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