I am a Pakistani, and I have a question to ask about Islam. As you may know, in Tamil Nadu (India), some Hindus of the lower caste want to convert to Islam, but their government is not allowing them to do so. I think this is persecution and depriving people from their right to choose their own faith. Now my question is, if in Pakistan any Muslim wishes to convert to Hinduism, should we allow him to do so? If not, why? Please explain in detail as this question has been a little mind boggling for me.

Every person is accountable to God individually. He will have to justify his each and every action before Him. As regards faith, no one is accountable to anybody in this world, nor does one have any criteria after the termination of wahi to judge the sincerity and truth of one’s statement.

If a person wants to accept Hinduism, he has full right to do so, but it is advisable that he do so on the basis of reason and intellect. It is upon us to try to remove his misconceptions or if we smell some wrong temptations or undue pressure. No doubt, we should leave no stone unturned to undo those wrongs but we have no right to force him to abandon what he has willfully accepted. It is between him and God for if is able to present in the Hereafter a reasonable excuse before Him for his deeds, he may be pardoned.

It would be pertinent to mention here that there is no punishment for apostasy in the Islamic penal code. It has arisen in our juristic literature because of misunderstanding a hadīth.1

If the government restricts such conversion by law, then you are right that it is persecution, which indeed is a great crime.

1. For details, see Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, Islamic Punishments: Some Misconceptions, Renaissance Journal (www.monthly-renaissance.com), Sep2002, Dāru’l-Ishrāq, Lahore.