❖ Punishment of the Apostate Woman: Juristic Opinions and the Preferred View
Written by: Imran Ayoob Lahori
◈ Command Regarding Apostate Women
- Ibn ʿUmar (RA), al-Zuhrī (RA), Ibrāhīm (RA): The apostate woman should be executed.
Reference: بخاري: قبل الحديث / 6922 - Majority of scholars (including Imām Aḥmad and Imām al-Shāfiʿī): They hold the same opinion.
- Imām Abū Ḥanīfah (RA): An apostate woman is not to be killed; rather, she should be imprisoned. His proof is the ḥadīth in which the Prophet ﷺ forbade killing women during warfare.
References: تحفة الأحوذي: 850/4 ، فتح الباري: 284/12
◈ Preferred Opinion (الراجح)
The correct view is that an apostate woman should also be executed.
The women whose killing the Prophet ﷺ prohibited were originally disbelievers who had not participated in battle against Muslims. However, those who became Muslims and then apostatized fall under the general evidence:
من بدل دينه فاقتلوه
"Whoever changes his religion, kill him."
Abū Bakr (RA), during his caliphate, executed an apostate woman, and no Companion is reported to have objected.
Further References: تحفة الأحوذي: 850/4 ، السيل الجرار: 373/4 ، فتح الباري: 284/12 ، الروضة الندية: 623/2 ، نيل الأوطار: 655/4 ، الأم للشافعي: 156/6 ، الإختیار: 149/4 ، الحجة على أهل المدينة: 530/3
