the one hand and treason on the other, with execution reserved for treason; Ibrahim al-Nakhaʿī (50 AH/670 - 95/96 AH/717 CE) and Sufyan al-Thawri (97 AH/716 CE - 161 AH/778 CE) as well as the Hanafi jurist Sarakhsi (d. 1090), believed that an apostate should be asked to repent indefinitely (which would be incompatible with being sentenced to death). There are problems with the scriptural basis for sharia commanding the execution of apostates Quran (see Quran above) Compulsion in faith is "explicitly" forbidden by the Quran ('Abd al-Muta'ali al-Sa'idi); Quranic statements on freedom of religion -- 'There is no compulsion in religion. The right path has been distinguished from error' (Q.2:256) (and also 'Whoever wants, let him believe, and whoever wants, let him disbelieve,' (Q.18:29) -- are "absolute and universal" statement(s) (Jonathan A.C. Brown), (Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa), "general, overriding principle(s)" (Khaled Abou El Fadl) of Islam, and not abrogated by hadith or the Sword Verse (Q.9:5); and there can be little doubt capital punishment for apostasy is incompatible with this principle—after all, if someone has the threat of death hanging over their head in a matter of faith, it cannot be said that there is "no compulsion or coercion" in their belief (Tariq Ramadan). Neither verse Q.2:217, (Mirza Tahir Ahmad), or any other Quranic verse says anything to indicate an apostate should be punished in the temporal world, aka dunyā (S. A. Rahman), (W. Heffening), (Wael Hallaq), (Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri); the verses only indicate that dangerous, aggressive apostates should be killed, (Mahmud Shaltut), (e.g. "If they do not withdraw from you, and offer you peace, and restrain their hands, take them and kill them wherever ye come upon them" Q.4:90), (Peters and Vries describing argument of Islamic Modernists); Another verses condemning apostasy — Q.4:137, "Those who believe then disbelieve, then believe again, then disbelieve and then increase in their disbelief -- God will never forgive them nor guide them to the path" — makes no sense if apostasy is punished by death, because killing apostates "would not permit repeated conversion from and to Islam" (Louay M. Safi); (Sisters in Islam); Hadith and Sunnah (see hadith above) "According to most established juristic schools, a hadith can limit the application of a general Qur'anic statement, but can never negate it", so the hadith calling for execution cannot abrogate the "There is no compulsion in religion" verse (Q.2:256) (Louay M. Safi);