Surah 1-2 - YasSarNal QuR'aN

Al-Baqarah (The Cow) | ACQUIRING REAL STRENGTHlive, as God Himself clearly states.To all intents and purposes, those people may very well appear lifeless, but lifeand death are not judged by superficial physical means alone. Life is chieflycharacterized by activity, growth, and persistence, while death is a state of total lossof function, of complete inertia and lifelessness. But the death of those who are killedfor the cause of God gives more impetus to the cause, which continues to thrive ontheir blood. Their influence on those they leave behind also grows and spreads. Thus,after their death they remain an active force in shaping the life of their communityand giving it direction. It is in this sense that such people, having sacrificed theirlives for the sake of God, retain their active existence in everyday life. They might, onthe other hand, be alive in another level or mode of existence which we here cannotsee or conceive of.According to Islamic tradition, people who are killed “for the cause of God” arenot washed or prepared for burial in the conventional way, but buried in the clothesthey happen to be wearing, because they are considered clean and pure, and becausein reality they are not dead.Because they are alive, those who die for the cause of God should not be missed orgrieved over by their relatives, friends and loved ones. There is no real sense of lossin their death, since they continue to live, enjoying the hospitality of their Lord,relishing His company and boundless rewards.There are copious reports in the ĥadīth literature extolling the spirit of sacrifice andthe status of martyrs. Muslim records a ĥadīth which says: “The souls of martyrs arecarried in the bellies of green birds which fly at leisure in Paradise. They roost onlamps, placed near God’s Throne. God casts a glance at them and says, ‘What is yourwish?’ They would reply, ‘Lord, what more can we wish for, when You have givenus what You have not given any of Your creation.’ God would ask them again andagain until they realize they have to make a request, and they would say, ‘We wish tobe returned to live on earth so that we fight for Your cause and be killed a secondtime.’ They say this since they have seen how great God’s rewards are to those whoattain martyrdom for God’s cause. But God says, ‘I have already decreed that peoplewould not return to worldly life.”The Prophet’s Companion, Anas ibn Mālik, reports that the Prophet said: “No oneenters Paradise and wishes to return to worldly life, even if he was given everythingon earth, except a martyr. He wishes to return to life and be killed in the cause ofGod ten times over, for the honour and privilege he receives.” [Related by Mālik, al-Bukhārī and Muslim]But who are the living martyrs? They are those killed in God’s cause, and in God’scause alone. It is they who lay down their lives in defence of God’s universal truth,165