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The question

How is it possible to reconcile the verse "There is no compulsion in religion" with the ruling on killing apostates in Islam?

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Source: FtawySummary from Ftawy's records · added here Sep 2, 20261 min readAlso available in العربية
The answer

There is no contradiction between the verse, "There is no compulsion in religion" and the killing of an apostate. The verse applies to the original disbeliever who has not entered Islam, and thus is not compelled to embrace it. As for someone who willingly embraced Islam and then apostatized, the verse does not apply to him. His killing is necessitated by wisdom and expediency to safeguard the religion and its adherents. Ibn Hazm said: "The Ummah is in agreement on compelling an apostate (by killing him) for abandoning his religion." Ibn Taymiyyah said: "Killing an apostate preserves the people of the religion and the religion itself, preventing कमी (deficiency/reduction) and deviation from it." Ibn Ashour said: "Apostasy is an exposure (of weakness) to the religion and a trivialization of it, paving the way for those who wish to slip away from it. Therefore, death was made a deterrent to prevent the disintegration of the community. This is not the compulsion negated in the verse, because it is a compulsion to remain in Islam."

Summary from Ftawy's records · added here

Reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.

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Ftawy
Original fatwa ID
7119
Added here
. This is when the answer was added to El Fatwa, not the fatwa's date.
Text
Summary from Ftawy's records, reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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