An interpretive Review of Verses of Apostasy

The conceptual scope of the term apostasy in the Holy Quran is more inclusive than its concept in jurisprudence and it has a legal aspect in terms of context and the combination of phrases in some verses, with regard to some conditional qualifications. Therefore, some Sunni and Shia commentators believe that apostate's repentance is absolutely allowed and should be accepted, citing the applications of arguments of repentance; whether the applications include innate apostate (born in a Muslim family, but become apostate after puberty age), inborn apostate (born in a non-Muslim family, but become apostate after converting to Islam), female apostate, male apostate, or an apostate whose apostasy is realized by heretic intention, words, or acts. There are, however, another group of Sunni and Shia commentators who believe in differentiation between types of apostates. Since the main cause of controversy in issuing the injunctions of apostasy which are related to worldly and other worldy punishments can result from both a fundamental difference and the way the related verses are interpreted, the present paper seeks to review the most important interpretive views of Sunni and Shia commentators and provide a proper solution for the controversy, using a descriptive and content analysis method.