Fate of an Apostate - I

Apostasy, or in other words the free choice of religion, is generally considered to be among the gravest sins among mainstream Islamic authorities and the punishment of it among general masses is execution, thanks to shameful ignorance and blind prejudice. Recently, I've talked about it to my several friends and non of them could come up with sound arguments in surpport of this horrendous belief. I had already decided not to inquire about this in person from some clergyman, lest my head be chopped off.

Anyways, I've personally inquired into the situation and some important points have come to my observation, of which I wasn't aware earlier. I'd examine the issue from two aspects.

1- The nature of orders/laws about the fate of an apostate.

2- The rational aspect of the treatment with an spostate.

Talking about the canonical source of guidence in Islam, Qur'aan does not declare any clear-cut punishment for an apostate. Some scholars have used a few verses in favour of their claim but those verse remain to be vague at best. When we turn out attention towards hadiths, we find that there are hadiths that support both the proponents and opponents of death penalty for an apostate. Another source of confusion for those who want to know and a golden chance of manipulation for those who know! (I've again discussed the matter of such hadiths in the end).
I recently read an influential modern text on the subject, "THE PUNISHMENT OF THE APOSTATE ACCORDING TO ISLAMIC LAW", by one of the most influential scholars of 20th century, Sayyed Abul'aala Maodudi. Skipping the arguments that he presented form the quraanic verses and hadiths, I would discuss his rational arguments that he presented in favour of his stance. While going through them I came upon the following noteworthy points:

1- According to Maodudi, the punishment of an apostste is basically due to the breach of his promise that he attains by embracing Islam. This promise not only includes the acceptance of the basic tenats and rituals of religion but the entire social, political and economic code of life. It's like accepting the citizenship of a modern state. If after becoming a citizen of a particular state, he later on, not only renounces the citizenship but conspires against the state, his punishment is death by any moral and legal aspect. He writes:

"But the sole treatment for the person whose hard heart, once transformed, has again hardened and who demonstrates no capacity whatever to assimilate into society's order is to cast him out. In any case, the value of the individual, however great it be, cannot be great enough to allow the whole order of society to be corrupted because of it."
-Section C. The Natural Requirement of an Organized Society.