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340chapter sixthe sacred mosque, and drive out its members.” Tumult and oppressionare worse than slaughter. Nor will they cease fighting you until theyturn you back from your faith if they can. And if any of you turn backfrom their faith and die in unbelief, their works will bear no fruit inthis life and in the Hereafter… ( Al-Baqara 2:117)O you who believe! If any from among you turn back from his faith,soon will God produce a people whom He will love as they will loveHim—lowly with the believers, mighty against the rejecters, fightingin the way of God, and never afraid of the reproaches of such as findfault… ( Al-M§"ida 5:54)Based on these two verses, we shall define apostasy as any form ofhuman behaviour that expresses a ‘turn back’ from faith. In contrast,belief is a form of human behaviour that expresses a ‘turn towards’faith. On the Day of Judgement, Allah issues either reward or punishmentfor human behaviour in this world, which He will assess byweighing people’s acts ‘towards faith’ against their acts ‘back fromfaith’. (‘On that day will men proceed in companies sorted out, tobe shown the deeds that they (had done). * Then shall anyone whohas done an atom’s weight of good, see it! * And anyone who hasdone an atom’s weight of evil, shall see it’, Al-Zalzala 99:6–8). Theseverses assure us that every human being, by consciously choosingeither to turn towards faith or back from it, determines his futuredestiny and whether he will be rewarded or punished ‘on thatday’.The word apostasy literally means ‘to stand clear’ or ‘to stayaway’. The question is away from what? The Book says it means tostay away from ‘religion’ (dÊn), which is defined as a form of universalhuman behaviour that is characterised by faith in God, His angels,His books, His messengers, the Last Day and doing Good Work.The lower limit of religion is marked by belief in God, the Last Day,and doing Good Work (= the minimum requirement for embracingal-isl§m), and the upper limit of religion consists of the pillars ofal-Êm§n, that is, prayer, alms tax, fasting, and pilgrimage. In betweenthe upper and lower limits people decide to follow God’s orders andabstain from what He has forbidden. While the witness that ‘thereis no other god but God’ defines the realm of al-isl§m, the witnessthat ‘MuÈammad is the Messenger of God’ defines the realm ofal-Êm§n. In both realms, people are obliged to implement the highestmoral ideals and act correctly in their daily conduct. Given thesedefinitions, apostasy means to stay (altogether) away from religion,that is, a transgression of its lower limit, the first shah§da (‘there is no