jihad - Khadijah Mosque

Jihadthe wars fought during the Prophet’s time werethe wars fought for these purposes and it is theMessenger of Allah (PBUH) who himselfdecided to fight these wars in consultation withhis important companions. As far as these warsor battles were concerned neither there wasany trace of personal revenge or anger orThe Meccan leadersof unbelieversattacked them andit was in thosecircumstances thatthe Prophet (PBUH)took decision todefend innocent livesand the Qurandescribed thosekilled in these battlesas shuhadah(Martyrs) andobserved that“And speak not ofthose who are slainin Allah’s way asdead. Nay, (they are)alive, but youperceive not.”(2:154)destruction of any innocent life. Only thecombatants were killed. Also, such wars werenot motivated by any political considerations.They were motivated only by defence of deen(religion) and defence of values Islam stood for.Thus it is necessary to define the concept ofmartyrdom rigorously. All violent deaths ordeaths courted in any attack cannot be termedas martyrdom. The Muslims in those days werehighly oppressed and defenceless community.In Mecca they silently bore all conceivablepersecution. When the Prophet (PBUH)migrated to Madina along with his companionswho slowly joined him there, were not left inpeace. The Meccan leaders of unbelieversattacked them and it was in those circumstancesthat the Prophet (PBUH) took decision todefend innocent lives and the Quran describedthose killed in these battles as shuhadah(Martyrs) and observed that “And speak not ofthose who are slain in Allah’s way as dead. Nay,(they are) alive, but you perceive not.” (2:154)Thus those who die in Allah’s way never diebut are ever alive. Their bodies die but theirspirits remain ever alive. A suicide bomberperceives he is dying for a cause but even if it istrue he is killing innocent people who are noncombatantand are not responsible forpersecution or exploitation. In many cases thosekilled are themselves victims of the systemrather than running the system. Those whoorder these young men to become suicidebombers themselves are not struggling for acause but responding to political games. Islamstresses haq and sabr i.e. truth and patience (aswell as persistence) and only those who die forthese are entitled to be called martyr.Seen in this light suicide bomber may not beentitled to be called a martyr. It is the primeduty of every Muslim to see that no innocentlife is harmed and what can be achievedthrough peace (salam) should never be soughtto be achieved through war. War should be thelast weapon of a mu’min (a true believer) andwhat can be achieved through peaceful struggleshould never be achieved through violentmeans. A martyr is one who dies rather thankills.88 Masjid Khadijah