An Islamic cleric and National Chairman of the Council of Ulama, Ibrahim Jalingo, has endorsed death penalty for Muslim faithful who renounce the religion, claiming it is supported by the Quran.
Jalingo, in a Facebook post on Thursday, defended a Hadith that prescribes death for apostates, dismissing critics who challenge its validity as suffering from “compound ignorance.”
He made the statement in response to criticisms questioning the Hadith as contradicting the Quran.
Quoting Jalingo, “The Qur’an is a revelation from Allah, and so is the Hadith,” Jalingo wrote.
“Often, the Qur’an addresses matters briefly, while the Hadith comes to elaborate. This Hadith does not contradict the Qur’an, it reinforces it.”
A Hadith is a collection of traditions containing sayings of the Prophet Muhammad which, with accounts of his daily practice (the Sunna), constitute the major source of guidance for Muslims apart from the Quran.
Jalingo slammed “fabricators” attempting to discredit the Hadith.
He wrote, “Today, I came across the first Hadith among the supposed ‘100 Hadiths’ which the fabricators claim contradict the Qur’an. They assert that Muslims who believe in both the divine revelation of the Hadith and the Qur’an cannot respond to them! The Hadith in question is: ‘Whoever changes his religion, kill him.’ The person who presented this statement by the fabricators to me is someone named Issiyaku Abdulkadir.
“Here is what I wrote in response to the claims of these fabricators: First, I thank you for starting to bring me what this compound ignoramus refers to as ‘100 Hadiths that contradict the verses of the Qur’an.’ This will, God willing, give me the opportunity to expose his ignorance to the world.”
Defending his call for the execution of apostates, Jalingo cited Quranic verses: “Third: The Hadith you cited—’Whoever changes his religion, kill him’—is authentic and does not contradict the Qur’anic revelation. This is because Allah says in Surah At-Tawbah, verse 5: ‘Then, when the sacred months have passed, kill the polytheists wherever you find them.”
He also cited another support in the Quran in Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 193, saying, “Fight them until there is no more fitnah (disbelief and oppression) and religion is for Allah alone.’ Meaning: fight them until they accept Islam.
He added that in Surah An-Nisa’, verse 89 states: ‘Kill them wherever you find them.’ And again in Surah An-Nisa’, verse 91: ‘Kill them wherever you confront them.”