Palestinians: Bombers or Martyrs?

Palestinians: Bombers or Martyrs?

 
It has been a daily routine for Palestinians to appear on every news bulletin around the world, not only because they have been savagely killed by the Israeli troops but because they themselves have made a crime against humanity. Suicide-bombers in Palestine are fighting for their homes and families in the name of ‘Al-Jihad’ (Martyrdom) which in Islam has many classifications which they have unfortunately misunderstood. Their misperception has deformed the Islamic religion, their brutal killing of women and children; civilians, which has been strictly forbidden in Islam, is doing more harm than good to their nation. Lastly, they are committing suicide, an action whose penalty in the Qur’an is hellfire.
 
Misperception:
Martyrdom is defined in any dictionary as ‘the condition of being put to death on behalf of any belief, principle or cause’. However, ‘Al-Jihad’ is more complex than this, and most Islamic jurisprudents agree that it is classified as follows: 
A martyr is:
1) A person who was killed by another while fighting on behalf of the Islamic religion or while defending his family, home, money, neighbor or any personal property.
2) A person who was stabbed – or shot – by another.
3) A person who died in an accident or in a natural phenomenon, as in a car crash or earthquake.
4) A person who died from an epidemic disease, like a plague.
5) A woman who died while giving birth.
6) A person who died while enjoining the just and forbidding the evil. (Note that all Martyrs were killed either by a person or in an accident.)
Thus Martyrs are ranked differently according to the cause or the circumstances of death, and those who died defending Islam are the noblest as indicated in this verse in the Qur’an:
 

“Think not of those who are killed in the Way of Allah as dead. Nay, they are alive, with their Lord, and they have provision.” (Chapter: 3 verse: 169)

 
Moreover, the Islamic religion acknowledges the hardship of martyrdom by promising whoever fights for Islam the highest degree in heaven.
 

“Verily, Allah has purchased of the believers their lives and their properties; for the price that theirs shall be the paradise. They fight in Allah's Cause, so they kill (others) and are killed. It is a promise in truth which is binding on Him in the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel) and the Qur'an. And who is truer to his covenant than Allah? Then rejoice in the bargain which you have concluded. That is the supreme success.”
(Chapter: 9 verse: 111)

 

The Meaning behind Al-jihad:
The Prophet Mohammed (PEACE BE UPON HIM) was sent by God as a missionary and a herald, he called for monotheism (the oneness of God) as well as the belief in His angels, His Holy Books, His prophets and the Day of Judgment. For thirteen years the Muslims in Mecca faced different kinds of torment and persecution. Though, the Qur’an would advise them to be patient and forgiving as clarified by the following verse: 

“The recompense for an evil is an evil like thereof, but whoever forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah. Verily, He likes not the Zalimun (oppressors, polytheists, and wrong-doers, etc.).” (Chapter: 42 verse: 40)

 

However, their aggression to the Muslims multiplied, they would kill or torture anyone who followed the Islamic religion, they banished the Muslims for three consecutive years and they even tried killing the Prophet (PEACE BE UPON HIM) several times. Hereon, God allowed them to immigrate to Medina secretly at night so they couldn’t be seen and upon that tortured.
 
The Medina was the center of love and fraternity between Muslims. And there the Prophet (PEACE BE UPON HIM) laid the basis of Islam and united the Muslims under a moral named ‘Al-eethar’ which means ‘to prefer the bestowal of things upon others over oneself’. This moral had been first practiced in Medina, when the Medinians (Ansar) gave the Muslim immigrants from Mecca half their share of everything they owned.
 
Nevertheless, the disbelievers of Mecca became more belligerent after the Muslims’ immigration; they allied with the adjoining tribes and started raids on the outskirts of Medina. And in 624 A.D. the Prophet (PEACE BE UPON HIM) received information that a strong force led by Abu Jahl (the Prophet’s archenemy) was heading towards Medina, consisting of an army of 1000 strong men with 700 camels and 100 horses. Upon the news, the Prophet (PEACE BE UPON HIM) decided to fight the enemy outside Medina in a place called Badr (200 Miles from Mecca and 80 Miles from Medina) with a force of three hundred and thirteen of his followers. Despite their small force, the Muslims were able to defeat the infidels’ army, killing seventy of the bravest – including Abu Jahl – and taking forty-five captive. Their victory is noted in the Qur’anic verse below:
 

“And Allah has already made you victorious at Badr, when you were a weak little force. So fear Allah much [abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds which He has forbidden and love Allah much, perform all kinds of good deeds which He has ordained] that you may be grateful.” (Chapter: 3 verse: 123)

 
Thus, after many years of forgiving the wrong and tolerating the sufferings they faced, the Muslims took up arms only when their families, homes and religion were at risk.
 
Apart from what is happening in the world today, Islam has forbidden the killing of women and children in warfare. And the Prophet (PEACE BE UPON HIM) has looked on it as brutal killing in several of his hadith:
 
The Collection of the Hadith in Malik’s Muwatta:
Book 21, Number 21.3.8:

Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab that a son of Kab ibn Malik (Malik believed that ibn Shihab said it was Abd ar-Rahman ibn Kab) said,
 
"The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade those who fought ibn Abi Huqayq (a treacherous Jew from Madina) to kill women and children. He said that one of the men fighting had said, 'The wife of ibn Abi Huqayq began screaming and I repeatedly raised my sword against her. Then I would remember the prohibition of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, so I would stop. Had it not been for that, we would
have been rid of her."

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Book 21, Number 21.3.9:
Yahya related to me from Malik from Nafi from Ibn Umar
that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, saw the corpse of a woman who had been slain in one of the raids, and he disapproved of it and forbade the killing of women and children.

 
Islam also has accredited to any person the liberty to practice the rites of his/her own religion. It also has affirmed that the Church, religious hermitage, Mosque …etc. are all houses of worship of God that should be respected and the worshiper should be left to his reverence. This has been stated in the Qur’an:
 

“There is no compulsion in religion. Verily, the Right Path has become distinct from the wrong path. Whoever disbelieves in Taghut [any worshiped being other than God] and believes in Allah, then he has grasped the most trustworthy handhold that will never break. And Allah is All-Hearer, All-Knower.” (Chapter: 2 verse: 256)

 
Abu-Bakr, the first caliph of the Moslem empire (632-634) who ascended to power after the death of the Prophet Mohammed (PEACE BE UPON HIM), said in one of his commendations to his army:
 

"Do not to demolish a church or a heritage, do not to kill a woman, a child or a decrepit man and you will find monks who have busied themselves with worshiping God in the monastery, then leave them and what they have busied themselves with."

 
He also stressed on the demolition of homes, among other things, as being unjust:
 

"I advise you ten things: Do not kill women or children or an aged, infirm person. Do not cut down fruit-bearing trees. Do not destroy an inhabited place. Do not slaughter sheep or camels except for food. Do not burn bees and do not scatter them. Do not steal from the booty, and do not be cowardly."

 
And in an incident involving this same subject, the Caliph Omar – he reigned as caliph after Abu-Bakr’s demise from c. 634 until his assassination in 644 – had been informed that a church in the distant Syrian mountains had been demolished by a group of Muslims and a mosque had been established as an alternative. He disapproved of their actions and issued an order for the demolition of the mosque and commanded the tribesmen responsible to build the church with their own hands. This serves not only to prove that the Islamic religion is tolerant of other religions but that it also respects their existence.
 
Suicide and Hellfire:
Death has troubled many scientists for centuries and still the mystery of the soul hasn’t been deciphered. However, the Qur’an has bestowed upon Its readers the blessing of defining death and how to escape a darkened hereafter, It also has stated that death is one of the things that only God has knowledge of and thereof inaccessible:
 

“Verily, Allah! With Him (Alone) is the knowledge of the hour, He sends down the rain, and knows that which is in the wombs. No person knows what he will earn tomorrow, and no person knows in what land he will die. Verily, Allah is All-Knower, All-Aware (of things).” (Chapter: 31 verse: 34)

 
Therefore, committing suicide is frowned-upon because death should be controlled solely by God:
 

“Verily, We it is Who give life and cause death; and to Us is the final return,” (chapter: 50 verse: 43)

 
And also because committing suicide is a symbol of self-hatred and ingratitude of God’s blessings:
 

“O you who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves unjustly except it be a trade amongst you, by mutual consent. And do not kill yourselves (nor kill one another). Surely, Allah is Most Merciful to you.”
“And whoever commits that through aggression and injustice, We shall cast him into the Fire, and that is easy for Allah.” (Chapter: 4 verses: 29-30)

 
In conclusion, suicide-bombing is an act prohibited in the Islamic religion because of its destructive repercussions. Additionally, ‘al-jihad’ never permitted the slaughter of women and children or the killing of oneself. The victimized Palestinians are required to abide by the moral principles of the Prophet (PEACE BE UPON HIM) and his companions and demean in correspondence with this verse:
 
“The recompense for an evil is an evil like thereof, but whoever forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah. Verily, He likes not the Zalimun (oppressors, polytheists, and wrong-doers, etc.).” (Chapter: 42 verse: 40) 

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