Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 1 of 2

512 Finuncial andjudiciary institutions at the time of 'Ali
hypocritical heretic, who makes an outward display of being
Muslim when inwardly he is a disbeliever, if proof of that had
been established against him.'" 'Abdur-Razziq narrated that
Muhammad ibn Ahi Bakr wrote to 'Ali (&) about two Muslims
who became hypocritical heretics, and he wrote back saying: "If
they repent (all well and good); othenvise strike their necks
(execute them). "z22
(b) The one who manifests his apostasy openly should be asked to
repent, whereas the hypocritical heretic should not he asked to
repent. Al-Athram narrated, with his chain of narration going
back to 'Ali (&), that an Arab man who had become Christian
was brought to him. He asked him to repent, but he refused, so
he executed him. Then a group of people who prayed but were
hypocritical heretics were brought to him, and proof was
established against them by witnesses of sound character. They
denied it and said: "We have no religion other than Islam." He
executed them and did not ask them to repent. He said: "Do you
know why I asked the Christian to repent? I asked him to repent
because he showed his religion openly. As for the hypocritical
heretics against whom proof was established, I executed them
because they denied it when proof had been established against
them."223
With regard to a woman who becomes an apostate, two views
were narrated from 'Ali (&) concerning her case:
(a) There is no difference between her and a man with regard to the
ruling that they should be executed. This opinion was also
narrated from Abu Bakr (&), and it was the view of al-Hasan,
az-Zuhri, an-Nakha'i, Mwool, Hammid, Milik, al-Layth, al-
AwzTi, ash-Sh2fa'i and ~shi~.~'~
(b) A woman is to he enslaved and not executed. This was the view
of al-~asan~'~ and Qamah, because Abu Bakr (&) enslaved