Seyyed Hossein Hashemi
Prologue
Apostasy and blasphemy are regarded as crimes in Islamic jurisprudence. These are regarded as crimes in the structure of Islam whose teachings are not confined to the individual moralities and some worships; but rather it has an extensive scope covering legal and moral, political and civil, individual and social fields. In addition, since the basis of legitimacy is the will of the Wise Legislator, the religion has encouraged human beings to think, promote knowledge, and appreciate scholars. While emphasizing on rationality, the religion insists upon stability, and that is why acceptance of the religion and its main foundations are regarded as an important and determining factor in legal and political, moral and spiritual order.
In many legal systems, however, the religion as an important factor of social order has been eliminated from human beings’ lives; and it has been confined to some rituals and individual worships. Taking into account the two approaches, one cannot study apostasy in the same way in two legal systems. Apostasy should be studied independently in the structure of legal system of Islam so that its scope may be accurately determined and its rules may be demonstrated.
The study of “apostasy and blasphemy” is aimed to attain such a goal. This study has been made by Hujjat al-islam Seyyed Hossein Hashemi who is a graduate of Scientific Seminary (Hawzah) and a student of Law in PhD course.
