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Is a ten-year-old boy who cursed the religion, has not yet reached puberty, then sought forgiveness, repented, and resolved not to repeat his action, judged to be an apostate?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If an adult or a child apostatizes from Islam through any type of disbelief, and then repents, their repentance is valid and accepted by Allah. Allah Almighty says: "Say, 'O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.'" (Az-Zumar: 53). Some scholars hold that a child's apostasy is not valid, while others believe in its validity and that the rulings of apostasy apply to it, but a child is not to be executed before reaching puberty.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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