Apostasy and its Laws in Jurisprudence

One of the worst phenomena in a Muslim’s life is apostasy. An apostate has renounced the faith and denies the principles and precepts of religion after accepting it. If either parent or both are Muslims and their child accepted Islam after his maturity, but he denied it later, he/she is called a natural apostate. However, if a person was born to a non-Muslim family and converted to Islam after his maturity, later rejects the religion is called a community apostate. If natural apostate is a man under certain circumstances must be penalized with death, but the penalty for the community apostate and women is life imprisonment in order to repent. In this article, some provisions relating to apostasy in Islamic law along with the reason of such severe punishment are discussed.