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political islam 345graded as (only) mursal (‘hurried’) 10 but is then transmitted asauthentic as it is included in the Muwaã㧠(note that Im§m Muslimobjected to the authenticity of this ÈadÊth). Second, the ÈadÊth transmitsa rule about someone who leaves one religious community foranother (i.e., from MuÈammad’s community of believers to Christianity,Judaism or others). It does not talk about someone wholeaves ‘religion’ per se and turns to unbelief—this in spite of thetext’s use of the term dÊn, ‘religion’. It is impossible to interpret dÊnin this ÈadÊth as ‘religion’ in the conventional meaning of ‘religiouscommunity’, because then it should also be applied to Jews andChristians who have converted to Islam. Since these converts havealso ‘changed their religion’, they should also be killed accordingto the fuqah§"s’ logic, which is, of course, utter nonsense. Third, andmost important of all, the commentary on the ÈadÊth states thatbefore anyone is killed for apostasy, his infidelity must be publiclymanifested, implying that a renegade must openly declare that hehas (completely) abandoned his religion.From the first ÈadÊth, narrated by al-TirmidhÊ, three things seemimmediately obvious: First, the ÈadÊth, as reported by ‘Ikrima fromIbn #Abb§s and #AlÊ, has been classified as ßaÈÊÈ (sound) and Èasan(good), indicating that it has been accurately transmitted (word forword). Second, the rule about someone who apostacizes (‘kill him’)is therefore, at least according to the rules of ÈadÊth sciences, correct.Third, female apostates are exempted from the death penalty—accordingto the Kufan School—which, however, seems tobe at odds with the prophetical statement in which the Prophet (ß)used the pronoun ‘whoever’ (Arab. man) which includes both menand women (‘kill him or her’). It seems very peculiar that whereasthe first ÈadÊth (‘he who changes his religion, kill him’) was unanimouslyclassified as sound (ßaÈÊÈ) by all \adÊth scholars, the secondÈadÊth (‘he who changes his religion, cut off his head’) was, eventhough it is almost identical to the first ÈadÊth, criticised for its weakchain of transmission, and that Im§m Muslim rejected it as entirelyspurious.10I.e., unreliable, because the link between the successors of the Prophet and theProphet himself is missing in the chain of narrators; a ÈadÊth mursal usually beginswith ‘The Prophet said…’.