The Issue of Blasphemy Against the Prophet

Writers often cite these jurists to argue that the punishment for blasphemy in Islam is death, claiming a near-unanimous consensus with minimal juristic disagreement. However, a critical question arises: If this ruling is mandated by Shariah, why was it not enforced during the early days of Islam? Historical records show that many individuals committed blasphemy against the Prophet but were not executed. One clear example is Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul of Madinah. He openly blasphemed against the Prophet repeatedly. Despite irrefutable evidence and public pressure, the Prophet did not order his execution, and Abdullah ibn Ubayy eventually died a natural death. Explaining this incident, Allama Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) writes: “The Prophet refrained from killing him only because it was feared that his execution would cause people to turn away from Islam since Islam was weak at that time.” (Al-Sarim al-Maslul ‘ala Shatim al-Rasul, p. 179) This prompts another question: Why does the jurisprudence of the early Islamic period differ from the fiqh developed later under the Abbasid Caliphate? In February 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa declaring that Salman Rushdie had insulted the Prophet Muhammad in his book ‘The Satanic Verses’ and that it