배교에 관한 샤리아 규범 연구

A Study of Sharia Norm on Apostasy : Focusing on the literature research method

Sharia protects the five elements (religion, life, reason, honor, property), and apostasy is prohibited for the protection of religion. Islam saw apostasy as a Muslim becoming a kāfir. Here, kāfir is meant to include unbelievers, atheists, pagans (non-Muslims), skeptics, heretics, those who slander Islam or the prophets, and idolaters. Islam has a very broad understanding of apostasy, and the details of this are defined through Sharia. The Qur’ān warns those who betray or disbelieve Islam that there is an afterlife punishment by Allah and a real punishment by Muslims. Hadith (Sunna) clearly presented the acts of apostasy through specific examples, and confirmed that there are realistic and afterlife punishments for apostates. On the other hand, Sunni’s four law schools focused on establishing detailed guidelines for the issues that Muslims should know clearly and issues that are at issue in reality, believing that the acts and punishments of apostasy were clearly and sufficiently mentioned by the Qur’ān and the Hadith. In modern times, more than a dozen Islamic countries have stipulated through their constitutions or criminal laws that apostasy to Islam is a serious crime and should be punishable by death.