Clearly the murtadd is here threatened with punishment in the next life, and there is not the least change in this attitude in later revelations, when Islamic government had been established immediately after the Holy Prophet reached Madīnah. In one of the early Madīnah revelations, apostasy is spoken of in connection with the war which the unbelievers had waged to make the Muslims apostates by force: “And they will not cease fighting you until they turn you back from your religion, if they can. And whoever of you turns back from his religion (yartadda from irtidād), then he dies while an unbeliever—these it is whose works go for nothing in this world and the Hereafter. And they are the companions of the Fire: therein they will abide”15 (2:217). So if a man becomes apostate, he will be punished— not in this life, but in the Hereafter — on account of the evil deeds to which he has reverted, and his good works, done while he was yet a Muslim, become null because of the evil course of life which he has adopted.
The third chapter, revealed in the third year of Hijrah, speaks again and again of people who had resorted to unbelief after becoming Muslims, but always speaks of their punishment in the Hereafter: “How shall Allāh guide a people who disbelieved after their believing and (after) they had born witness that the Messenger was true” (3:86); “Their reward is that on them is the curse of Allāh” (3:87); “Except those who repent after that and amend” (3:89); “Those who disbelieve after their believing, then increase in disbelief, their repentance is not accepted” (3:90).
The most convincing argument that death was not the punishment for apostasy is contained in the Jewish plans, conceived while they were living under the Muslim rule in Madīnah: “And a party of the People of the Book say: Avow belief in that which has been revealed to those who believe, in the first part of the day, and disbelieve in the latter part of it” (3:72). How could people living under a Muslim government conceive of such a plan to throw discredit on Islām, if apostasy was punishable with death? The fifth chapter Mā’idah, is one of those revealed towards the close of the Holy Prophet’s life, and even in this chapter no worldly punishment is mentioned for the apostates: “O you who believe! Should one of you turn back from his
15 In their zeal to find a death sentence for apostates in the Holy Qur’ān, some Christian writers have not hesitated to give an entirely wrong translation of the word fa-yamut (then he dies) as meaning then he is put to death. Fa-yamut is the active voice and yamūtu means he dies. The use of this word shows clearly that apostates were not put to death. Some interpreters have drawn a wrong inference from the words “whose works go for nothing”. These words do not mean that he is to be treated as an outlaw. By his “works” are meant the good deeds which he did when he was a Muslim, and these in fact go for nothing even in this life, when a man afterwards adopts unbelief and evil courses. Good works are only useful if they continue to lead a man on to better things, and develop in him the consciousness of a higher life. Elsewhere the deeds of a people are spoken of as going for nothing, when they work solely for this life and neglect the higher: “Those whose effort goes astray in this world’s life, and they think that they are making good manufactures. Those are they who disbelieve in the messages of their Lord and meeting with Him, so their works are vain. Nor shall We set up a balance for them on the day of Resurrection” (18:104, 105). In this case ḥabṭ of the works of this life means their being useless so far as the higher life is concerned.