Ibn `Abbas (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said, "On the Day of Resurrection you will be assembled barefooted, naked and uncircumcised". He then recited: "As We began the first creation, We shall repeat it. (It is) a promise binding upon Us. Truly, We shall do it," and continued: "The first to be clothed on the Day of Resurrection will be (Prophet) Ibrahim. Then some of my Companions will be taken to the left, (i.e., towards Hell-fire) and when I will say, They belong to my Ummah, O my Rubb! It would be said: You do not know what they invented after you had left them. I shall then say as the righteous slave [i.e., `Isa Jesus (PBUH)] said: And I was a witness over them while I was amongst them, when You took me up, You were the Watcher over them and You are a Witness to all things. If you punish them, they are Your slaves, and if You forgive them, verily, You, only You are the All-Mighty, the All-Wise. I shall be told: They continued to turn on their heels since you parted from them".[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].
Commentary:
1. We learn from this Hadith that the punishment of apostasy is Hell. For this reason, this crime is punishable by death in Islam. 2. We also learn from this Hadith that the Prophet (PBUH) had neither knowledge of the Unseen nor is he omnipresent and omniscient, as is falsely believed by deviated people. If he had the knowledge of the Unseen, or had he been omnipresent and omniscient, he would not have accepted such persons as his Companions and followers who were in fact apostates. This is the reason when he was informed of their real conduct through Wahy (Revelation), he disowned them in the same way as Prophet `Isa (Jesus) had disowned the people who had started worshipping him and his mother as God.
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