How is the Prophet's prohibition against killing women reconciled with the ruling on female apostates?

General Chapter

Al-Mughni

Book of the Apostate

Book 50 · Issue 4 · Bab 1

Open in Qurani

Primary text

The Prophet's prohibition against killing women refers specifically to women who are native disbelievers (original Kufr). This prohibition was issued upon seeing a slain woman who was an original disbeliever. The original disbelief differs from subsequent (طارئ) disbelief because a man remains on original disbelief without being killed, and certain groups like monks, the elderly, and the sightless are not killed for it, nor is a woman forced to abandon disbelief by beating or imprisonment. Subsequent apostasy differs from this, and a child is not accountable, unlike an adult woman.