There has been differences of opinion on the English lexical meaning of “apostasy” and apostate” as well as the Arabic equivalents. We will use the English words on the bases given by their definitions in Webster’s, together with the Arabic lexical and legal definitions for the words “murtadd” and “irtidad”.

From Webster’s New World Dictionary & Thesaurus:

apostate: a-pos-tate n. a person guilty of apostasy; renegade adj. guilty of apostasy n. — Syn. renegade, one of little faith, backslider, defector; see deserter, traitor. See heretic, heretical, impious, rebel, recreant, scab, skeptic, turncoat

apostasy: a-pos-ta-sy n., pl. -sies an abandoning of what one has believed in, as a faith, cause, or principles See defection, desertion, disloyalty, heresy

Are the semantic equivalents of apostate and apostasy also found in the Arabic words murtadd and irtidad which respectively correspond to them?

The words apostate and apostasy can be equally translated into Arabic respectively as kafir or murtadd, and as kufr or irtidad.

Last Updated on July 30, 2023 by murtadd