The Tenet of Dying for Allah

According to radical Islam and the distorted way in which its tenets have been harnessed to the Palestinian national struggle, “death for Allah” is an important value. The main message of the Koran is that life’s purpose is to help one realize that the universe was created by Allah; one can then bear witness that there is no other God than Allah and Muhammad is his last emissary. Those who do so in this life will merit being in heaven in the next world, which is the truly important world, until the resurrection of the dead. Those who devote themselves to spreading this message, while fighting the enemies of Allah and Satan’s endeavor to convince people that there is no God and what matters is worldly happiness, will win further favors in heaven including the renowned virgins, especially if, during this struggle, one sacrifices one’s life and becomes a shahid.

Two verses from the Koran, often used in proclamations by the Palestinian organizations that glorify terrorists recently killed while carrying out attacks, explain an aspiration that to us seems to contradict human nature: to commit murder while risking one’s own death. One of these, verse 169 of the House of Imran surah, states: “Do not think of those who die for Allah as dead, for they are alive and receive their sustenance from their Lord.” The distortion involved in the use of this verse concerns the assertion that it descended (according to Islam, the verses of the Koran descended from heaven and were given to Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel) in the context of a regular war, the Battle of Uhud, which Muhammad waged against members of his tribe, Quraysh, along with his followers, some of whom had left Mecca with him while others were from Medina. When these followers feared taking part in the battle, there was a need to boost their spirits. There is, of course, no similarity between that war and inhuman attacks on innocent people that are justified in this fashion.

Guest: Cassiem Khan – A scholar, writer and Activist. Also a Social

Worker And Educator