Hamzah Kashgari: Choose us or your blood will be ‘halal’ to us

While writing this article I am still unsure of the fate of Hamza Kashgari. It has been two weeks since he was illegally deported to Saudi Arabia by the Malaysian government. The hasty deportation was not in compliance with the law and this will inevitably raise a number of questions.

Furthermore, both Malaysia and Saudi Arabia are members of the United Nations Human Rights Council. It is most disgraceful. Nonetheless, nothing is impossible for both Malaysia and Saudi Arabia whom are both notorious for abusing the rights of those they should be protecting in the first place. Diplomatic ties as well as protecting the sanctity of religion are at their best interest so it is no surprise that Malaysia was willing to sacrifice Hamza Kashgari.

After the issue of Hamza’s deportation, many of my Muslim friends (from both Facebook and Twitter) congratulated and supported Malaysia in its decision to deport Kashgari. To them, he had committed a grave sin which is insulting the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W). Hamza was also accused and declared an apostate and for that, it only means death sentence, even after he had repented and deleted his twitter post.

Not the first

Hamza is not the first one to be accused as such. Dr Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid, a professor of Arabic Language from Cairo University had shared the same fate because of his opinion on certain matters and preference in interpreting Al Quran from the view of hermeneutical philosophy. Living in exile, he was separated from his wife and above all the Islamist declared him as an apostate who should be sentenced to death because of the offence he committed against the Al Quran.

Abu Hayyan Al Tauhidi, Muhammad Bin Abdulkarim Bin Ahmad, editor of the book Nuzhum Al Dhurur Fi Tanasub Al Ayat Wa Suwar,  Ibrahim Bin Umar Bin Hasan Rabath, Shadaqah Bin Al Husin dan Lisanuddin Bin Khattib are just to name a few ‘apostates’ and a few have even gone through execution. Indeed, the virus of accusing followers of apostasy and allowing them to be killed is not something new in the Muslim world. I would say that this is the only way the ulamas and extremist deal with thinkers who have fairly different ideas and perception that is also alien to theirs.

It is easy for us to imagine the faces of these Muslim extremists, cruel, intolerant and merciless. it seems that we are only left with 2 choices, to choose them or be killed. This is what happed to the unfortunate Hamza Kashgari.

Who are we to punish Hamza?

As far as we are concerned, there is not even one charge made against Hamza in any courts in the Saudi Arabia for blasphemy related to the prophet nor was he declared an apostate. Therefore, what was the basis of our declaration that he was an apostate?

The basic principle of common law is; a person is regarded as innocent until proven guilty and this is in accordance with the rules in fiqh: Al Asl Baraah Al Zimmah which means someone is innocent until he is proven otherwise. If this was to be applied in Hamza Kashgari’s case- he is not guilty of anything unless it has been proven in the courts of law.

It puzzles me as to why the extremist ulamas in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia can easily pass their judgments unto this 23 year-old-youth without the slightest evidence. I am sure that they had never met Hamza Kashgari or called him up to seek clarifications on his behalf. I am thankful that Allah (S.W.T) did not outsource his powers to them in order to determine our fate in the hereafter. Phew!

Punishment for apostasy and blasphemy against the Prophet

I have always believed in the freedom of thinking and giving opinion, this includes issues pertaining to religion as assured in the Quran. We can have very different opinions in certain issues but at the same time we must live together in harmony and tolerance. Every opinion we have must have a basis or the right foundation.

We have often heard about how our friends support the execution of apostates based on the hadith “whomsoever changes their religion, he will be put to death”. Apart from that, they believe that verse 256 from the Sura Al Baqarah “there is no compulsion in Islam” as a general verse meant for the non believers and it has nothing to do with Muslims. There are also ulamas who are into the opinion that the verse should not be used or should be removed (Refer to Majmo’ Fatawa Wa Maqalat, Bin Baaz 6/219). Due to the limits of this writing, I am not interested to discuss about the opinions supporting this death sentence.

Personally, I am more interested in the opinion that there is no hudud law against those who have denounced Islam. Rasulullah (S.A.W) in his lifetime has never ordered apostates to be executed. If Allah had sanctioned this, the prophet  would have ordered this to be practiced on regular basis.

In the Quran alone, there are more than 200 verses indicating that humans have the right to choose and have their own point of view. Therefore it is impossible for Islam to punish humans severely when they have the rights to choose and have their own opinion as this was pointed out in the holy book.

Hypocritical haters

When reading the comments made by netizens in internet forums, verily there are a huge number especially those who call themselves Islamists who support the decision of the ulamas in Saudi to allow Hamza to be killed even after he apologized and retracted his tweets. They were of the opinion that whoever insults Allah and the prophet (S.A.W) must be executed even though they have repented. Their opinion was supported by Ibnu Taymiyah in his book Sorimul Maslul ‘Ala Syatimul Rasul and  Ibnu Hizmin di dalam Al Muhalla Bi Al Atsar.

Dr Taha Jabir Al Alwani had a very interesting take on this problem. When he was discussing about whether to execute hypocites, Dr Taha pointed the confusion and peculiar view of Ibnu Hizmin Al Andalus. According to him, Rasulullah have never executed the hypocrites in his time even when he knew about the evil plan they had for him. They were also instances of people coming to see the prophet and told him of their denunciation of Islam, he never ordered these people to be killed.

Look at Abdullah Bin Ubay Bin Salul. He was famous in history as the man who slandered Aishah until Allah (S.W.T) made revelations in the Quran to clear her name. In Sahih Al Bukhari, it related an incident when Abdullah bin Ubay said that “If we return to Madina (from the battle field) , people will say those who are powerful and noble have cast those who are weak and pitiful.” Allah had quoted what he said in the Quran in verse 8, Sura Al Munafiqun. He had not only insulted the prophet, he kept the desire to throw him out of Madina. Upon hearing the words of Abdullah Bin Ubay, Umar Al Khattab approached the prophet and said “Let me kill this hypocrite.” In to which the prophet replied, “Leave him be, so that people would not say that Muhammad killed his own companion.”

As we all know, the prophet (S.A.W) is most pious. If there was a sanction of death for apostates or hypocrites, then surely, he would have ordered his companions to kill Abdullah Bin Ubai Bin Salu.l

I was wondering do haters of Hamza Kashgari feel that he is worser than Abdullah Bin Ubai Bin Salul, whom Allah had revealed in the Quran? Or do they feel that they are better than the prophet (S.A.W) himself?

Embarrassing and insulting to Islam

From what we know, the act of declaring fatwa allowing the killing of Hamza Kashgari is an embarrassment and tarnishes the image of Islam in a very negative way. As if it’s not enough that we have weird sanctions such as forbidding women from driving, Muslims to shun social medias like twitter away, be loyal to cruel rulers and never to go against them, it is obvious that this ummah can be easily fooled with religious drugs. They accept it without questions as if anything that came out from the mouths of ulamas is the words of God.

Hamza Kashgari is our brother. He is not a mere chicken that is waiting to be slaughtered by you.

This story was written by Afiq M Noor, Lawyers For Liberty, and translated by Huzainah A Rani of Malaysia Chronicle