man from Medina abandons Islam and seeks refuge with the pagan Quraish in Mecca, he is allowed to do so. Had the death penalty been described in Islam, this condition would not have been agreed by the Prophet of Islam. (c) When the direction of prayer changed from Jerusalem to the Kaaba, many Muslims were stunned and shocked. Mohammad Ibn Jarir Tabari, in his commentary on verse 144 of the chapter The Heifer, observes that some Muslims left Islam, but none of the reverts was subjected to death penalty by the Prophet. (d) The historian Ibn Hisham mentions a man named Jalas who accepted Islam and then reverted. The prophet did not punish him. (e) Ibn Athir relates the incident of a man named Mujah, part of the delegation of the king of Yamamah, who accepted Islam but later rejected it. He falsely accused the prophet of making Musailemeh his partner. Despite these heinous charges the prophet did not punish him. (f) During the reign of Hazrat Umar, a Christian lady named Waled accepted Islam, and then rejected it. She was not punished by Hazrat Umar on account of her reversion.

The supporters of the freedom of faith present so many such incidents and prove that in the life time of the Prophet of Islam, not a single man was killed on the account of changing his faith. In an-Nassi of Abu Dawud, the Musnad of Imam Hanbal, and in Tareekh-e-Tabari of Ibn Jarir, so many instances have been recorded when some people forsook Islam and were not punished by the prophet of Islam. The Hadith 3 of Al-Bukhari Volume 9 gives a more detailed narration by Abu Qilaba concerning the three issues in which the death penalty has been prescribed by the holy Prophet of Islam. They are murder, adultery and apostasy. In his narration, Abu Qibalas' third justification for execution, the other two being murder and apostasy, reads: "a man who fought against God and his apostle and deserted Islam and became an apostate." In this connection Dr. Jerald Dirks writes: "In other words, execution was permitted for some one who both committed and left the Muslim nation to actively fight against Prophet Mohammad and the Muslim nation during the times of war. In short, it was the combination of

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