(330) To wage war against apostates is justified on the same principle as that on which the punishment of a solitary apostate is based, The basis of Muslim polity being religious and not ethnological or linguistic, it is not difficult to appreciate the reason for penalizing this act of apostasy. For it constitutes a politico-religious rebellion. The greater the harm of a given rebellion to a polity, the greater is the severity of repression. Every civilization, [and] not the least the modern Western one, (both in the communistic and capitalistic manifestations) has provided capital punishment against violating the integrity of what it considers its very raison d'etre; and one cannot deny that right to Islam. As an independent organic community Islam will have the liberty to determine what points should be dearer to it: color of one's skin, language spoken by its subject, ideology which animates its existence. As a passing remark, let us recall that the Byzantine law of the epoch of the Prophet also punished with death the apostasy from the Byzantine sect of Christianity. 

(331) Apostasy in Muslim law means turning from Islam after being a Muslim. Not only does it occur when a person declares his conversion to some non-Islamic religion, but also when he refuses to believe in any and every basic article of the Islamic faith.

(332) The sayings and the doings of the Prophet, the decision and practice of the Caliph Abu Bakr, the consensus of the opinion of the Companions of the Prophet and all the later Muslim jurisconsults, and even certain indirect verses of the Quran, all prescribe capital punishment for an apostate. In the case of apostasy, no distinction is made between a Muslim born of Muslim parents and a convert; and similarly there is no difference between accepting Judaism or Christianity, atheism or idol worship or any other non-Islamic faith. Nevertheless, Muslim jurists emphasize that before prosecuting and condemning an apostate, it is necessary officially to discuss the matter with him and to remove his doubts regarding the soundness and reasonableness of the Islamic point of view in the matter concerned. Time is given him for reflection sometimes even for months before finally proceeding with the prosecution. There is no difference between a free man and a slave, as Sarakhsiy (Sharh as-Siyar al-Kabir, IV, 162) is explicit. 

(333) In case an insane person is a delirious, a melancholy and perplexed man, a minor, one intoxicated, one who had declared his faith in Islam under coercion, and a person whose faith in lslam has not been known or established  were to become apostate they would not suffer the supreme penalty. So, too, an apostate woman,  and a hermaphrodite,  according to the Hanafiy school of law, would not be condemned to death, but imprisoned and even physically tortured. An old man from whom no offspring is expected is also excepted. 

[The] Treatment of an Apostate 

(334) The apostate has to choose between Islam and the sword; he cannot be given quarter, nor will he be allowed to become a dhimrniy i.e. a resident non-Muslim subject of the Muslim State, on payment of the yearly protection tax 

(335) De jure he is dead. So if he does not re-embrace Islam, and escapes to some non-Muslim territory, his property in the Islamic territory will be distributed among his Muslim heirs if he were dead. In addition to this, the debts due to him will wiped out if he has reached non-Muslim territory. This is what Mawardiy says, but I wonder why these debts should not be inherited by the heirs of the renegade just like the rest of his property.

Distinction between the Territory of Apostates and the Territory of Ordinary Non-Muslims 

(336) Mawardiy writes that there are five characteristics in the territory of apostates which distinguish it from the territory of ordinary non-Muslims namely: 

1 A treaty of peace or [an] alliance is not ordinarily allowed with apostates; no such restriction exists in relation to ordinary non-Muslim foreigners. 

2 An apostate is not allowed to become a dhimmiy ([a] non-Muslim subject of the Muslim State); not so an original non-Muslim. 

3 As an apostate has nothing to choose but the re-embracing of Islam or the sword, he cannot be enslaved and so let alive. 

4 The booty acquired from an apostate is not to be distributed among the capturing troop; it will go to the general exchequer. The different kinds of property captured from an ordinary non-Muslim belligerent will be treated in a subsequent chapter. It is to be noted, however. that property of dead apostates. captured during conflict at once becomes the property of the Muslim State; but if living, his property is to be held in trust to be returned to him on re-embracing Islam or finally to be confiscated at his death. (Obviously this concerns the property found in non-Muslim territory; the one found in Muslim territory will go to his Muslim heirs, apostasy being considered as a de jure death.) Apostates made prisoners, if they do not re-embrace Islam, will in due course be beheaded -- no quarter may be given them in the case regarding ordinary belligerent prisoners. 

(337) So far the differences; yet there are also certain similarities between the treatment of an apostate and that of non-Muslim belligerents. So an apostate is not held responsible for the destruction of Muslim life and property during the war upon his return to Islam. This was actually decided in the time of the first Caliph, and of course his precedent could not be contested. Further, in being fought and pursued, the apostates are just like other non-Muslim enemy combatants. Their ambassadors. too, will receive the same rights and immunities. So during the life of the Prophet, the ambassadors of Musailimah the Impostor came to Madinah; and, on being asked, replied that they too held the notions of him who sent them. At this, the Prophet said: 

"But for the fact that ambassadors cannot be killed, by God, I would have ordered you both to be beheaded.”