An Islamic cleric and the National Chairman of the Council of Ulama, Dr. Ibrahim Jalingo, has endorsed death penalty for religious faithful who renounce their religion.
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 โcompound ignorance.โ
The cleric made the statement in response to criticisms questioning the authenticity of the Hadith, alleging that it contradicts the Quran.
A Hadith is a report of the sayings, actions, or approvals of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)
It serves as a key source of guidance in Islam, second only to the Qurโan.
In his post, Jalingo launched a detailed theological rebuttal against what he described as โfabricatorsโ attempting to discredit the Hadith.
Jalingo, wrote: โToday, I came across the first Hadith among the supposed โ100 Hadithsโ which the fabricators claim contradict the Qurโan. They assert that Muslims who believe in both the divine revelation of the Hadith and the Qurโan cannot respond to them! The Hadith in question is: โWhoever changes his religion, kill him.โ The person who presented this statement by the fabricators to me is someone named Issiyaku Abdulkadir.
He continued by reinforcing the divine origin of Hadith, equating it with the Qurโan:ย โSecond: It should be made clear to everyone that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) never said: โThe role of Hadith is to interpret the Qurโan.โ However, the Prophet said: โIndeed, I was given the Qurโan and something like it alongside it.โ What is true is that the Qurโan is a revelation from Allah, and so is the Hadith a revelation from Allah. Often, the Qurโan addresses a matter in a summarised or brief way, and then the revelation of Hadith comes to elaborate on that matter.โ
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 Qurโanic verses in support:ย โThird: The Hadith you citedโโWhoever changes his religion, kill himโโis authentic and does not contradict the Qurโanic revelation. This is because Allah says in Surah At-Tawbah, verse 5: โThen, when the sacred months have passed, kill the polytheists wherever you find them.โ
He supported his claims with another Quranic citation in Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 193, saying, โFight them until there is no more fitnah (disbelief and oppression) and religion is for Allah alone.โ Meaning: fight them until they accept Islam.
And in Surah An-Nisaโ, verse 89: โKill them wherever you find them.โ And again in Surah An-Nisaโ, verse 91: โKill them wherever you confront them.’โ
He further declared that the widely quoted verse advocating freedom of religion had been abrogated: โYou see, unless someone is completely ignorant like the fabricators, no one would claim that the Hadith which says โWhoever changes his religion, kill himโ contradicts the Qurโanโbecause the Qurโan itself goes even further. It does not only permit the killing of apostates, but all polytheists in certain contexts.
โFourth: You should also know that the verse โThere is no compulsion in religionโ (La ikrah fi ad-deen) has had its ruling abrogated (naskh) by the verses weโve just quoted, as well as by the very Hadith you brought: โWhoever changes his religion, kill him.โ And abrogation is a well-established concept within the revelation of the Glorious Qurโan.โ
In a final explosive comment, Jalingo launched a personal attack on his critics, stating, โThis is a brief response to the compounded ignorance of this individualโwhose approach and manner resemble that of prostitutes and effeminate menโi.e., the so-called fabricators.โ
The clericโs post has since gone viral across social media, drawing both support and backlash.
While some hardline followers praised him for defending Islam, other Muslim voices have condemned the remarks as dangerous and inflammatory.
