An-Nahl (The Bee)

106. “He who disbelieves in Allah after believing in Him; not he who has been compelled, while his heart is still content with the faith, but he who opens (his) breast to disbelief, upon them shall rest wrath from Allah and for them shall be a great chastisement.”

In the early days of Islam, the pagans of Mecca martyred the parents of ‘Ammar Yasir, a true believer, while torturing them for embracing Islam. As soon as it was ‘Ammar’s turn to be tortured, he declared those words which the pagans wanted him to utter and saved his life.

‘Ammar was then blamed for having abandoned Islam by some persons. He called on the blissful Prophet (S) while crying. The Prophet caressed him, saying:

“If your life is at stake again, utter these words and save yourself; you are faithful all over.”1

This procedure is called /taqqiyah/ in Islam which requires certain rules. However, we must know that there are certain cases of ‘Taqiyyah’.

At times, it is compulsory while at other times, one must stand up to the end and utter his words, and not engage in Taqiyyah, like what the sorcerers of Pharaoh did.

They embraced the faith as soon as they noticed the miracle of Moses (as) not fearing the threats of Pharaoh and telling him to do what he wanted, and that they would not abandon their faith. Pharaoh martyred them all, the resistance of whom has been praised by the Qur’an.

Certainly, the act of Taqiyyah (concealing of faith) is not a sign of excommunication, weakness, fear, retreat, loss of faith, and submission. On the contrary, it is a kind of cover-up and a strategy for the preservation of powers and programs.

In Islamic quotations, it has been likened to a shield and ‘guarding’ against ‘something’ and ‘boundaries’.

Thus, in this noble verse, the Qur’an implies that he who disbelieves in Allah and abandons Islam, embracing paganism will be entangled with Allah’s outrage and there is a great punishment awaiting him; unless he is compelled to utter words of blasphemy while feeling heartily in a different way, in which case, he will not be held responsible.

The verse says:

“He who disbelieves in Allah after believing in Him; not he who has been compelled, while his heart is still content with the faith, but he who opens (his) breast to disbelief, upon them shall rest wrath from Allah and for them shall be a great chastisement.”

In fact, there are here allusions made to two groups of people who turn their back to Islam after embracing it.

The first group are those who become entangled with illogical enemies under whose pressure and torture, they declare their apostasy with Islam and their loyalty in paganism, while whatever they proclaim is with their tongue and they are heartily faithful.

Such a group is certainly pardoned. However we must note that they have not committed any sin to start with. This is an example of allowed ‘Taqyyah’ which has been permissible for the sake of the protection of lives and for the conservation of powers for further services to the causes of Allah and of Islam.

The second group consists of those who truly leave their ‘selves’ to paganism and disbelief and change their ideological system of thought altogether.

Such people are both targeted by Allah’s wrath and His great chastisement, for such an act causes the disintegration of the Islamic society, thus constituting some kind of revolt against the Islamic government. Such an act is often a source of evil intentions and causes the secrets of Islamic society to fall into the hands of the enemies.