{"id":5322,"date":"2025-04-11T09:36:23","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T09:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/?p=5322"},"modified":"2025-04-11T09:36:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T09:36:29","slug":"nigerian-islamic-cleric-backs-death-penalty-for-whoever-changes-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/2025\/04\/11\/nigerian-islamic-cleric-backs-death-penalty-for-whoever-changes-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian Islamic Cleric Backs Death Penalty For Whoever Changes Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An Islamic cleric and the National Chairman of the Council of Ulama, Dr. Ibrahim Jalingo, has endorsed the death penalty for religious faithful who renounce their religion.<\/p>\n

In a strongly worded statement shared on his official Facebook page on Thursday, Jalingo openly defended a Hadith prescribing the death penalty for apostates and accused critics of Hadith literature of what he described as \u201ccompound ignorance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cleric made the statement in response to criticisms questioning the authenticity of the Hadith, alleging that it contradicts the Quran.<\/p>\n

A Hadith is a report of the sayings, actions, or approvals of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).<\/p>\n

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It serves as a key source of guidance in Islam, second only to the Qur\u2019an.<\/p>\n

In his post, Jalingo launched a detailed theological rebuttal against what he described as \u201cfabricators\u201d attempting to discredit the Hadith.<\/p>\n

Jalingo, wrote: \u201cToday, I came across the first Hadith among the supposed \u2018100 Hadiths\u2019 which the fabricators claim contradict the Qur\u2019an. They assert that Muslims who believe in both the divine revelation of the Hadith and the Qur\u2019an cannot respond to them! The Hadith in question is: \u2018Whoever changes his religion, kill him.\u2019 The person who presented this statement by the fabricators to me is someone named Issiyaku Abdulkadir.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHere is what I wrote in response to the claims of these fabricators: First, I thank you for starting to bring me what this compound ignoramus refers to as \u2018100 Hadiths that contradict the verses of the Qur\u2019an.\u2019 This will, God willing, allow me to expose his ignorance to the world\u201d, Jalingo\u2019s statement partly read.<\/p>\n

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He continued by reinforcing the divine origin of Hadith, equating it with the Qur\u2019an:\u00a0\u201cSecond: It should be made clear to everyone that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) never said: \u2018The role of Hadith is to interpret the Qur\u2019an.\u2019 However, the Prophet said: \u2018Indeed, I was given the Qur\u2019an and something like it alongside it.\u2019 What is true is that the Qur\u2019an is a revelation from Allah, and so is the Hadith a revelation from Allah. Often, the Qur\u2019an addresses a matter in a summarised or brief way, and then the revelation of Hadith comes to elaborate on that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

In what is sure to spark fierce debates among scholars and human rights advocates, Jalingo defended the Hadith calling for the execution of apostates, citing Qur\u2019anic verses in support: \u201cThird: The Hadith you cited\u2014\u2019 Whoever changes his religion, kill him\u2019\u2014is authentic and does not contradict the Qur\u2019anic revelation. This is because Allah says in Surah At-Tawbah, verse 5: \u2018Then, when the sacred months have passed, kill the polytheists wherever you find them.\u2019<\/p>\n

He supported his claims with another Quranic citation in Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 193, saying, \u201cFight them until there is no more fitnah (disbelief and oppression) and religion is for Allah alone.\u2019 Meaning: fight them until they accept Islam.
\nAnd in Surah An-Nisa\u2019, verse 89: \u2018Kill them wherever you find them.\u2019 And again in Surah An-Nisa\u2019, verse 91: \u2018Kill them wherever you confront them.’\u201d<\/p>\n

He further declared that the widely quoted verse advocating freedom of religion had been abrogated: \u201cYou see, unless someone is completely ignorant like the fabricators, no one would claim that the Hadith which says \u2018Whoever changes his religion, kill him\u2019 contradicts the Qur\u2019an\u2014because the Qur\u2019an itself goes even further. It does not only permit the killing of apostates, but all polytheists in certain contexts.<\/p>\n

\u201cFourth: You should also know that the verse \u2018There is no compulsion in religion\u2019 (La ikrah fi ad-deen) has had its ruling abrogated (naskh) by the verses we\u2019ve just quoted, as well as by the very Hadith you brought: \u2018Whoever changes his religion, kill him.\u2019 And abrogation is a well-established concept within the revelation of the Glorious Qur\u2019an.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a final explosive comment, Jalingo launched a personal attack on his critics, stating, \u201cThis is a brief response to the compounded ignorance of this individual\u2014whose approach and manner resemble that of prostitutes and effeminate men\u2014i.e., the so-called fabricators.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cleric\u2019s post has since gone viral across social media, drawing both support and backlash.<\/p>\n

While some hardline followers praised him for defending Islam, other Muslim voices have condemned the remarks as dangerous and inflammatory<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Islamic cleric and the National Chairman of the Council of Ulama, Dr. Ibrahim Jalingo, has endorsed the death penalty for religious faithful who renounce their religion. In a strongly worded statement shared on...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5324,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5322\/revisions\/5324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}