Freedom of Conscience in the Qur'an and Hadith

Abstract

This essay is intended to be part of a larger scholarly response to claims made by those whom Todd Green describes as “professional Islamophobes” that currently dominate the public narrative of Islam. The particular claim addressed in this essay is the claim that “Sharia does not permit freedom of conscience.” The essay addresses the meaning of “sharia” and its relationship to law, and then examines relevant verses from the Qur’an, together with Qur’anic commentary and Hadith texts, and contemporary scholarship in order to discover what the sacred texts say and how Muslims have understood them, on the issue of freedom of conscience and religion. This examination makes it clear that while some modern Muslim nations curtail religious freedoms, it is not because “Sharia does not permit freedom of conscience.” It is because those contemporary Muslims who exhibit a totalitarian supremacist mindset are influenced in their thinking by modern Western ideas rather than by the rich and extensive history of the Islamic intellectual tradition. Those scholars, both Muslim and non-Muslim who engage that tradition show that freedom of conscience is integral to it.