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.