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Between shahadah and suicide
By M. Zeyaul Haque
As usual the ulama are
divided over the legal status of the fidayeen
 In
one of his recent write-ups Robert Fisk of the London daily Independent
talks about the new-fangled expression coined by Western media to describe
the cold-blooded murder of Palestine Authority officials and PLO leaders
by Israeli special services units. The entire spectrum of Western media
calls it "targeted killings" as per Israeli wishes, rather than
assassination or cold-blooded murder of people opposing occupation and
enslavement.
Fisk regrets the Western media’s ever-readiness to oblige Israel,
although the BBC tries to maintain some semblance of neutrality by adding
"which Palestinians call assassination" right after
"targeted killing." Which is no remedy for the dilution of the
criminality of the act described blandly as "targeted killing."
Even the U.S. State Department, which in many ways is an extension of the
Israeli Foreign Office, declares," "we do not support targeted
killings." Yes, even they do not support these cold-blooded murders
of political opponents by Israel, but very much support calling it
"targeted killing," thus making it sound less heinous than it
actually is. Like describing the murder of civilians through U.S. Air
Force raids as "collateral damage."
All this makes Palestinian youth, hemmed in from all sides in PA
ghettoes--denied basic rights, even denied their humanity, and forced to a
sub-human existence--to think hard about their predicament. Even their
murder is not murder; it is merely some technical operation called
"targeted killings," not worth any public attention, merely a
nuisance to be dealt with by the great Israelis. So, where do they go from
here? Of course, up in flames, taking some Israelis along, to the Great
Beyond, to Life Hereafter, which seems like a relief from all the
humiliation and harassment, the unending occupation, the daily dose of
Zionist atrocities.
In plain terms, an increasing number of Palestinian youth find it more
honorable to die in fidayeen raids, killing some Israelis along with
themselves, than to live a life of endless slavery. But all this looks
suspiciously like a suicidal act, forbidden in Islam as the cause of
eternal damnation. And, what do the ulema think about the young men dying
while carrying out these raids? Are they committing the clearly banned act
of suicide, or are they the shuhada (martyrs) of Islam who lay down their
lives to protect the Islamic heritage. As usual the ulema are sharply
divided over the issue from one end of the Islamic world to the other.
On one end we have the ulema who think that any warrior who is going out
to fight for the Islamic cause is courting death. Some fighters expressly
go out with the prayer and the intent that they should be accepted by God
as a martyr to the cause a shaheed and earn the highest honours reserved
for such people in the Life Hereafter. "This, in a way, is like
getting oneself deliberately killed, but is really not," says a
Oasimi aalim. He thinks calling the fidayeen suicidal is mere
hair-splitting.
Among the ulema of international stature, we are told, Allama Yusuf
Qaradawi does not think these acts of self destructions to be suicides,
but shahadah (martyrdom). For his views he is reported to be on the
hitlist of some groups. On the other hand, a recent issue of the Tooba (an
organ of Jamia Ibn-e-Taimiya in Bihar) has published the fatawa (legal
opinion) of famous Saudi ulema which are diametrically opposed to this
viewpoint. The question is, whom do the world’s thousand million Muslims
believe? The suicide or shahadah verdict?
Now let us look at some of the views of the Saudi ulema which are at
variance with those of Allama Qaradawi, the leading lights of Al Azhar,
the Iranian ulama, the Hezbollah and other theologians.
Replying to a query, Shaikh Abd al Aziz Aal al-Shaikh of Saudi Arabia has
said that acting as a human bomb could possibly amount to suicide.
In another fatwa, Shaikh Mohammad bin Saleh rules that a person acting as
a human bomb dies a haram death and would be consigned to hell by God.
However, the head of Egypt’s Al Azhar makes a distinction between
fidayeen raids on civilians and those on Israeli security forces. Those
who attack civilians are not shaheed, while those who attack combatants
are.
The Tooba also quotes a detailed discourse of Allama Mohammad Nasiruddin
Albani, which in short, is against suicidal attacks, because it can be
conducted only by an "Islamic army" under an emir. Because
(according to Allama Albani) there is no Islamic army in existence today,
nor is there any emir on the scene, such combat tactics must be dropped
immediately.
Against this, we have the view of a Hezbollah leader quoted by Robert Fisk
in his write-up. The Hezbollah leader asks Fisk to think of a hot and
humid sauna, separated by a door which opens on an air-conditioned room.
The fidayeen just slide the door and go into the air-conditioned environs
of heaven across the thin dividing line of life and death, where the
territory of Life Hereafter begins. That, for the fidayeen, is the end of
all misery, all humiliation, as per the Hezbollah.
So, where do we stand? Not clear? Then ask some more ulema. But don’t
expect to be enlightened. q |
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