The Martyrdom of Sol Hachuel: Ridda in Morocco in 1834 r 111Therefore, in our opinion she was tried as a Muslim and brought to the
scaffold as a Muslim, though she was a Jewess.
The crime of ridda constitutes a complex topic in Muslim law. Hanafi
law states that if a Muslim denies his religion he is offered the opportunity
to return to Islam. Thus he is given three days of grace because the judges
believe there is an element of doubt and all doubt must be removed. The
Malikite law of Morocco adds that if the defendant was a slave or a woman,
the demand to recant must be presented within three days of the apostasy
becoming public. The defendant should not be deprived of bread or water.
Hanbali law contains similar provisions. The Imami law distinguishes two
types of apostates. The first is referred to as a “deviant apostate,” that is, one
who has Muslim parents and whose penitence is not accepted. Before his
mandatory execution, he must be separated from his wife and deprived of
the right to bequeath his property. The second type is called a “social apos-
tate,” that is, one whose parents are not Muslims. This person converted to
Islam as an adult but then reverted to his former religion.
The latter was Sol’s case according to the prosecutors, and if she did
not recant, she had to be executed.^9 The three-day period of grace or tuba
(days of penitence) allows the judicial authorities the opportunity to try to
persuade the accused to recant. The appointees of the judicial instance try
to convince the accused of the superiority of Islam over other religions.
They are commanded to prove the truth inherent in the faith and in Mu-
hammad’s mission. The arguments are drawn from religious precepts, and
the intention is to bring the accused to recognize his mistake.
A charge of ridda requires a rigorous interrogation of the witnesses by
a religious court, a procedure apparently intended to deter Muslims from
preferring false charges against non-Muslims living under Muslim rule.
To prove ridda, one needs at least two witnesses. These witnesses are
usually male adult Muslims of upright character with no history of mental
illness. They cannot be slaves. Witnesses can only give testimony after the
qadi (Islamic judge) has established their fitness, after a private and public
inquiry, and after he is convinced that their characters display no evidence
of bias or prejudice. In this context, a person cannot be relied on to bear
witness against his enemy.
If the accused is condemned to death based on evidence that is after-
wards found to be false, the witness must pay diyah (compensation) and
may even be condemned to death for perjury, according to Shafii law. If
a witness has a justifiable excuse not to appear before the court, then two