Apostasy, Alcohol - Contemporary Issues

Apostasy and Alcohol

Contemporary Issues - Dr. Bilal Philips

Opening

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Most Merciful. I'd like to welcome you, dear viewers, to our series, Contemporary Issues. May Allah's peace and blessings be on each and every one of you.

In this series, or this segment of our series, we've been looking at criminal justice, the laws which Islam applies to crimes committed in the society. We looked at murder, the punishment. We looked at adultery, fornication, the punishment. We also looked at theft, the punishment. And we looked at homosexuality, lesbianism, etc., and the punishments.

Part One: Apostasy in Islamic Law

Introduction to the Issue

In this segment, we're going to be looking at apostasy. Apostasy, which is, again, an area which commonly, in the West, people hold this up and say, hey, what kind of religion is this? If you leave the religion, they kill you. The law of apostasy, where a person who apostates, who leaves the religion, is executed.

Again, when we look at this issue, we have to look at it within the context of world history, the legal systems of both the West and the East, and the conditions under which the law is applied.

Western Perspective on Religion and State

First and foremost, since, from the Western perspective, religion has no place to play in the legal system, a person is free to follow a religion, or not follow a religion. There's no law or whatever governing them. The idea of executing somebody for leaving the religion now seems quite absurd.

However, we should keep in mind that when capital punishment for murder was abolished in England back in 1965, it was still retained for treason and piracy with violence. For treason and piracy with violence. And it was also the legal punishment for setting fire to Her Majesty's ships and dockyards, all the way up until 1971. If one set fire to the ships of the Queen, you could be executed, according to law. So, this principle exists.

This principle of executing people over issues of what may be called treason exists in the West and exists in most countries. Where treason is considered to be rebellion against the state, state secrets are given to some other country at which that state is at war, etc., a person is executed for it. This is material information, you know, worldly information. A person gives this information, treason, and so they're killed. You had a famous couple back in the United States who supposedly gave up information to the Russians about the atomic research. And the man and his wife were executed.

Islamic Perspective: Religion and State Are One

Now, when we look from the Islamic perspective, what we find is that religion, from an Islamic perspective, is different from religion from a Western perspective. In Islam, the religion is the state. It's not inseparable. There's no separate state and religion. It's all one. The state is governed by the religious principles.

So, rebellion against the state is rebellion against the religion. Apostasy or treason is against the religion and the state. They're all one and the same.

So, apostasy represents a rejection of the law and the order of the society. And as such, it's considered like an act of treason. Now, a person who abandons the faith personally and leaves the country, the Islamic state is not going to send people out to hunt him down and kill him or her because they abandoned the faith.

But it is really dealing with a situation within the state where people are openly rejecting the principles of the state and undermining the social Islamic system of the society as a whole.

No Compulsion in Religion

Yes, there is no compulsion in religion in Islam, compulsion in the sense of joining Islam. There's a verse in the Qur'an, in the second chapter of the Qur'an, where Allah says, "la ikraha fid-din," there is no compulsion in religion.

That is, the person is not compelled to become a Muslim. But once a person becomes a Muslim, then they're obliged to stick with it, that this should be a serious and definite decision which was made.

Historical Context of the Law

In fact, if we look at when the law of apostasy was first implemented, it was implemented during a period in Medina when there was a phenomenon which developed where some of the Jews of Medina were converting to Islam and then apostating in order to shake the faith of those who were already Muslims.

They were doing this, playing with the religion. So the law of apostasy came in order to stop this confusion which the Jews were trying to create, those who converted to Islam, trying to create in the minds of the newly converted Muslims. So it meant you became a Muslim, you had to be serious, you had to be real. Otherwise, then you would be executed. So people were no longer allowed to play with the religion, create that confusion.

So that was how it was initially instituted.

Application of the Law

However, the principle remains until the last day. The people within the state are obliged to stay within the religion if they are Muslims. If they accepted Islam, they have to remain Muslims. If they want to leave, then they need to leave the state altogether.

And we could say that the death penalty for apostasy really is for those who cooperate with the enemies at war with the Muslim state, or those who gather people against Islam and to fight against the state. This is really the place for its application.

The person who personally doesn't pray or whatever, in his home or whatever, nobody's going to come, break into the home to see, are you praying, are you not praying, are you fasting, are you not fasting? The state doesn't do this, unless it becomes something open. So a person who personally, on an individual level, apostates and keeps it to himself or herself, then the state does not go and hunt them down. We don't have inquisition courts set up to track and test people's faith and this type of thing.

And even when a person is caught or a person openly makes these statements of apostasy, etc., then they're brought before court and asked to recant their statements, to take it back. If they recant and take it back, then they're not executed.

Comparison with Western Law

So as a final statement in this regard, we could say that Western civilization will execute its citizens for giving away state secrets, something material. Islamic law will not execute people for that purpose. However, they will execute them for something which is far more serious, rebellion against God. That is a far greater sin or crime than rebellion against the state, against the individual, individual human beings.

So this is the way Islam looks at the issue of apostasy and the seriousness by which it takes it and applies the law with regards to it.

Proper Legal Process

And it's not for the state. Somebody in some country somewhere makes statements of apostasy, who may be Muslim. It's not for the state to now declare this person to be, his blood is permissible, offer rewards to go hunt this person down and kill them. No, the Islamic state is not to function this way. If a person comes to them or is caught within them who is an apostate, then they're tried.

There are courts of law. Their situation has to be looked into. They have to be questioned, and they have the right to defend themselves.

Part Two: Alcohol Prohibition in Islam

Introduction to Dietary Laws

Now, that basically deals with the last of the issues of criminal law, criminal justice. From that, now we're going to shift into some of the dietary laws. We're still dealing with laws, but no longer crime and punishment. We're now looking to diet.

To some degree, it's still related to crime and punishment because the first of the dietary laws concerns alcohol. And we know in Islamic law there is a punishment for it. Some 80 lashes, 40 or 80 lashes given to a person who's caught drunk, caught drinking.

Western Perspective on Alcohol

Now, again, of course, Western society, which has taken drinking to be a norm. In fact, people will even argue medically, as doctors say, that you take half a glass of wine with your meal, that it helps in your digestion. Some say it even lowers the chances of heart attack, this type of thing.

However, it's fine. People can say this, and medicines in the West tend to be loaded up with alcohol because that was Western tradition. When people were sick, you give them alcohol, get them into a state of drunkenness. They forget their trials and their problems, their physical ailments, et cetera. That's been the tradition of Western medicine, whereas Islamic tradition has not been that.

When people were sick, they were treated with herbs and things like this. They didn't use alcohol. This was not a standard foundation for Islamic pharmaceutology, whereas Western pharmaceutology, this is how it developed.

So alcohol has become a part and parcel of Western life. Children are born drunk. Drinking has reached such proportions.

Islamic Perspective: Weighing Harm Against Benefit

From the Islamic perspective, we say way. Weigh the harm and weigh the benefits. If we weigh the harm and the benefits, we can see that the harm far outweighs the benefit.

It has been shown that the number of lives lost as a result of drunk driving, violence and heinous crimes, when people are in states of intoxication, is a direct product of the widespread access to alcohol in this society. If we realize this and we compare it to the little benefits of digestion and possibly reduction of heart attack, this is like an elephant and a mouse on scales. We cannot compare them. The harm is far greater.

Statistical Evidence of Alcohol's Harm

In studies done in America, they pointed out that alcohol is involved in some 40% of the more than 50,000 annual road traffic fatalities yearly and possibly over 500,000 injuries to persons and in more than $1 billion worth of property damage.

And based on published studies, Roisin summarized the percentage of violent offenders who were drinking at the time of the offense as follows:

• 86% of homicide offenders
• 60% of sexual offenders
• Up to 57% of men involved in marital violence

So when we have statistics like these, how can we seek to make this permissible?

It's estimated that more than $2 billion is wasted as a result of health and welfare services being forced to deal with alcoholics and their families in the United States alone. Crude projections of the annual cost of alcoholism to the national economy of the United States range between $7 billion and $10 billion.

Quranic Guidance on Intoxicants

So when we see these kind of statistics, then we can't talk about the benefits.

In the second chapter of the Quran, verse 219, Allah said there: "They ask you about intoxicants and gambling. Say, there is great harm in both and benefit to people. However, the harm in them is greater than the benefit."

So it's recognized, yes, there's going to be some benefit in all of these things. But the harm is far greater than the benefit.

American Prohibition Era

And this is why in the United States of America, between 1920 and 1933, alcohol was prohibited. Its production and sale was banned. The United States of America recognized.

However, in the subsequent years following it, these laws were repealed. Repealed because of the fact that the society, the will to stop this thing wasn't really there. It is a drug. It is a serious drug. And people talk about cocaine and the other drugs. But this drug is, you know, society is so attached to it, that they cannot deal with it as a major drug, harmful drug to society, which should be prohibited totally.

What you find is that ultimately, its prohibition will not be successful in a society unless the society recognizes the harm and collectively decides to eliminate it from their midst. This is what Islam does - it creates a society where the prohibition of alcohol is not just a law, but a shared value that the community upholds together.

Conclusion

We have examined two important issues in Islamic law: apostasy and alcohol. Both demonstrate the comprehensive nature of Islamic legislation and its concern for both the spiritual and physical well-being of society.

The law of apostasy must be understood in its proper context as protection of the Islamic state from internal rebellion and external threats, not as persecution of personal belief.

The prohibition of alcohol demonstrates Islam's wisdom in protecting society from substances that cause far more harm than any purported benefits they may offer.

وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ