh Ali Gomaa says that stoning adultery is complex, shows what a grave sin adultery is, and that there are “very few cases of stoning in Islamic history” (3:15-3:37).

My Christian comments: The death penalty for stoning is found in the Mosaic Law and reminds us that the wages of sin is death. The New Testament affirms that adultery is a serious sin, and Jesus defined adultery to include lusting after other women (Matthew 5:27-30), and unlawful marriage (Matthew 19:1-12). The prevalence of adultery and the sinfulness of our hearts exposes our need for Jesus Christ. There is a tradition that Jesus forgave an adulteress woman saying to her accusers, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:1-11). ³John 8 is sometimes misunderstood to mean that Jesus was more lax about the 7th commandment than Moses.  This is most certainly untrue.  We should learn from this account that:

1. Each of the woman’s accusers was guilty of sin and therefore deserving of death (Romans 6:23).

2. Jesus’ forgiveness teaches us that the manifestation of God’s grace and forgiveness is even greater in the New Covenant.  Jesus took upon Himself the penalty of the law for adulterers who trust in Him.

3. Jesus is not lax because He says to the woman, “Go and sin no more.”  If the woman went back to her life of sin, the penalty would be severer on the Day of Judgment. (cf. Hebrews 2:3; 12:25  The Good News of the Gospel is that there is forgiveness for the person who trusts in Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

The Death Penalty for Apostasy ⁴“The characterization and fate of those who commit apostasy vary in the Qur’an. What is striking, especially in light of later juristic developments, is that although apostates are usually assigned a place in hell, there is no mention of any specific corporeal punishment to which they are to be subjected in this world. In certain chapters of the Qur’an, the apostates are described merely as “having strayed from the right path” (Qur’an 2:108; also 4:167), while in others they are threatened with a severe yet unspecified punishment in this world and in the hereafter (Qur’an 9:74). They are ignorant and “their punishment is that upon them is heaped the curse of God, of angels and of people in their entirety” (Qur’an 3:87). In fact, in Qur’an 2:109, the believers are even asked to forgive them: “Many People of the Book would like to turn you back (yaruddūnakum) into unbelievers (kuffār, sing. kāfir) after you have professed the faith, out of envy of their own, even though the truth has been manifested unto them. Pardon and forgive them till God brings his commands.” The relatively lenient position of the Qur’an toward apostates is also betrayed by the self-reassurance expressed in such verses as Qur’an 3:176-7: “Let not their conduct grieve you, who rush into disbelief, for lo! they injure God not at all. It is God’s will to assign them no portion in the hereafter, and theirs will be an awful doom. Those who purchase disbelief at the price of faith harm God not at all, but theirs will be a painful torment.” It is quite plausible that the various types of reaction to apostasy, from the near oblivion to the angry chastisement, may be a reflection of the changing circumstances with which the Qur’an had to deal as its mission evolved. At the early stages, the Prophet did not have the effective power to deal with the apostates and thus the Qur’an adopted a considerably more lenient attitude. With the growing strength of the new religion that attitude changed into a confident and less compromising one” (Wael Hallaq, “Apostasy.” Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān. General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe . Brill [Leiden and Boston].)

5:02-6:42

Sheikh Ali Gomaa defines the apostate saying, “The revertant and the one who deserts the Muslim community, and who betrays the general system deserves killing. And this is one thing every sane person agrees on. The one who turns his back on the system and abandons the community, and tears it down deserves extirpation. That’s why spies in all systems in the world, along with those who are not keen on the country’s security are accused of high treason. They are punished with execution in all legal systems in the world. That law was derived from the Prophet’s (SAWS) hadith “and the one who leaves the Muslims.” Killing a Muslim is not allowed only when they revert but there are two other cases: “The one who reverts” and “abandons the muslim community.” And that is a hadith from which an important Islamic rule is derived.”

Islam and Apostates, What is the Muslim view of the Apostate?

Sheikh Gomaa is clear when he addresses Western audiences.

When Sheikh Ali Gomaa is addressing Western audiences he seems to favor freedom of religion. In fact, on his website Gomaa says, “apostasy is not punishable by death in Islam.” Elsewhere the Sheikh has stated,

“The essential question before us is : Can a person who is a Muslim choose a religion other than Islam ? The answer is yes, they can, because the Quran says, ‘Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion,’ (Quran 109:6) and, ‘Whosoever will, let him believe, and whosever will, let him disbelieve,’ (Quran18:29) and, ‘There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is distinct from error’ (Quran 2:256).” He added, “These verses from the Quran discuss a freedom that God affords all people. But from a religious prospective, the act of abandoning one’s religion is a sin punishable by God on the Day of Judgment. If the case in Question is one of merely rejecting faith, then there is no worldly punishment.” He went on to state, “If, however, the crime of undermining the foundations of the society is added to the sin of apostasy, then the case must be referred to a judicial system whose role is to protect the integrity of the society…..According to Islam, it is not permitted for Muslims to reject their faith, so if a Muslim were to leave Islam and adopt another religion, they would thereby be committing a sin in the eyes of Islam. Religious belief and practice is a personal matter, and society only intervenes when that personal matter becomes public and threatens the well-being of its members.”

Sheikh Gomaa is not as clear in this video about the death penalty and apostasy.

Sheikh Ali Gomaa’s interpretation of this hadith make clear that the death penalty is permissible for Muslims who leave their faith. But I am confused about the conditions in which the killing of apostates is permissible. Is it only permissible if the apostate hurts the community? If so, couldn’t an argument be made that all apostasy hurts and betrays the community?

Part of my confusion is that Sheikh Ali Gomaa is Egyptian. The Egyptian government seems to harshly treat Muslims who try converting to Christianity (see the story of El-Gohary and his daughter Dina).

Do Muslims tell westerners one thing and say another behind their backs?

Other Muslims such as Imam Anjem Choudary have explicitly stated that Muslims tell westerners one thing and say another behind their backs. ⁵Choudary is well represented in Western media, but we should not think he is representative for the majority of Muslims.  See:

Fox’s favorite Muslim radical

The other side of hate preacher ‘Andy’ Choudary  On a CNN interview Anjam Choudary told Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker,

CHOUDARY: Yes. I believe that Islam is submission, and that applies to every aspect of our life, whether in our relationship with our families, our relationship with the society, even the way that we address people and invite them to Islam.

Jihad is not something which, you know, the Muslims are permanently engaged in. But there is jihad to liberate Muslim land, which is an obligation for the Muslims to support, verbally, financially and physically, to liberate and to defend our life and our property.

And of course, this is something, you know, the Muslims around the world I don’t think would differ with. They may say one thing to you in front of CNN, but I can assure you behind your backs, in every…community center, they are standing with their Muslim brothers and sisters, saying we hope the Americans and British are pushed out of our countries and we can implement the Sharia. So this is an Islamic organization for us to support our brothers around the world. Our land is one, our war is one, our peace is one, our honor is one. But we don’t need to be in a constant state of this flux of, you know, a cycle of violence. (Parker Spitzer Transcript)

Can someone explain what appears to me to be a contradiciton in the Sheikh’s teaching? Do some Muslims speak one way to Western audiences and another way to Arabic speaking Muslims audiences?

Next Post in This Series

• Islam Hadiths: Hadith 15, Nawawi Forty Hadiths: Good Manners

Previous Post in This Series

• Hadith 13 from Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths: Love for your brother

Related articles

• Egyptian Progressive Criticizes Muslim Intellectual Doublespeak

Other articles you may be interested in:

• Do you believe in the Bible Jesus believed?

• The Uncertainty of the Quran and Jesus’ Crucifixion

Related Posts

• Six Reasons I’m Studying Hadith

• Introduction to Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths

• Hadith 1 from Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths: Actions and Intentions

• Hadith 2 from Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths: Gabriel Questions Muhammad about the Principles of Islam

• Hadith 3 from Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths: The Five Pillars of Islam

• Hadith 4 from Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths: Abortion and When Does Life Begin?

• Hadith 5 from Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths: Nawawi: Innovation and Islam

• Hadith 6 from Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths: Halal, Haram, and the Heart (Things Permitted and Prohibited)

• Hadith 7 from Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths: Advice and Guidance

• Hadith 8 from Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths: Jihad, No Complusion in Religion

• Hadith 9 from Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths: Avoid what is forbidden

• Hadith 10 from Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths: The Importance of Prayer (dua)

• Hadiths 11-12 from Nawawi’s 40 Hadiths: Leaving Doubt for Certainty & Mind Your Own Business