The word irtidād is the measure of ifti‘āl from radd which means turning back. Ridda and irtidād both signify turning back to the way from which one has come, but ridda is specially used for going back to unbelief, while irtidād is used in this sense as well as in other senses (R.), and the person going back to unbelief from Islām is called murtadd (apostate). There is as great a misconception on the subject of apostasy as on the subject of jihād, the general impression among both Muslims and non-Muslims being that Islām punishes apostasy with death. If Islām does not allow the taking of the life of a person on the score of religion, and this has already been shown to be the basic principle of Islām, it is immaterial whether unbelief has been adopted after being a Muslim or not, and therefore as far as the sacredness of life is concerned, the unbeliever (kāfir) and the apostate (murtadd) are at par.
The Holy Qur’ān is the primary source of Islamic laws and therefore we shall take it first. In the first place, it nowhere speaks of a murtadd by implication. Irtidād consists in the expression of unbelief or in the plain denial of Islām, and it is not to be assumed because a person who professes Islām, expresses an opinion or does an act which, in the opinion of a learned man or a legist, is un-Islāmic. Abuse of a prophet or disrespect to the Holy Qur’ān are very often made false excuses for treating a person as murtadd, though he may avow in the strongest terms that he is a believer in the Holy Qur’ān and the Holy Prophet. Secondly, the general impression that Islām condemns an apostate to death does not find the least support from the Holy Qur’ān. Heffeming begins his article on murtadd, in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, with the following words: “In the Kur’ān the apostate is threatened with punishment in the next world only.” There is mention of irtidād in one of the late Makkah revelations: “Whoso disbelieves in Allāh after his belief—not he who is compelled while his heart is content with faith, but he who opens (his) breast for disbelief—on them is the wrath of Allāh, and for them is a grievous chastisement” (16:106).