Sheikh Dr Yasir Qadhi endorses Murtadd to Human

In a lecture titled The Legacy of Islam, Sheikh Dr Yasir Qadhi put the juiciest halal meat on my biggest bone of contention: leaving Islam is when the apostate's real work begins. Under the heading The "Ex-Muslim" community are Sore Losers, Dr Qadhi asserts:

Irony of ironies, and I'm sorry I'm going to be blunt here, look at this community that calls themselves ex-Muslims. What a bunch of sore losers, man! Get over it, okay. You've become murtadd. Why are you still identifying as a murtadd? Even in abandoning Islam, their identity is shaped by Islam. They can't get it out of their system. Go look. You don't find the equivalent. [There's] no community like the ex-Muslim community. The reality of Islam having shaped their lives such that even when they abandon it, they cannot fully abandon it, and their identity is still shaped by the very religion they claim nothing to be a part of. Frankly, all they do is incessantly talk about the very faith—it's like you went through a bad divorce. Halas! Move on. Forget about your partner.

Dr Qadhi conveniently forgets that the divorce is from Islam, and like with every Muslim divorce, there is always the chance that your ex-husband will one day turn up and cut your head off, not metaphorically speaking. It is not us who incessantly talk about Islam, but Islam that incessantly talks about us. So incessantly, in fact, that Islam writes it into law, and not just any law, but law that is "good for all time". The Shari'a manual, Reliance of the Traveller, stipulates:

Book E12.8 "worthy" meaning those whose killing is unlawful, such as a trained hunting dog or other useful animal, while "unworthy" includes non-Muslims at war with the Muslims, apostates from Islam, convicted married adulterers, pigs, and biting dogs.

Book F1.1 An apostate from Islam (murtadd) who then returns must make up every prayer missed.

Book H1.2 Non-Muslims are not obliged to pay zakat, nor apostates from Islam (murtadd) unless they return to Islam, in which case they must pay for the time they spent out of Islam, though if they die as non-Muslims their property is not subject to zakat, because their property is considered to belong to the Muslim common fund (bayt ai-mal) from the moment such people leave Islam.

Book L3.13 It is permissible for X to bequeath something to Z, even if Z is: ...(3) an apostate from Islam;

Book M6.7 It is unlawful for a Muslim man to marry: ...(3) an apostate from Islam (murtadd);

Book O1.2 Retaliation: The following are not subject to retaliation: (3) a Jewish or Christian subject of the Islamic state for killing an apostate from Islam, because a subject of the state is under its protection, while killing an apostate from Islam is without consequences;

Book O8.4 There is no indemnity for killing an apostate (or any expiation, since it is killing someone who deserves to die).

Book O9.9 The caliph fights all other peoples until they become Muslim, because they are not a people with a Book, nor honoured as such, and are not permitted to settle with paying the poll tax (jizya), though according to the Hanafi school, peoples of all other religions, even idol worshippers, are permitted to live under the protection of the Islamic state if they either become Muslim or agree to pay the poll tax, the sole exceptions to which are apostates from Islam and idol worshippers who are Arabs, neither of whom has any choice but becoming Muslim (al-Hidaya sharh Bidaya al-mubtadi', y21. 6.48-49).

So you see, Dr Qadhi, we have more than a few reasons to "incessantly talk" about Islam that incessantly and specifically talks about killing us precisely because we dared to divorce Islam. Who is the sore loser here? Take your own advice, Dr Qadhi: Halas! Move on. Forget about us, so we can move on. Your religion has nothing to commend it and we would have moved on long ago, had you not been obsessed with killing us.

No. Every single time you keep on [talking about Islam], your whole identity is shaped by this. What does that demonstrate? For me, honestly, it demonstrates the impact of Islam.

Make up your mind, Dr Qadhi. Do you want us to stop talking about it, or do you want us to demonstrate the impact of Islam?

They can't live without it. They have no identity without it. So even as they abandon it, they cannot abandon it, and Islam has impacted them in ways no other faith has impacted the people of that faith.

Finally, Dr Qadhi speaks a profound truth; a truth encapsulated in the very concept murtadd to human. On the site's About page, it says:

I am not an activist. I am a dissident. Most ex-Muslim stories start at -x, "growing up in a Muslim family", and work through to zero, "leaving Islam". Murtadd to Human is different. This site starts at zero, "leaving Islam", and works through to +x, "human". Hard as it is to get to the point of leaving Islam, it is at this point that the real work begins: recovering the humanity that Islam either denied you or stifled in you. Therefor, that I was once a Muslim is purely incidental. I dissent against an orthodoxy, an anti-human orthodoxy. My aim is to become fully human. I am determined to live before I die.

For a former Muslim to not strive for full humanity is to remain in Purgatorio, so to speak, at zero.

Read the rest here.

With scathing words and mocking tone, Dr Qadhi tries to belittle those who have had the courage to leave Islam, but his body language screams otherwise. This man is angry and offended that so many are leaving Islam, and frustrated that with all his sheikhly charm, he is unable to do anything about it. Even amongst those who remain in his congregation, he senses the widening distance, the incredulity, the questions raging through heads, but never uttered.

"Don't die in kufr," was Sheikh Qadhi's great solution to stemming the tsunami of apostasy. That didn't work, so he tried "Make the halal fun". That didn't work either. Now the poor sheikh, careful always to vouchsafe only that which it is wise for them to hear, finds that they are no longer hearing and no longer obeying. They all have access to the Internet and look things up for themselves. He knows the game is up, but he'll have a final go. Ridicule ex-Muslims. Perhaps that will keep them Muslim. He knows it won't, but what else can he do. He is a sheikh. He's in the business of lying to Muslims. That's all he knows.

"Even in abandoning Islam, their identity is shaped by Islam. They can't get it out of their system," says Dr Qadhi. This is exactly the reason for my setting up Murtadd to Human in May 2021. In fact, my very first post talks about the moment I understood the hold Islam has over the Muslim mind. It was nothing less than touching a pig that made me realise just how hard it was going to be to cleanse my system of Islam.

Dr Qadhi says, "Islam has impacted them in ways no other faith has impacted the people of that faith." He is 100 percent correct: Islam has destroyed their humanity, such that not only do those who leave Islam face an enormous uphill struggle to reconstitute their humanity (once they understand how much Islam has damaged them), but those who remain in Islam remain barbaric and inhuman, so much so that they celebrated 9/11, 7/7 and the grotesque slaughter, rape and mutilation of 1200 people on October 7, 2023. The Muslims doing the killing revelled in their glee, while their "moderate" brethren rejoiced and felt themselves affirmed in their "moment of triumph".

"They have no identity without it. So even as they abandon it, they cannot abandon it." You are so right, Dr Qadhi, and it says everything about the bankruptcy of your faith and what it has done to you, that you should see in such a thorough obliteration of a human's identity the unique greatness of Islam. I put it to you, Dr Qadhi, that you are a monster, one whose first thought upon learning of 9/11 was, "Oh Allah, please let this not be Muslims". Know one thing, sheikh: the murtadd who set up and runs this website is recovering from Islam. Nothing restrains me from being brutally honest about Islam and Muslims. If that moment should ever come, you, too, would be welcome to sign up.

In the meantime, thank you for the endorsement.

Picture credit:

The Legacy of Islam, Dr. Yasir Qadhi https://youtu.be/BbLrfzAIhHA