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3 - Legal definitions, boundaries and rewards of the martyr

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

David Cook
David Cook
Affiliation:
Rice University, Houston
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Summary

ʿAbdallah b. Ghalib said when he challenged the enemy: Why would I want to converse with this world – for the perceptive there is no good in it. By God, if it were not for my love of facing sleeplessness, laying on my bed with my forehead to You, walking between the platoons and the squadrons during the night, and seeking Your reward and the in-dwelling of Your favor, I would desire to depart from this world and its people. Then he broke the sheath of his sword, advanced and fought until he was killed.

Al-Tamimi, Kitab al-mihan, 232

Because of the disorganized nature of the Qurʾanic martyrological doctrine, there are questions about the definition of who precisely could be counted as a martyr and what their reward would be. The most decisive verse specifying the martyr's reward was Qurʾan 3:169–70:

And do not think those who have been killed in the way of Allah as dead; they are rather living with their Lord, well-provided for. Rejoicing in what their Lord has given them of His bounty, and they rejoice for those who stayed behind and did not join them, knowing that they have nothing to fear and that they shall not grieve.

As previously stated, this verse provides one of the most direct proofs that there is a special place prepared for martyrs, or at least for those killed in jihad, because for the most part the Qurʾan does not single out martyrs.

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Martyrdom in Islam , pp. 31 - 44
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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