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political islam 459Allah alone who knows the real extent of belief and disbelief,of sincerity and hypocrisy, of truth and falsehood, and it is Healone who will judge regarding the faith of the believers andthe disbelief of the unbelievers. Those things (the Last Hour,the Day of Judgement, the books, the messengers, the angels)must be left to Him, while we better turn to the things that areleft in our care (to act justly or unjustly, to tell the truth or alie, and so on).The five points that invalidate the fight in God’s way are certainlynot exhaustive. Many more things could be identified as corruptingthe cause of Allah. But it is important to show that the encroachmentof even one minor item of the principles given above which qualifya fight as a fight in God’s way, would make such a fight null andvoid and would remove any reward that Allah has promised to giveto those believers who fight for Him.Concluding Remarks on ‘Fighting in God’s Way’The acts of1. shah§da and shahÊd are, conceptually, entirely differentfrom the acts of fighting (qit§l), killing (qatl), and the subject ofdeath (maut). Nobody can be called a shahÊd if he is not alive andtherefore unable to declare his shah§da publicly. The shuhad§" arethose who, just like the ßiddÊqån, prophets, and ߧliÈån, give publicwitness against injustice (and even suffer for it by incarceration),or give witness to a major scientific discovery (e.g., new medicinesthat are first tested on themselves), or report under danger aboutworld-changing events (as journalists)—in all instances regardlessof whether they are killed during their witness or not. To call peoplekilled in a war shuhad§" is a political ruse by Machiavellian politicians.Governments and army generals know only too well thatafter they have sent young men to their certain death they cannotdo anything for those who are killed. But in order to encouragemore people to go to war, they invent stories about an easy entryto Paradise and about beautiful maidens who will serve the killedmartyrs in the Garden. These are naturally just empty promisesbecause Allah alone can decide on such matters, not politicians. Itis for life (not death) that God created the acts of shah§da and of theshahÊd. But the political caste and the religious establishment hasconflated shah§da / shahÊd with qit§l / qatl, that is, with fighting anddeath. It has created a collective mindset in which the life of a