Paper Title
Riddah (Apostasy): The Misconceived Phenomenon
Abstract
Riddah (Apostasy) is one of the grievous offences in Islam. It has been the cause of destruction of faith of many
Muslims since the early period of Islam. Although Islam is the only acceptable religion in the sight of Allah, yet there are those
who decide to become murtaddun (apostates) after embracing it. This is because most men are ungrateful to Allah. This paper
intends to discuss and refute the popular misconception that ‘once a Muslim says La ilaha illallah, he remains a perfect Muslim
irrespective of whatever he says or does’. Many Muslims today are ignorant of the fact that riddah is normally performed by
Muslims. In view of this therefore, relevant verses of the Glorious Qur’an and authentic Hadiths of the Prophet (SAW) shall be
cited in order to, one, clear off the misconception and two, explain the danger involved in accusing a Muslim of being a
murtadd (apostate) without clear and reliable proofs.
Index Terms— Misconception, Phenomenon, Polytheism, Riddah