Courtesy: https://farihinfong.blogspot.com/
Bahai's are not kafirs or disbelievers, but I've come to understand that they are actually apostates from Islam. So we should deal with them as apostates. I took this article from https://www.islamicperspectives.com/Apostasy1.htm.Of course, I don't believe in the authors methodology, but his definition of apostasy is acceptable and that is about it.
Why are Bahai's apostates?
Why are Bahai's apostates?
Because they say the declaration of faith and then add that Husayn Ali (may Allah cast him in the heart of the Fire of Jahanam) is a prophet after the final prophet of Allah, Muhammad (solawatullah wasalamu alihi). Insyallah, we hope to post up further explanations about Baha'i Murtads on youtube soon.
WHAT IS APOSTASY?
Before discussing the question of punishment of apostasy, it is well to define what apostasy is.
Before discussing the question of punishment of apostasy, it is well to define what apostasy is.
A person commits apostasy (irtidad) or becomes an apostate (murtadd) if he describes himself a Muslim and then at a later time takes one of the following actions in a public way:
1) Converts to another religion, e.g. becomes a Christian or Buddhist or Baha`i etc.
2) Rejects a part of the Qur`an after recognizing it to be a part of the Qur`an.
3) In some cases when the whole ummah agrees that a certain interpretation of some Qur`anic verses or ahadith is unacceptable, then the person who holds such an interpretation may become an apostate by a decision of the ummah. For example, Ahmadis insist on being called Muslims and they indeed profess and practice much of Islam like most Sunni Muslims. But they believe that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadiyan in the British colonial India was a prophet and in order to prepare room for this belief they interpret khatm nubuwwah in a way different from the rest of the ummah.. The ummah has rejected their interpretation of khatm nubuwwah and Mirza’s claims for which this interpretation is devised. The ummah has also declared this group as non-Muslims and banned their entry into Makkah. Finally, the falsehood of Mirza’s claims has been proved by history[2]. Consequently, all converts from Islam to Ahmadism are apostates.
Normally, however, having an interpretation of a part of the Qur`an or Hadith different from the one held by other Muslims does not result in apostasy. For example, if the people who rejected Shari‘ah-based arbitration in Ontario would have said that the way rules of Shari‘ah are interpreted and applied is not faithful to the teachings of God and his Messenger and argued for more discussion about correcting the interpretation and the application before adopting Shari‘ah-based arbitration, they would not have committed apostasy. But they opposed Shari‘ah as such and for this reason they should be considered apostates.
An apostate is different from a hypocrite (munafiq). A hypocrite is a person who is outwardly willing to say/do what a Muslim says/does but in his heart has decided not to believe in Islam. An apostate, in contrast, is someone who openly and knowingly does or says something that makes him a non-Muslim after he had called himself a Muslim.
It also needs to be pointed out that we should distinguish apostasy from a state of kufr that many Muslims may privately pass through during the process of their growth towards the state of iman. In most Muslim families we have some members who express disbelief about the existence of God or about divine revelations or about the hereafter. Muslims have wisely and correctly tolerated such disbelief because they recognize that the way to iman is not always smooth and may pass through doubts and confusion (cf. Qur`an 6:76-79, 93:7). However, if a Muslim expresses his disbelief in the form of a declared position and insists on its truth publicly, then he will be considered an apostate.
Farihin Fong
While the Baha'i religion may be an apostate faith from the Islamic view point. After all, Jews said this about Christians, and Christians have said it about Muslims. Apostasy can only be understood relativistically as a point of view of one faith about another. Nevertheless, it is not true that Baha'is themselves are apostates.
ReplyDeleteThe earliest Baha'is were Shi'a. When they became Baha'i they became Islamic apostates from the viewpoint of other Shias who did not convert. However, most Baha'is have never been Muslim. So while they believe in a faith that you have a right to view as an apostasy of your own faith, they have never apostatized anything since they were never Muslim.
Lastly, you might consider the problems in your own community before condemning others of apostasy. For example, how is it that in all Islamic countries, children of Muslims are classified as Muslim at birth? Can an infant come to faith and take shahada? Does it not say clearly in the Qur'an that there shall be no compulsion in matters of faith? Yet you compel all your children, decide their faith for them before they have the capacity to reason and decide for themselves, and then, once they can reason, if they choose to believe differently, you condemn them as apostates and some even put to death. I humbly suggest that the house of Islam needs the clean up the hypocrisy and apostasy of its own members before turning to people of other faiths.
Cheers