Question:

What views does Yusuf Al-Bahrani mention about the remorse of the apostates?

Answer:
Yusuf Ibn Ahmad Al-Bahrani writes: “The judgement on those who have converted and left Islam and those who have been fully converted or have grown up with Islam is clear, because there is no problem or disagreement about accepting their conversion to Islam once they show repentance. There are, however, problems and disagreement about a man who has left Islam and has grown up with Islam. Is his repentance accepted or not? There are three views on this matter: The first view – which is widely held according to the statement of our scholar, Ash-Shahid Ath-Thani, in the book on the heritage of Al-Masalik – is that repentance is not accepted at all. At one point in the mentioned book he says: “As for the complete nullity of their acceptance, this is widespread, according to the reports, but the acceptance of repentance between the apostate and God corresponds to the truth out of caution against what is unacceptable in terms of responsibility.” Thus, the statement of some of our scholars today comes to light, claiming that the widespread view is that repentance is to be accepted internally (Batin) and not to be accepted externally (Zahir). The second view is that one accepts the conversion completely, both internally (Batin) and externally (Zahir), as reported by Ibn Al-Junaid. The third view is that one accepts conversion internally (Batin) and does not accept it externally (Zahir) and this is the choice of our scholar, Ash-Shahid Ath-Thani, as I heard from his statement and this represents a number of later scholars and this is an clear matter to me.” [Al-Hada’iq-un-Nadirah, Volume 11 page 15]

قال المحقق  البحراني رحمه الله: وهذا الحكم واضح في المرتد الملي والمرأة مطلقا ملية أو فطرية فإنه لا اشكال ولا خلاف في قبول توبتهما متى تابا. وإنما الخلاف والاشكال في الرجل المرتد إذا كان فطريا هل تقبل توبته أم لا؟ ففيه أقوال ثلاثة: (الأول) وهو المشهور على ما صرح به شيخنا الشهيد الثاني في كتاب الميراث من المسالك عدم قبولها مطلقا، قال في الموضع المذكور من الكتاب المشار إليه: وأما عدم قبولها مطلقا فالمشهور ذلك عملا باطلاق الأخبار والحق قبولها في ما بينه وبين الله تعالى حذرا من التكليف بما لا يطاق. انتهى. وبذلك يظهر ما في كلام بعض مشايخنا المعاصرين حيث ادعى أن المشهور هو قبولها باطنا وعدم قبولها ظاهرا (الثاني) قبولها مطلقا باطنا وظاهرا وهو منقول عن ابن الجنيد (الثالث) قبولها باطنا وعدم قبولها ظاهرا وهو اختيار شيخنا الشهيد الثاني كما سمعت من كلامه وعليه جملة من المتأخرين وهو الظاهر عندي