Increasing number of apostasy cases in Malaysia by year have been reported by many authorities.In this sense,istitabah,literally means asking or calling for repentance ,has to be enforced as a national educational and rehabilitation measure.The application of istitabah is considered as obligatory ,and supererogatory by the majority of scholars of Ahl Al-Sunnah Wa Al-Jamaah.This article aims to highlight some findings on the model and approaches of istitabah within the climate of Malaysian religious administration and societal needs.Through the use of qualitative research strategies,it was found that there were only glimpses of istitabah exposition in the classical and modem texts of Islamic scholarship.This has called for present ijtihad to fill in the gaps towards a living practice of istitabah.This article will elucidate a preliminary exposition of M-Istitabah (Malaysia Istitabah),which will become a model for Malaysian Istitabah that applies integrated approach of the principle religion and crisis intervention towarda rehabilitation of apostasy crimes in Malaysia.

Literally al-istitabah to ask for repentance or the act of doing repentance. The discussion regarding al-istitabah can be seen clearly in the discussion of the various disciplines of Islamic knowledge as it is based upon a strong foundation i.e. the Qur'an and Prophetic traditions. The problem of leaving Islam which is a main issue in Islamic law requires an enlighten and contemporary approach via istitabah. A qualitative study is currently being pursued towards the attempt to construct an operational model which is more comprehensive in Malaysia. This article is a premilinary paper which is based upon a textural study on 30 contemporary and heritage texts which covers the opinion of at least 40 scholars of Islam on the issue of istitabah. The findings of this textual study and analysis will be used in the operational model together with input from other disciplines i.e.crisis intervention procedures and faitll based procedures which is normally related to the counselling field.