View source for Istishhad

{{short description| Arabic term for martyrdom as used in Islamic theology}}
{{distinguish|Shahada{{!}}''Shahada''}}
{{See also
| Martyr
| Shaheed
| Shaheed (disambiguation)
| Shahid (disambiguation)
}}
{{Islam}}
{{Usul al-fiqh}}
{{Islam and iman}}

'''Istishhad''' ({{langx|ar|اِسْتِشْهَادٌ|istišhād}}) is the [[Arabic]] word for "[[martyrdom]]", "death of a martyr", or (in some contexts) "heroic death".<ref name=HWAED-572>{{cite book |title=[[Hans Wehr]] Arabic-English dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic |edition=4th |editor= [[J&nbsp;Milton Cowan]]|location= Urbana, IL |publisher= Spoken Language Services, Inc. |date= 1994 |page= 572}}</ref><ref name="HWAED-searchable-414">{{cite book |last1=Wehr |first1=Hans |last2=Cowan |first2=J.Milton |title=Searchable Hans Wehr |publisher=Gift of Knowledge |page=414 |url=https://giftsofknowledge.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/hans-wehr-searchable-pdf.pdf |access-date=30 June 2023}}</ref> Martyrs are given the honorific ''[[shaheed]]''.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Martin |first=Richard C. |title=Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World |date=2003 |publisher=Macmillan reference USA |isbn=978-0-02-865603-8 |location=New York |pages=433–434 |chapter=Martyrdom}}</ref> The word derives from the root ''shahida'' ({{langx|ar|شهد}}), meaning "to witness". Traditionally martyrdom has an exalted place in Islam.{{NoteTag|For example Shi'i cleric [[Sa'id Akhtar Rizvi]] quotes Quranic verses Q3:169-171: 
* And reckon not those who are killed in Allah’s way as dead; nay, they are alive (and) are provided sustenance from their Lord; rejoicing in what Allah has given them out of His grace, and they rejoice for the sake of those who, (being left) behind them, have not yet joined them, that they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve. They rejoice on account of favour from Allah and (His) grace, and that Allah will not waste the reward of believers.
and interprets it to mean that "the moment a believer is slain in the way of Allah, his eternal life begins".<ref name="Rizvi">{{cite web |last1=Sa'id Akhtar Rizvi |title=Lecture 4: Concept of Martyrdom in Islam {{!}} Four California Lectures |others=A lecture delivered at Husain Day, held at New York, on Sunday, October 25, 1987 |url=https://www.al-islam.org/four-californian-lectures-sayyid-saeed-akhtar-rizvi/lecture-4-concept-martyrdom-islam |website=Al-Islam.org |date=4 December 2012 |access-date=1 July 2023}}</ref>}} 
It is widely believed among Muslims that the sins of believers who "die in the way of God" will be forgiven by [[God in Islam|Allah]].<ref name="Rizvi" /><ref name="Lange, Christian 2016 p.40">Lange, Christian (2016). ''Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions''. Cambridge United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-50637-3. p.40</ref><ref name="Bale-2013-8">{{cite journal |last1=Bale |first1=Jeffrey M. |title=Denying the Link between Islamist Ideology and Jihadist Terrorism |journal=Perspectives on Terrorism |date=October 2013 |volume=7 |issue=5 |page=8 |jstor=26297006 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26297006 |access-date=1 July 2023}}</ref>
[[Shia Islam|Shia]] views on martyrdom have been profoundly influenced by internal Muslim conflicts, notably [[Husayn ibn Ali]]'s martyrdom at [[Battle of Karbala|Karbala]] in 680, shaping it as a central belief and practice.<ref name=":2" />

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the term ''istishhad'' has been redefined by [[Mujahideen|Jihadists]] to emphasize the "heroism" of sacrifice, rather than portraying it as an act of [[Victimisation|victimization]]. This concept has evolved into a military and political strategy known among Jihadist groups as "martyrdom operations".<ref name="whitehead">Neil L. Whitehead and Nasser Abufarha, [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2267/is_2_75/ai_n28030516 "Suicide, violence, and cultural conceptions of martyrdom in Palestine"], ''Social Research'', Summer 2008</ref> although Western media commonly refer to them as [[suicide attack]]s.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Romero |first=Juan |title=Terrorism: the Power and Weakness of Fear |date=2022 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-032-19806-4 |series=Routledge Studies in Modern History |location=Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY |pages=145–146 |chapter=Rules of jihad}}</ref> These acts contain "a central ideological pillar and organizational ideal" of waging "active jihad against the perceived enemies of Islam".<ref name="Schweitzer-2005-25">{{cite book |last1=Schweitzer |first1=Yoram |last2=Ferber |first2=Sari Goldstein |title=Al-Qaeda and the Internationalization of Suicide Terrorism |date=2005 |publisher=Institute for National Security Studies |page=25 |url=http://www.jstor.com/stable/resrep08936.6 |access-date=30 June 2023 |chapter=Suicide 2. Terrorism as Ideology and Symbol}}</ref> [[Sunni Islamism|Sunni Islamist]] figures such as [[Hassan al-Banna|Hassan Al-Banna]] viewed martyrdom as a duty incumbent upon every Muslim, urging them to ready themselves for it and to excel in the "art of death". Contemporary Shi'ite perspectives on martyrdom have commonly followed similar paths.<ref name=":2" />

The rise of many martyrs in conflicts spanning regions such as [[Martyrdom in Palestinian society|Palestine]], [[Afghanistan]], [[Kashmir conflict|Kashmir]], [[Chechnya]], [[Iraq]], and [[Iran]] has been accompanied by extensive literature glorifying their actions.<ref name=":2" /> [[Islamic terrorism|Jihadist terror]] groups, in particular [[Al-Qaeda]], have "employed innovative modes of action and raised suicide terrorism’s level of destruction and fatalities to previously unknown heights".<ref name="Schweitzer-Internationalization-2005-7">{{cite book |last1=Schweitzer |first1=Yoram |last2=Goldstein Ferber |first2=Sari |title=Al-Qaeda and the Internationalization of Suicide Terrorism |date=November 2005 |publisher=Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies |page=7 |url=https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/91065/2005-11_(FILE)1188301256.pdf |access-date=2 July 2023 |chapter=Executive Summary}}</ref>

== Importance ==

=== Significance in afterlife ===
{{see also| Islamophobic trope #72 virgins }}

Quranic verses 3:169-171  is said to indicate that the sins of believers who "die in the way of God" will be forgiven by Allah, and transported to paradise, without having to wait for Judgement Day like other believers.<ref name="Rizvi"/><ref name="Lange, Christian 2016 p.40"/><ref name="Bale-2013-8"/>   
*And reckon not those who are killed in Allah's way as dead; nay, they are alive (and) are provided sustenance from their Lord; rejoicing in what Allah has given them out of His grace, and they rejoice for the sake of those who, (being left) behind them, have not yet joined them, that they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve. They rejoice on account of favour from Allah and (His) grace, and that Allah will not waste the reward of believers. (Q.3:169-171)

At least one scholar, Shi'i cleric [[Sa'id Akhtar Rizvi]], writes that while normally when a human being dies, their [[Akhirah|afterlife]] "depends on one's faith and deeds", but that "the moment a believer is slain in the way of Allah, his eternal life begins". With a martyr there is no 
{{blockquote|"uncertainty ... suspense. Allah immediately bestows on the martyr the joy, the everlasting bliss and an immortal life. ... Those whose faith in the Creator is superfluous, can never solve the mystery of martyrdom. They feel puzzled as to why the Muslims, the true believers, appear eager to die in the way of Allah. They call them 'suicide squad'. But it is not suicide. Suicide implies termination of life, while martyrdom is continuation of life".<ref name="Rizvi"/> }}

== Military martyrdom and suicide attacks ==
{{further
| religious views on suicide
| Islamic view of death #Suicide | label2 = Islamic view of suicide 
| Islamophobic trope #Shahid
}} {{suicide sidebar}} {{main
| Suicide attack #Religious terminology 
}} {{Jihadism sidebar}}

=== Significance of martyrdom to suicide attacks ===

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the term ''istishhad'' has been said{{who|date=May 2025}} to  have "developed … into a military and political strategy", and often be translated as "martyrdom operations".{{verify source | reason = istishhad is just "martyrdom", operation is "amliyat" |date=May 2025}}<ref name="whitehead"/> The concept has also been described (by Yoram Schweitzer and Sari Goldstein Ferber) "as a means of warfare" that is "part of an overall philosophy that sees active jihad against the perceived enemies of Islam as a central ideological pillar and organizational ideal."<ref name="Schweitzer-2005-25"/> Jihadist terror groups, in particular Al-Qaeda, have "employed innovative modes of action and raised suicide terrorism’s level of destruction and fatalities to previously unknown heights".<ref name="Schweitzer-Internationalization-2005-7"/>

Supporters have also described martyrdom/suicide operations as a military "equalizer" whereby pious Muslim martyrs  use their willingness to sacrifice for their faith and their certainty in their reward in the afterlife to counter the Western unbeliever, who has "at their disposal state-of-the-art and top-of-the-range means and weaponry to achieve their aims. [While] we have the minimum basics ... We ... do not seek material rewards, but heavenly one in the hereafter".{{NoteTag|Hassan, a Hezbollah fighter quoted by Hala Jaber's book<ref>{{cite book|last=Jaber|first=Hala|title=Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_ktBrZfuUYC|year=1997|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-10834-8|pages=92–93}}</ref>}}

By the early twenty first century, martyrdom operations by Muslims had also been turned against other Muslims. Thousands of Muslims, particularly Shia, had become victims, not just initiators, of martyrdom operations, with many civilians and even mosques and shrines being targeted, particularly in Iraq. According to Scott Atran, in just one year in one Muslim country alone – 2004 in Iraq – there were 400 suicide attacks and 2000 casualties.<ref name=Atran-moral-2006-131>{{cite journal |title=The Moral Logic and Growth of Suicide Terrorism |url=https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/satran/wp-content/uploads/sites/330/2015/10/twq06spring_atran.pdf |last1=Atran |first1=Scott |journal=Washington Quarterly |date=Spring 2006 |volume=29 |issue=2 |page=131|doi=10.1162/wash.2006.29.2.127 |s2cid=154382700 }}</ref> [[Salafi jihadism|Salafi Jihadi]] ideologue [[Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi]] declared "all-out war" on Shia Muslims in Iraq in response to a US-Iraqi offensive on the town of [[Tal Afar]].<ref>[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]] article: "Al-Zarqawi declares war on Iraqi Shia", Accessed Feb 7, 2007. [http://english.aljazeera.net/news/archive/archive?ArchiveId=14984 Link] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061231193836/http://english.aljazeera.net/News/archive/archive?ArchiveId=14984 |date=2006-12-31 }}</ref> He described his view of the Sunni-Shia conflict in a February 2004 open letter to supporters where he argued for a cycle of attack and retaliation that would "awaken" those Sunnis who previously had not wanted a sectarian war to join his side.{{NoteTag| The "cunning" Shia planned to build a state "stretching from Iran through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon" to the Gulf kingdoms, but by attacking Shia in their "religious, political, and military depth" his jihadis would "drag" the Shia "into the arena of sectarian war", and leading them to "bare the teeth of the hidden rancor working in their breasts" and so "awaken the inattentive Sunnis as they feel imminent danger and annihilating death at the hands of theses Sabeans", i.e. Shia.<ref name="Zarqawi Letter-2004">{{cite web |title=Zarqawi Letter. February 2004 Coalition Provisional Authority English translation of terrorist Musab al Zarqawi letter obtained by United States Government in Iraq |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/nea/rls/31694.htm |website=U.S. Department of State |date=12 February 2004 |access-date=3 July 2023}}, quoted in Nasr, Vali, ''The Shia Revival'' (Norton 2006), p. 205-6</ref>}}

In 2007, some of the Shia [[ulema]] have responded by declaring suicide bombing [[haraam|haram]]:
{{blockquote|"حتي كساني كه با انتحار مي‌آيند و مي‌زنند عده‌اي را مي‌كشند، آن هم به عنوان عمليات انتحاري، اينها در قعر جهنم هستند"<br />"Even those who kill people with suicide bombing, these shall meet the flames of hell."<ref>Feb 2007 interview with [[Christiane Amanpour]] of [[CNN]]: {{cite web |url=http://www.roozonline.com/archives/2007/02/002139.php |title=تروريست ها در قعر جهنمند (Rooz) |access-date=2007-02-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208183310/http://www.roozonline.com/archives/2007/02/002139.php |archive-date=2007-02-08 }}</ref><ref name=IIS>{{cite web|title=Shia-Sunni Conflicts – What are the issues?|url=http://www.csss-isla.com/iis/iis-index.html|website=Institute of Islamic Studies|access-date=30 October 2015|quote=Ayatollah Yousef Saanei.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304122624/http://www.csss-isla.com/iis/iis-index.html|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

=== Martyrdom operation ===
{{see also
| Kamikaze
| self-sacrifice
| self-sacrifice in Jewish law 
| military saint
| Saul 
| Samson 
| Judges 16
| martyrdom video
}}
Militant groups term attacks on military or civilian targets in which the attacker is expected to die, most frequently by [[suicide bomber|detonation of a bomb]], as "martyrdom operations". The term is usually used by [[Islam|Muslim]] militants, although non-Muslim groups, such as the [[Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam]], have also engaged in suicide attacks. [[Islamism|Islamist]] militants prefer the term "martyrdom operation" to "suicide attack", as suicide is forbidden under classical Islamic law.  While combat inherently involves a risk of death, a "martyrdom operation" implies a deliberate act leading to death as part of the attack.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

Acts of istishhad are governed by Islamic legal [[Rules of war in Islam|rules associated with armed warfare]] or military jihad. The rules governing [[jihad]], literally meaning struggle but often called "[[religious war|holy war]]" by non-Muslims, are covered in exquisite detail in the classical texts of Islamic jurisprudence.<ref name="nytimes.com"/> In orthodox Islamic law, jihad is a collective religious obligation on the Muslim community, when the community is endangered or Muslims are subjected to oppression and subjugation. The rules governing such conflicts include not killing women, children or non-combatants, and leaving cultivated or residential areas undamaged.<ref name="nytimes.com"/><ref name="Buntzie Ellis Churchill 2008, pp. 145-153">Bernard Lewis and Buntzie Ellis Churchill, ''Islam: The Religion and the People'', Wharton School Publishing, 2008, pp. 145–153</ref><ref>Muhammad Hamidullah, ''The Muslim Conduct of State'' (Ashraf Printing Press 1987): pp. 205–208</ref>

For more than a millennium, these tenets were accepted by Sunnis and Shiites; however, since the 1980s militant Islamists have challenged the traditional Islamic rules of warfare in an attempt to justify suicide attacks despite clear contradictions to established Islamic laws.<ref name="nytimes.com"/><ref name="Buntzie Ellis Churchill 2008, pp. 145-153"/>

=== Southeast Asia ===
During the colonial era and up to World War II, Muslims in [[Aceh]] and [[Moro people|Moro]], now part of Indonesia and the Philippines, used suicide attacks against their enemies, principally the Dutch, the Japanese, and the Americans.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

==== In Aceh ====
Muslim [[Acehnese people|Acehnese]] from the [[Aceh Sultanate]] performed suicide attacks known as ''Parang-sabil'' against Dutch invaders during the [[Aceh War]]. It was considered as part of personal [[jihad]] in the Islamic religion of the Acehnese. The Dutch called it ''Atjèh-moord'', which literally translates to ''Aceh murder''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Atjeh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JXMeAAAAIAAJ&q=Atj%C3%A8h-moord&pg=PA613 |year=1878 |publisher=Brill Archive |pages=613– |id=GGKEY:JD7T75Q7T5G}}</ref><ref name="Kreemer1923">{{cite book |author=J. Kreemer |title=Atjèh: algemeen samenvattend overzicht van land en volk van Atjèh en onderhoorigheden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kzosAAAAMAAJ&q=Atj%C3%A8h-moord |year=1923 |publisher=E.J. Brill |page=613}}</ref> The Acehnese work of literature, the ''Hikayat Perang Sabil'' provided the background and reasoning for the "Aceh-mord" – Acehnese suicide attacks upon the Dutch,<ref name="BraithwaiteBraithwaite2010">{{cite book|first1=John|last1=Braithwaite|first2=Valerie|last2=Braithwaite|first3=Michael|last3=Cookson|first4=Leah|last4=Dunn|title=Anomie and Violence: Non-truth and Reconciliation in Indonesian Peacebuilding |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrdM8X7CBTAC&pg=PA347 |year=2010 |publisher=ANU E Press |isbn=978-1-921666-23-0 |pages=347–}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=http://press.anu.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/ch0617.pdf|doi = 10.22459/AV.03.2010|title = Anomie and Violence. Non-truth and Reconciliation in Indonesian Peacebuilding|year = 2010|last1 = Braithwaite|first1 = John|last2 = Braithwaite|first2 = Valerie|last3 = Cookson|first3 = Michael|last4 = Dunn|first4 = Leah|isbn = 9781921666223 | doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/18313161|title = Anomie and Violence: Non-Truth and Reconciliation in Indonesian Peacebuilding|last1 = Braithwaite|first1 = John}}</ref> The Indonesian translations of the Dutch terms are Aceh bodoh (Aceh pungo) or Aceh gila (Aceh mord).<ref name="Ahmad(Indonesia)1992">{{cite book|author1=Sayed Mudhahar Ahmad|author2=Aceh Selatan (Indonesia)|title=Ketika pala mulai berbunga: seraut wajah Aceh Selatan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I65yAAAAMAAJ&q=Mereka+ini+terkenal+memiliki+keberanian+luar+biasa+dan+tidak+takut+maut.+Orang-orang+semacam+itu+dijuluki+Belanda+sebagai+pengidap+penyakit+Aceh+mord+%28Aceh+gila%29,+yang+dalam+bahasa+Aceh+disebut+Aceh+pungo+%28Aceh+bodoh%29.+Belanda+... |year=1992|publisher=Pemda Aceh Selatan|page=131}}</ref>

''Atjèh-moord'' was also used against the Japanese by the Acehnese during the [[Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies#The occupation|Japanese occupation of Aceh]].<ref name="Piekaar1949">{{cite book|author=A. J. Piekaar|title=Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=txYyAQAAIAAJ&q=Atj%C3%A8h-moord |year=1949|publisher=W. van Hoeve|page=3}}</ref> The Acehnese [[Ulama]] (Islamic clerics) fought against both the Dutch and the Japanese, revolting against the Dutch in February 1942 and against Japan in November 1942. The revolt was led by the All-Aceh Religious Scholars' Association (PUSA). The Japanese suffered 18 dead in the uprising while they slaughtered up to 100 or over 120 Acehnese.<ref name="Ricklefs 2001">[https://books.google.com/books?id=0GrWCmZoEBMC&dq=amuntai+japanese&pg=PA252 Ricklefs 2001], p. 252.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=RcdwAAAAMAAJ&q=In+November+1942,+the+Japanese+found+themselves+putting+down+a+local+rebellion+against+their+rule+carried+out+by+the+same+Acehnese+who+had+removed+the+Dutch+to+make+way+for+their+arrival.+One+leader+of+a+religious+school+in+Cot+Plieng,+... Martinkus 2004], p. 47.</ref> The revolt happened in Bayu and was centred around Tjot Plieng village's religious school.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3NETAQAAMAAJ&q=When+the+resistance+of+the+religious+school+of+Tjot+Plieng+in+Bayu+was+ended+in+November+1942,+over+100+Acehnese+were+massacred,+18+Japanese+died,+and+yet+another+conqueror+had+learned+the+penalty+of+trying+to+deal+with+Aceh+by+force "Tempo: Indonesia's Weekly News Magazine, Volume 3, Issues 43–52" 2003], p. 27.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.atjehcyber.net/2011/08/sejarah-jejak-perlawanan-aceh.html |title=Sejarah Jejak Perlawanan Aceh |access-date=2016-05-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427002230/http://www.atjehcyber.net/2011/08/sejarah-jejak-perlawanan-aceh.html |archive-date=2016-04-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://issuu.com/waspada/docs/waspada__sabtu_17_maret_2012/3 Pepatah Lama Di Aceh Utara]</ref><ref>[http://issuu.com/waspada/docs/waspada__sabtu_17_maret_2012 Pepatah Lama Di Aceh Utara]</ref> During the revolt, the Japanese troops armed with mortars and machine guns were charged by sword wielding Acehnese under Teungku Abduldjalil (Tengku Abdul Djalil) in Buloh Gampong Teungah and Tjot Plieng on 10 and 13 November.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=BiTjAAAAMAAJ&q=tjot+plieng "Berita Kadjian Sumatera: Sumatra Research Bulletin, Volumes 1–4" 1971], p. 35.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=v3kDBvr5UeYC&q=tjot+plieng Nasution 1963], p. 89.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=cKbQAAAAMAAJ&q=Tjot+Plieng "Sedjarah Iahirnja Tentara Nasional Indonesia" 1970], p. 12.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9AE5AQAAIAAJ&q=guru+agama+di+Tjot+Plieng+jang+bernama+Tengku+Abdul+Djalfl.+Meskipun+mereka+hanja+bersendjatakan+rentjong,+tombak+dan+beberapa+putjuk+senapan+tua,+namun+berkat+semangat+djihad+fi+sabilillah+itu+mereka+telah+bisa+memukul+mundur+... "20 &#91;i. e Dua puluh&#93; tahun Indonesia merdeka, Volume 7"], p. 547.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=KOyzISuyJlwC&q=tjot+plieng "Sedjarah TNI-Angkatan Darat, 1945–1965. &#91;Tjet. 1.&#93;" 1965], p. 8.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QtsRAAAAMAAJ&q=guru+agama+di+Tjot+Plieng+jang+bernama+Tengku+Abdul+Djalfl.+Meskipun+mereka+hanja+bersendjatakan+rentjong,+tombak+dan+beberapa+putjuk+senapan+tua,+namun+berkat+semangat+djihad+fi+sabilillah+itu+mereka+telah+bisa+memukul+mundur+... "20 tahun Indonesia merdeka, Volume 7"], p. 545.</ref><ref>Atjeh Post, Minggu Ke III September 1990. halaman I & Atjeh Post, Minggu Ke IV September 1990 halaman I</ref> In May 1945 the Acehnese rebelled again.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=BpZuAAAAMAAJ&q=village+and+the+mosque+at+the+beginning+of+November.+In+the+fighting+that+ensued,+18+Japanese+were+killed+and+more+than+120+Acehnese+perished.+Furthermore+a+local+revolt+broke+out+in+Aceh+in+May+1945. Jong 2000], p.189.</ref>

The original Jawi script Acehnese language work Hikayat Perang Sabil ([[w:ace:Hikayat Prang Sabi]], [[w:id:Hikayat Prang Sabi]]) has been transliterated into the Latin alphabet and annotated by Ibrahim Alfian (Teuku.) published in Jakarta.<ref name="(Teuku.)1992">{{cite book|author=Ibrahim Alfian (Teuku.)|title=Sastra perang: sebuah pembicaraan mengenai Hikayat Perang Sabil|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rKiZnTEhX-UC|year=1992|publisher=PT Balai Pustaka|isbn=978-979-407-422-0}}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Perang sabi was the Acehnese word for jihad, a holy war and Acehnese language literary works on perang sabi were distributed by Islamic clerics ('ulama) such as Teungku di Tiro to help the resistance against the Dutch in the Aceh War.<ref name="Ooi2004">{{cite book |author=Ooi |first=Keat Gin |author-link=Keat Gin Ooi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QKgraWbb7yoC&pg=PA123 |title=Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor |date=1 January 2004 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-770-2 |pages=123–}}</ref> The recompense awarded by in paradise detailed in Islamic Arabic texts and Dutch atrocities were expounded on in the Hikayat Perang Sabil which was communally read by small cabals of Ulama and Acehnese who swore an oath before going to achieve the desired status of "martyr" by launching suicide attacks on the Dutch.<ref name="Reid2014">{{cite book|first=Anthony|last=Reid|title=The Blood of the People: Revolution and the End of Traditional Rule in Northern Sumatra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DCWIBgAAQBAJ&q=Hikayat+Perang+Sabil&pg=PA10|date=17 March 2014|publisher=NUS Press|isbn=978-9971-69-637-5|pages=10–}}</ref> Perang sabil was the Malay equivalent to other terms like Jihad, Ghazawat for "Holy war", the text was also spelled "Hikayat perang sabi".<ref name="Braginsky2015">{{cite book|first=Vladimir|last=Braginsky|title=The Turkic-Turkish Theme in Traditional Malay Literature: Imagining the Other to Empower the Self|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5P7dCgAAQBAJ&q=Hikayat+Perang+Sabil&pg=PA291|date=19 October 2015|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-30594-6|pages=291–}}</ref> Fiction novels like Sayf Muhammad Isa's ''Sabil: Prahara di Bumi Rencong'' on the war by Aceh against the Dutch include references ro Hikayat Perang Sabil.<ref name="Isa2014">{{cite book|author=Sayf Muhammad Isa|title=Sabil: Prahara di Bumi Rencong|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Rv-AwAAQBAJ&q=Hikayat+Perang+Sabil|date=8 October 2014|publisher=Qanita|id=GGKEY:EZ5D51UPWRR}}</ref> 	Mualimbunsu Syam Muhammad wrote the work called "Motives for Perang Sabil in Nusantara", ''Motivasi perang sabil di Nusantara: kajian kitab Ramalan Joyoboyo, Dalailul-Khairat, dan Hikayat Perang Sabil'' on Indonesia's history of Islamic holy war (Jihad).<ref name="Muhammad2013">{{cite book|author=Mualimbunsu Syam Muhammad|title=Motivasi perang sabil di Nusantara: kajian kitab Ramalan Joyoboyo, Dalailul-Khairat, dan Hikayat Perang Sabil|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ldmFmwEACAAJ&q=Hikayat+Perang+Sabil|year=2013|publisher=Media Madania|isbn=978-602-19227-2-9}}</ref> Children and women were inspired to do suicide attacks by the Hikayat Perang Sabil against the Dutch.<ref name="BraithwaiteBraithwaite2010"/> Hikayat Perang Sabil is also known as "Hikayat Prang Sabi''.<ref name="Harun">{{cite book|first=Jelani|last=Harun|title=Jalan ke Taman: Esei-esei Penghargaan untuk Profesor Ali Ahmad (Penerbit USM)|year=2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xDutCQAAQBAJ&q=Hikayat+Perang+Sabil&pg=PT68|publisher=Penerbit USM|isbn=978-983-861-671-3|pages=68–}}</ref> Hikayat Perang Sabil is considered as part of 19th century Malay literature.<ref name="Salleh2010">{{cite book|author=Siti Hawa Hj. Salleh|title=Malay Literature of the 19th Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dtNx3QcEg_cC&q=Hikayat+Perang+Sabil&pg=PA366|year=2010|publisher=ITBM|isbn=978-983-068-517-5|pages=366–}}</ref> In Dutch occupied Aceh, Hikayat Perang Sabil was confiscated from Sabi's house during a Police raid on September 27, 1917.<ref>{{cite book|title=Akademika|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uToUAQAAMAAJ&q=Hikayat+Perang+Sabil|year=1972|publisher=Jawatankuasa Penerbitan, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia|pages=98, 100, 102}}</ref><ref name="(Teuku.)1987">{{cite book|author=Ibrahim Alfian (Teuku.)|title=Perang di Jalan Allah: Perang Aceh, 1873–1912|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rh8sAAAAMAAJ&q=Pada+27hb.+September+1917+itu+juga+polisi+telah+menggeledah+rumah+Sabi+dan+didalam+sebuah+peti+kayu+dirumahnya,|year=1987|publisher=Pustaka Sinar Harapan|page=130}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.acehbooks.org/pdf/ACEH_02603.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203135746/http://www.acehbooks.org/pdf/ACEH_02603.pdf|url-status=usurped|archive-date=February 3, 2016|title = Aceh Books (KITLV) &#124; Digital Collections}}</ref>

==== Against the Spanish in the Philippines ====
{{further| Juramentado | Suicide attack #Juramentado | Morro Bay, California }}{{anchor|Moro|juramentado|Juramentado|Moro juramentado|Moro Juramentado}}

In the Philippines the [[Moro people]] are reported to have engaged in [[suicide attack #juramentado |suicide attacks]] against enemies as early as the 16th century.<ref name="Howard Federspiel" /> Those who performed suicide attacks were called ''mag-sabil'', and the suicide attacks were known as ''Parang-sabil''.{{citation needed |date=April 2025}} The Spanish called them ''[[juramentado]]''.{{citation needed |date=April 2025}} The idea of the juramentado was considered part of [[jihad]] in the Moros' Islamic religion.{{citation needed |date=April 2025}} During an attack, a Juramentado would throw himself at his targets and kill them with bladed weapons such as [[Barong (knife)|barong]]s and [[kris]] until he himself was killed.{{verify source |date=April 2025}} The Moros performed juramentado suicide attacks against the Spanish in the [[Spanish–Moro conflict]] of the 16th to the 19th centuries, against the Americans in the [[Moro Rebellion]] (1899–1913), and [[Philippine resistance against Japan#Moro resistance in Mindanao|against the Japanese in World War II]].<ref name="Howard Federspiel" >{{cite book|title=Sultans, Shamans, and Saints: Islam and Muslims in Southeast Asia|first=Howard M.|last=Federspiel|edition=illustrated|year=2007|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Qf39DpguysC&pg=PA125|page=125|isbn=978-0-8248-3052-6|access-date=March 10, 2014}}</ref> The Moro Juramentados aimed their attacks specifically against their enemies, and not against non-Muslims in general. They launched suicide attacks on the Japanese, Spanish, Americans and Filipinos, but did not attack the non-Muslim Chinese as the Chinese were not considered enemies of the Moro people.<ref>{{cite book|title=Filipino Heritage: The Spanish colonial period (late 19th century)|first=Alfredo R.|last=Roces|volume=7 of Filipino Heritage: The Making of a Nation|year=1978|publisher=Lahing (Manila)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=akNvAAAAMAAJ&q=The+juramentado's+act+was+occasionally+performed+against+the+Japanese+during+World+War+1+1+—and+the+Japanese+were+clearly+defined+as+enemies.+The+juramentado+never+went+after+Chinese+residents+in+spite+of+the+fact+that+the+Chinese+were+non-Muslim. |page=1702|access-date=March 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Filipinas, Volume 11, Issues 117–128|year=2002|publisher=Filipinas Pub.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wvkMAQAAMAAJ&q=The+juramentado's+act+was+occasionally+performed+against+the+Japanese+during+World+War+1+1+—and+the+Japanese+were+clearly+defined+as+enemies.+The+juramentado+never+went+after+Chinese+residents+in+spite+of+the+fact+that+the+Chinese+were+non-Muslim. |access-date=March 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Understanding Islam and Muslims in the Philippines|editor-first=Peter G.|editor-last= Gowing|edition=illustrated|year=1988|publisher= New Day Publishers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-H25AAAAIAAJ&q=In+spite+of+the+individual+nature+of+many+juramentados,+the+fact+remains+that+it+was+never+done+against+members+of+ethnic+groups+who+were+not+considered+military+and+religious+enemies+of+the+Tausug.+Chinese,+for+example,+in+spite+of+their+status+as+non-+Moslems,+were+seldom+molested.+As+one+man+put+it,+%22There+is+no+sense+killing+the+Chinese |page=56|isbn=9711003864|access-date=March 10, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kiefer|first1= Th. M.|title=Parrang Sabbil: Ritual suicide among the Tausug of Jolo|journal=Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde|date=January 1, 1973|volume=129|issue=1|page=111|doi=10.1163/22134379-90002734|doi-access=free}}</ref> The Japanese responded to these suicide attacks by massacring all the relatives of the attacker.<ref>{{cite book|title=Midnight on Mindanao: Wartime Remembances 1945–1946|year=2008|publisher=iUniverse|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6T39iCmUzMkC&pg=PA47|pages=47–48|isbn=978-0-595-63260-2|access-date=March 10, 2014}}</ref>

=== Contemporary use: after the Iranian Islamic Revolution ===
[[File:Suicide-attacks-cpost-bigger-font.JPG|upright=1.8|right|thumb|The number of [[Suicide attack #1980s |suicide attacks]] grew enormously [[Suicide attack #2000s |after the year 2000]].<ref>Number of suicide attacks and deaths from attacks 1982–2014 (most, but not all, of which were by Muslims). From Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism [https://dss.princeton.edu/catalog/resource1057 Suicide Attack Database]</ref>]]

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the quantity and "innovation" of Istishhad  used against civilian and military targets has raised its level of "destruction and fatalities to previously unknown heights",<ref name="Schweitzer-Internationalization-2005-7"/>  by one estimate totaling 3,699 suicide attacks in 40+ countries from 1982 to 2013.<ref name=CPST/>
This began in the 1980s with [[Shia]] revolutionaries in [[Iran]] fighting off Iraqi [[Ba'athism|Baathist]] invaders,<ref name="Nasr, ''The Shia Revival'', 2006, p.131-2"/> and Hezbollah's successful expulsion of Western peacekeepers and Israeli's from Lebanon.<ref name="Nasr, Vali 2006, p.142"/> and spread to Al-Qaeda and other Sunni groups.<ref name="Schweitzer-Internationalization-2005-7"/>

==== Iran-Iraq War ====
{{see also| Iran-Iraq War | Martyrdom in Iran }}

Scholars believe the origins of Istishhad attacks{{verify source | reason = does the source user the term "Istishhad attacks" |date=May 2025}} in the late 20th and early 21st centuries lie among the [[Shia]] of the newly formed Islamic Republic of [[Iran]] following the invasion by Iraq in 1980. [[Vali Nasr]] writes that necessity may have been a motivation for use of suicidal or suicide attacks in the form of "hundreds of thousands of volunteers" attacking Iraqi lines. At least early on in the war, many of the "most seasoned officers" in Iran's military had been purged, while the [[Iran hostage crisis|hostage crisis]] "left Iran internationally isolated", so that "conventional means of repelling the Iraqi invasion were hard to come by."<ref name="Nasr, ''The Shia Revival'', 2006, p.131-2">Nasr, Vali, ''The Shia Revival'', Norton, 2006, p.131-2</ref>

Defense of the motherland aside, [[Shia]] usually refer to the martyrdom of [[Hussain ibn Ali]] and his companions and family members in the [[Battle of Karbala]] as role models and inspiration for martyrdom as a glorious and noble death.

{{blockquote|Many nights during the war, Iranian soldiers would wake up to see a white-shrouded figure on a white horse blessing them. These apparitions of the Twelfth Imam were professional actors sent to boost morale. The common soldiers, often peasant boys raised in an atmosphere of simple piety, would then carry the tale to their relatives and friends in the villages and small towns they called home, if they lived to make it home.<ref>Nasr, Vali, ''The Shia Revival'', Norton, 2006, p.132</ref>}}

[[Mohammed Hossein Fahmideh]], a 13-year-old boy who fought in the war, is said to be the first Muslim to have participated in such an attack in contemporary history. He strapped [[rocket-propelled grenade]]s to his chest and blew himself up under an Iraqi tank in November 1980. [[Ayatollah Khomeini]] declared Fahmideh a national hero and inspiration for further volunteers for martyrdom.<ref>[http://www.tebyan.net/index.aspx?pid=52570 Our leader: Mohammed Hossein Fahmideh]| Tebyan| 29 October 2007</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article626388.ece | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523053003/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article626388.ece | url-status=dead | archive-date=May 23, 2011 | work=The Times | location=London | title=The making of a suicide bomber | date=September 3, 2006 | access-date=May 5, 2010}}</ref> Other Iranian [[basij]] volunteers ran through minefields to detonate buried [[landmine]]s and clear a safe battlefield path for following soldiers.

==== Khomeini's encouragement ====
"Imam" [[Ruhollah Khomeini]], leader of the Iranian Revolution, is thought to have given a broader definition of [[martyr]]dom to include istishhad/"self-martyrdom".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ruthven |first1=Malise |title=A Fury For God |publisher= Granta |year=2002 | page=101 |isbn=9781862075733 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tsJDrhCZqwYC&q=Istishhad+ruthven}}</ref> He believed martyrdom could come not only from "inadvertent" death but "deliberate" as well. While martyrdom has always been celebrated in Islam and martyrs promised a place in heaven, (Q3:169–171), the idea that opportunities for martyrdom were important has not always been so common.

Khomeini not only praised the large numbers of young Shia Iranians who became "[[shahid]]s" during the Iran–Iraq War but asserted the war was "God's hidden gift",<ref>Moin, ''Khomeini'' (2000) p.249, 251</ref> or as one scholar of Khomeini put it, "a vital outlet through which Iran's young martyrs experienced mystical transcendence."<ref>Brumberg, ''Reinventing Khomeini'' p.123</ref> Khomeini explained:

<blockquote>"If the great martyr (Imam [[Husayn ibn Ali]]) ... confined himself to praying ... the great tragedy of Kabala would not have come about ... Among the contemporary ulema, if the great Ayatollah ... Shirazi ... thought like these people [who do not fight for Islam], a war would not have taken place in Iraq ... all those Muslims would not have been martyred."<ref>`Ayatollah Khomeyni Message to Council of Experts,` broadcast 14 July 1983, FBIS-SAS-83-137, 15 July 1983; Brumberg, ''Reinventing Khomeini''p.130</ref></blockquote>

Death might seem like a tragedy to some but in reality ...

<blockquote>If you have any tie or link binding you to this world in love, try to sever it. This world, despite all its apparent splendor and charm, is too worthless to be loved.<ref>''Islam and Revolution'', p.357</ref></blockquote>

Khomeini never wavered from his faith in the war as God's will, and observers (such as Ayatollah [[Mehdi Haeri Yazdi]], a grand ayatollah and former student with family ties to Khomeini) have related a number of examples of his impatience with those who tried to convince him to negotiate an end to the war even when it had become a stalemate with hundreds of thousands killed and civilian areas being attacked by missiles.<ref>Nasr, Vali, ''The Shia Revival'', Norton, (2006), p.120</ref>

Some scholars ([[Ervand Abrahamian]]) argue that the idea of martyrdom was transform by Khomeini from the traditional Shi'i belief {{NoteTag|and even from Khomeini's own belief prior to the late 1960s),<ref name=KEA1993:27>[[#KEA1993|Abrahamian, ''Khomeinism'', 1993]]: p.27</ref>}} of "a saintly act", usually referring "the famous Shi'i saints{{NoteTag|such as the "[[Five Martyrs of Shia Islam|Five Martyrs]]"<ref name=KEA1993:27/>}} who in obeying God's will, had gone to their deaths";<ref name=KEA1993:27/> to "revolutionary sacrifice" done "to overthrow a despotic political order";<ref name=KEA1993:29>[[#KEA1993|Abrahamian, ''Khomeinism'', 1993]]: p.29</ref> and that Khoemini was heavily influenced by Iranian leftists individuals and groups active in the 1960s such as [[Ali Shariati]], the [[Tudeh Party of Iran|Tudeh Party]], [[People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran|Mojahedin]], Hojjat al-Islam [[Nematollah Salehi Najafabadi|Nimatollah Salahi-Najafabadi]].<ref name=KEA1993:29/>

==== Hezbollah ====
{{Hezbollah|expanded=|selected=}}

While martyrdom operations did not lead to victory over Iraq, in Lebanon, Hezbollah, the Shia party/militia funded and assisted by Iran, was enormously successful in its attacks.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
The group drove Israel out of South Lebanon, killing approximately 600 Israeli soldiers in Southern Lebanon between 1982 and 1984, (a relatively large number for a small country like Israel).<ref name="Nasr, Vali 2006, p.142">Nasr, Vali, ''The Shia Revival'', Norton, 2006, p. 142</ref> This "rare victory" over Israel "lionized" the group among Arabs in the region and added to "the aura of Shia power still glimmering amid the afterglow of the Iranian revolution."<ref name="Nasr, Vali 2006, p.142"/> It also drove Western peacekeepers out of Lebanon, killing 243 U.S. Marines and 58 French troops in suicide attacks;<ref name="Nasr, Vali 2006, p.143">Nasr, Vali, ''The Shia Revival'', Norton, 2006, p. 143</ref> [[1983 United States embassy bombing in Beirut|blew up the American embassy]] in 1983, killing the Middle East experts in the CIA, and then several months later [[1984 United States embassy annex bombing in Beirut|blew up the annex]] the survivors of the US embassy had retreated to.<ref name="Nasr, Vali 2006, p.142"/>

==== Spread to Sunni Muslims ====
The victory of Hezbollah is known to have inspired [[Hamas]] in Palestine,<ref>Hamas Statement, ''BBC Summary of World Broadcasts'' (July 23, 2000)</ref> and [[al-Qaeda]] in its worldwide bombing campaign.<ref>`Bin Laden's Sermon for the Eid al-Adha`, Middle East Media Research Institute, Special Dispatch Series, n. 476 (March 5, 2003)</ref> Writing in 2006, Vali Nasr states that "until fairly recently" willingness to die for the cause" (with suicide bombing or other means) was seen as a "predominantly Shia phenomenon, tied to the myths of [[Karbala]] and the [[Twelfth Imam]]".<ref>Nasr, Vali, ''The Shia Revival'', Norton, 2006, p.133</ref>

Inspired by the success of Hezbollah, the (Sunni) Palestinian Islamist group [[Hamas]] used suicide attacks as a model for in its fight in the Palestinian Territories.<ref name="Nasr, Vali 2006, p.142"/> [[Hamas]] first carried out [[suicide attacks]] – involved strapping the body of the mission carrier with explosives – in the Israeli-inhabited towns of Afula and Khidara in the spring of 1994, it "described these operations as ''`amaliyat istishhadiya'' (martyrdom operations)" rather than the more secular ''a'maliyat fida'iyah'' (self-sacrifice operations).<ref name="whitehead" /> According to Palestinian anthropologist [[Nasser Abufarha]], ''istishhadi'' did not previously exist in the Arabic dictionary. ''Istishhadi'' is different from the notions of shahid or ''fida'i'' in that ''istishhadi'' is the idea of proactively seeking martyrdom; an idea that is ''not'' traditionally Islamic.<ref name="whitehead" /><ref name=":4" /> Hamas introduced the term ''istishhadi'' with the aim of attaching religion to self-sacrifice because Hamas believes Islam is "the most solid ideology through which to achieve the goals of the Palestinian national struggle."<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Abufarha |first=Nasser |title=The making of a human bomb: an ethnography of Palestinian resistance |date=2009 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-4428-5 |series=The cultures and practice of violence series |location=Durham, N.C.}}</ref> The term 'amaliyat istishhadiya has caught on and "today, istishhad is the most frequently used term to refer to acts of sacrifice in the Palestinian resistance and is used by Islamic, secular, and Marxist groups alike".<ref name="whitehead"/>

[[Zabiullah Mujahid]], deputy minister of information and culture and spokesperson of the [[Afghanistan|Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan]] announced the formation of an ''Istishhad'' battalion, which will be part of the [[Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan]] special forces.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-01-04 |title=IEA to include Istishhad battalion in new army {{!}} Ariana News |language=en-US |work=Ariana News |url=https://ariananews.af/iea-to-include-istishhad-battalion-in-new-army/ |access-date=2022-05-09}}</ref>

According to one scholar, [[Noah Feldman]]: "The vocabulary of martyrdom and sacrifice, the formal videotaped pre-confession of faith, the technological tinkering to increase deadliness—all are now instantly recognizable to every Muslim." Feldman sees a worrying trend in the steady expansion of the targets of Istishhad since its debut in 1983 when successful bombing of [[1983 Beirut barracks bombing|barracks]] and [[1983 United States Embassy bombing|embassy buildings]] drove the U.S. military out of Lebanon.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

<blockquote>First the targets were American soldiers, then mostly [[Israel]]is, including women and children. From [[Lebanon]] and Israel, the technique of suicide bombing moved to [[Iraq]], where the targets have included mosques and shrines, and the intended victims have mostly been [[Shia|Shiite]] [[Iraqi people|Iraqis]]. The newest testing ground is Afghanistan, where both the perpetrators and the targets are orthodox [[Sunni]] Muslims. Not long ago, a bombing in [[Lashkar Gah]], the capital of [[Helmand Province]], killed Muslims, including women, who were applying to go on [[Hajj|pilgrimage]] to [[Mecca]]. Overall, the trend is definitively in the direction of Muslim-on-Muslim violence. By a conservative accounting, more than three times as many Iraqis have been killed by suicide bombings in the last 3 years as have Israelis in the last 10. Suicide bombing has become the archetype of Muslim violence—not just to frightened Westerners but also to Muslims themselves.<ref name="nytimes.com">[[Noah Feldman]], [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/magazine/29islam.html?pagewanted=all "Islam, Terror and the Second Nuclear Age"], ''New York Times'', October 29, 2006</ref>
</blockquote>

The Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism recorded a total of 3,699 suicide attacks in over 40 countries from 1982 to 2013.<ref name=CPST>{{Cite web |url=http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php |title=Connect to the CPOST Suicide Attack Database |access-date=2017-08-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140823175940/http://cpostdata.uchicago.edu/search_new.php |archive-date=2014-08-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Religious-scholarly debate about suicide missions ===

Some Western and Muslim [[List of modern-day Muslim scholars of Islam|scholars of Islam]] find [[suicide attack]]s to be a clear violation of classical Islamic law.<ref>{{Cite web|last=AbdurRahman.org|date=2014-11-28|title=The Position of the Scholars Regarding Osama Bin Laden|url=https://abdurrahman.org/2014/11/28/the-position-of-the-scholars-regarding-osama-bin-laden/|access-date=2021-02-21|website=AbdurRahman.Org|language=en}}</ref>
Nevertheless, the militant groups that carry out "martyrdom operations" believe that their actions fulfill the obligation of [[jihad]], and  some clerics support this view.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

==== Against suicide attacks ====

Suicide bombings as acts of [[terrorism]] have spurred some Muslims to provide scholastic refutations of suicide bombings and to condemn them. For example, Ihsanic Intelligence, a [[London]]-based Islamic [[think tank]], published a study on suicide bombings that concluded, "suicide bombing is anathema, antithetical and abhorrent to [[Sunni Islam]]. It is considered legally forbidden, constituting a reprehensible innovation in the Islamic tradition, morally an enormity of sin combining suicide and murder and theologically an act which has consequences of eternal damnation".<ref name="hijacked_caravan">[http://www.ihsanic-intelligence.com/dox/The_Hijacked_Caravan.pdf "The Hijacked Caravan: Refuting Suicide Bombings as Martyrdom Operations in Contemporary ''Jihad'' Strategy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050906062050/http://www.ihsanic-intelligence.com/dox/The_Hijacked_Caravan.pdf |date=2005-09-06 }}, Ihsanic Intelligence</ref>

Oxford-based Malaysian jurist Shaykh [[Afifi al-Akiti]], issued his fatwa forbidding suicide bombing and targeting innocent civilians: 
<blockquote>"If the attack involves a bomb placed on the body or placed so close to the bomber that when the bomber detonates it the bomber is certain ''[yaqin]'' to die, then the More Correct Position according to us is that it does constitute suicide. This is because the bomber, being also the ''Maqtul'' [the one killed], is unquestionably the same ''Qatil'' [the immediate/active agent that kills] = ''Qatil Nafsahu'' [killing oneself, i.e., suicide]."<ref>Shaykh [[Afifi al-Akiti]], [http://www.livingislam.org/maa/dcmm_e.html "Defending The Transgressed By Censuring The Reckless Against The Killing Of Civilians"]</ref>{{NoteTag|A distinction can be made in religion between 
*''suicidal'' or high risk attacks, such as the [[Lod Airport massacre]] or "reckless charge in battle", "violent actions perpetrated by people who are aware that the odds they will return alive are close to zero" (Ami Pedahzur);<ref>{{cite book|author=Pedahzur, Ami|title=Suicide Terrorism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_5XBVsosvzYC&pg=PA66|year=2004|publisher=Polity|isbn=978-0-7456-3383-1|access-date=March 22, 2015 |page=8}}</ref> and 
*''suicide'' attacks whose success ''depends'' on the attacker killing themselves.<ref name=Dodd>{{cite book|last1=Dodd|first1=Henry|title=A short history of suicide bombing|date=23 Aug 2013|publisher=Action on Armed Violence|url=https://aoav.org.uk/2013/a-short-history-of-suicide-bombings/|access-date=6 October 2015|quote=First of all let's be clear what kind of attacks we are talking about.  Suicide bombings are those that involve the deliberate death of the perpetrator. We're not just talking about a reckless charge in battle. The focus is on those attacks where the perpetrator functions as a sophisticated guidance system for the weapon. They function as part human and part weapon. In this way they are suicide attacks rather than suicidal attacks. |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125110530/https://aoav.org.uk/2013/a-short-history-of-suicide-bombings/|archive-date= January 25, 2014}}</ref><ref name=ICT-STDC>{{cite web|first=Yoram|last=Schweitzer|author-link=Yoram Schweitzer|url=http://www.ict.org.il/Articles/tabid/66/Articlsid/42/Default.aspx|title=Suicide Terrorism: Development and Characteristics|publisher=[[International Institute for Counter-Terrorism]]|date=April 21, 2000|access-date=March 22, 2015|quote=... a very specific kind of attack. It does not deal with the very high-risk terror operations that leave only little chance of survival to their perpetrators. Such attacks as the Japanese Red Army's (JRA) attack at Lod airport in 1972, Abu Nidal's attack on a synagogue in Istanbul in 1986 and the PFLP-GC hand-glider attack on an army barracks in Kiryat Shmona in 1987 fall outside the scope of this paper. Also excluded were the self-inflicted deaths of members of terrorist organization, ... a politically motivated violent attack perpetrated by a self-aware individual (or individuals) who actively and purposely causes his own death through blowing himself up along with his chosen target. ... the perpetrator's ensured death is a precondition for the success of his mission."|archive-date=May 27, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527191602/http://www.ict.org.il/Articles/tabid/66/Articlsid/42/Default.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref>
the first may be acceptable as martyrdom, and the second condemned as suicide.}}</blockquote>

In January 2006, a [[Shiite]] [[Marja'|marja]] cleric, [[Yousef Sanei|Ayatollah al-Udhma Yousof al-Sanei]] decreed a [[fatwa]] against [[suicide bombing]] declaring it as a "terrorist act" and the Saudi grand mufti as well as other [[Sunni]] scholars similarly denounced suicide attacks regardless of their offensive or defensive characterization.<ref name="nytimes.com"/><ref>[http://www.roozonline.com/archives/2007/02/002139.php "Interview] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208183310/http://www.roozonline.com/archives/2007/02/002139.php |date=2007-02-08 }} with [[Christiane Amanpour]]", [[CNN]], February 2007</ref><ref name="about_terrorism_suicide">{{Cite web |url=http://islam.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1%2FXJ&sdn=islam&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fatwa-online.com%2Fworship%2Fjihaad%2Fjih004%2Findex.htm |title=Terrorism and Suicide bombings |access-date=2017-04-15 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130116090709/http://islam.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=islam&zu=http://www.fatwa-online.com/worship/jihaad/jih004/index.htm |archive-date=2013-01-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Scholar [[Bernard Lewis]] states, "At no time did the classical jurists offer any approval or legitimacy to what we nowadays call terrorism. Nor indeed is there any evidence of the use of terrorism as it is practiced nowadays".<ref name="Buntzie Ellis Churchill 2008, pp. 145-153"/>  Similarly, [[Noah Feldman]] writes that the Islamic reasoning of suicide attackers is not convincing as martyrdom in Islam typically refers to another person killing a Muslim warrior, not the warrior pushing "the button himself".  In addition, "The killing of women and children has proved harder to explain away as a permissible exercise of jihad." This "illustrates the nature of the difficulty of reconciling suicide bombing with Islamic law".<ref name="nytimes.com"/>

As Charles Kimball, the [[University of Oklahoma]]'s Director of [[Religious Studies]], pointed out that Islam "clearly prohibits suicide" by citing "the [[hadith]] materials, which are the authoritative sayings and actions of the prophet, [[Muhammad]], includes many unambiguous statements about suicide: one who 'throws himself off a mountain' or 'drinks poison' or 'kills himself with a sharp instrument' will be in the fire of [[Jahannam|Hell]]. Suicide is not allowed even to those in extreme conditions such as painful illness or a serious wound".<ref name=burek>{{cite news|last1=Burek|first1=Josh|title=Q&A: Islamic fundamentalism|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1004/p25s1-wosc.html|work=[[Christian Science Monitor]]|date=October 4, 2001}}</ref> Other Islamic groups such as the [[European Council for Fatwa and Research]] cite the Quran'ic verse [[Al-An'am]] 6:151 as a prohibition against suicide: "And take not life, which [[Allah]] has made sacred, except by way of justice and law".<ref>[http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1119503549272&pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaEAskTheScholar "Euthanasia: Types and Rulings"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090630072120/http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1119503549272&pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar%2FFatwaE%2FFatwaEAskTheScholar |date=2009-06-30 }}</ref> Dr. Hassan Ali El-Najjar says that the ''[[hadith]]'' unambiguously forbid suicide.<ref>[http://www.aljazeerah.info/Islam/Islamic%20subjects/2004%20subjects/June/Committing%20Suicide%20Is%20Strictly%20Forbidden%20in%20Islam,%20Adil%20Salahi.htm "Committing Suicide Is Strictly Forbidden in Islam"]</ref>

==== Proponents of suicide operations ====

Islamist militant organisations (including [[Al-Qaeda]], ISIL, [[Hamas]] and [[Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement|Islamic Jihad]]) continue to argue that suicide operations are justified according to Islamic law.<ref name="jeeran_ruling_martyrdom">[https://web.archive.org/web/20041011230417/http://abdulhaqq.jeeran.com/ruling.html "The Islamic Ruling on the Permissibility of Martyrdom Operations"]</ref><ref name="jeeran_fatwa">[https://web.archive.org/web/20041009222904/http://abdulhaqq.jeeran.com/fatwa_sheikh_qaradhawi.html "Fatwa of Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi"]</ref> [[Irshad Manji]], in a conversation with one leader of Islamic Jihad noted their ideology.

<blockquote>"What's the difference between suicide, which the Koran condemns, and martyrdom?" I asked. "Suicide," he replied, "is done out of despair. But remember: most of our martyrs today were very successful in their earthly lives." In short, there was a future to live for—and they detonated it anyway.</blockquote>

Another rationale provided for why istishhad is not against Islamic law is that the civilians caught in the crossfire "were destined to die". The Saudi exile Muhammad al-Massari explains that any civilian killed in an attack on the enemy "won't suffer [but instead]…becomes a martyr himself".<ref>''The New York Times'', June 10, 2007</ref> During the [[2006 Lebanon War|2006 Israel-Hezbollah war]], [[Hezbollah]] secretary-general [[Hassan Nasrallah]] apologized for an attack on [[Nazareth]] that killed two Israeli-Arab children—but said the two children should be considered "martyrs".<ref>''Al-Manar'' (Beirut), July 20, 2006</ref>

Further justifications have been given by Iranian cleric [[Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi]], "when protecting Islam and the Muslim [[Ummah|community]] depends on [[martyrdom operations]], it not only is allowed, but even is an [[wajib|obligation]] as many of the [[Shi'ah]] great scholars and [[Maraje']], including [[Ayatullah]] [[Safi Golpayegani]] and Ayatullah [[Fazel Lankarani]], have clearly announced in their [[fatwas]]".<ref>
{{cite news | author = Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi | title = Martyrdom Operations | publisher = Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi | url = http://www.mesbahyazdi.org/english/contact-us/afq/contact4.htm#عمليات%20شهادت%20طلبانه | access-date = 2008-01-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071226205750/http://www.mesbahyazdi.org/english/contact-us/afq/contact4.htm#عمليات%20شهادت%20طلبانه | archive-date = 2007-12-26 | url-status = dead }}
</ref> Ayatollah [[Ruhollah Khomeini]] of Iran showered those who performed martyrdom operations during the [[Iran–Iraq War]] and against [[Israel]] with accolades. Indeed, Sayyed [[Abbas al-Musawi]], the second Secretary General of [[Hezbollah]] and student of Khomeini, created a supplication that became popular among the Hezbollah youths and fighters.<ref>{{cite news
 |author=The Islamic Counterterrorism Center 
 |title=The Supplication of the Second Secretary General of 'Hezbollah' 
 |publisher=Arcs Network 
 |year=2008 
 |url=http://wiki.arcs.com/index.php?title=The_Supplication_of_the_Second_Secretary_General_of_'Hezbollah' 
}}{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Other clerics have supported suicide attacks largely in connection with the [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict]]. Sunni cleric [[Yusuf al-Qaradawi]] has supported such attacks by Palestinians in perceived defense of their homeland as heroic and an act of resistance.<ref>David Bukay, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VNtBgbrNGUQC&dq=Qaradawi++Istishhad&pg=PA296 ''From Muhammad to Bin Laden: Religious and Ideological Sources of the Homicide Bombers Phenomenon''], 2011.</ref>  Shiite Lebanese cleric [[Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah]], the spiritual authority recognized by Hezbollah, is reported to have similar views.<ref name="nytimes.com"/>

After the [[7 July 2005 London bombings]], journalist [[Mona Eltahawy]] published an [[op-ed]] in the ''[[Washington Post]]'' noting the fact that there were "22 [[imam]]s and scholars who met at [[London]]'s largest mosque to condemn the bombings but who would not criticize all suicide attacks", such as Sayed Mohammed Musawi, the head of the World Islamic League, who said "there should be a clear distinction between the suicide bombing of those who are trying to defend themselves from occupiers, which is something different from those who kill civilians, which is a big crime".<ref name="wp_london_tough">[[Mona Eltahawy]], [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/22/AR2005072201629.html "After London, Tough Questions for Muslims"], ''[[Washington Post]]'', 22 July 2005.</ref> After the [[Salman Rushdie's knighthood|knighting]] of [[Salman Rushdie]] in June 2007, [[Pakistan]]'s acting [[Ministry of Religious Affairs (Pakistan)|Minister of Religious Affairs]] [[Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq]] publicly justified and called for a suicide attack against him.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/18/books.religion "Rushdie knighthood 'justifies suicide attacks'"], ''The Guardian'', 18 June 2007.</ref>
 
There have been conflicting reports about the stances of Sheikh [[Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy]] (who was then the [[Grand Imam of Al-Azhar]]- he is now deceased) and Sheikh [[Ahmed el-Tayeb]] (who was then the [[Grand Mufti]] of Egypt and is now the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar). Shortly after the [[September&nbsp;11 attacks]] Sheikh Tantawy issued a statement opposing suicide attacks.<ref name="bbc_sheikh_condemns">Frank Gardner, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1690624.stm "Grand Sheikh condemns suicide bombings"], BBC, 4 December 2001.</ref> However, a translation from [[Al Azhar]] website quotes him as supporting suicide attacks on Jews in Israel as part of the Palestinian struggle "to strike horror into the hearts of the enemies of Islam".<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20020611054245/http://www.lailatalqadr.com/stories/n040401.shtml lailatalqadr.com]}}, April 4, 2002.</ref> Yet, in 2003 he was quoted again as saying "groups which carried out suicide bombings were the enemies of Islam", and that all suicide attacks were sinful including those against Israelis. His comments condemning all suicide attacks were echoed by [[Malaysian Prime Minister]] [[Mahathir Mohamad]] and Lebanese cleric Husam Qaraqirah.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3059365.stm "Cleric condemns suicide attacks"], BBC, 11 July 2003.</ref>

According to the [[Middle East Media Research Institute]] an Iranian Islamic theologian whom they referred to as Mohammad-Bagher Heydari Kashani, said "We had 36,000 student martyrs [in the Iran-Iraq War], 7,070 of whom were under the age of 14. […] "They were a source of pride for us, and we must thank God for them".<ref name="MEMRI QS" >{{Cite web | url = https://www.memri.org/tv/iranian-religious-scholar-heydari-kashani-children-should-aspire-to-be-martyrs | title = Iranian Religious Scholar Mohammad-Bagher Heydari Kashani Praises Child Martyrdom: 7,070 of Our Martyrs in the Iraq-Iran War Were Under the Age of 14 | publisher = [[Middle East Media Research Institute]] }}</ref>{{better source needed| reason = this is unlikely to refer to suicide bombers, even MEMRI doesn't mention suicide bombers |date=May 2025}} He said children should aspire to be like the Martyr [[Qasem Soleimani]], an Iranian military leader who was [[assassination of Qasem Soleimani |assassinated by the United States]] on 3 January 2020.<ref name="MEMRI QS" /><ref name="Qasem Soleimani" >{{cite web| last1 = Salem | last2 = Al Lawati | last3 = Picheta | last4 = John | last5 = Atay Alam | first1 = Mostafa | first2 = Abbas | first3 = Rob | first4 = Tara | first5 = Hande | url = https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/03/middleeast/iran-explosions-soleimani-ceremony-intl/index.html | title = Twin blasts kill dozens near slain Iran commander's grave | website = CNN World | date = 4 January 2024 }}</ref>

==== Public opinion on suicide attacks ====

In addition to the views of [[Ulama|Muslim theologians]], conflicting viewpoints are apparent among the public in [[Islam by country |Muslim-majority countries]]. As a reporter for ''[[The Guardian]]'' notes in an article written during the [[Second Intifada]] in August 2001, the Muslim world celebrates "martyr-bombers" as heroes defending the things held sacred. Polls in the Middle East in August 2001 showed that 75% of people had been in favor of martyr-bombings.<ref name="FaisalB_God">{{cite news |last = Bodi |first = Faisal |url = https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,,543164,00.html |title = Bombing for God |work = The Guardian |access-date = 2006-07-19 | location=London | date = 28 August 2001 }} </ref>

However, the [[Pew Research Center]] has found decreases in Muslim support for suicide attacks. In 2011 surveys, less than 15% of Pakistanis, Jordanians, Turks, and Indonesians thought that suicide bombings were sometimes/often justified. Approximately 28% of Egyptians and 35% of Lebanese felt that suicide bombings were sometimes/often justified.  However, 68% of Palestinians reported that suicide attacks were sometimes/often justified.<ref name=pew2011>{{cite book|title=Arab Spring Fails to Improve U.S. Image: Obama's Challenge in the Muslim World|date=17 May 2011|publisher=[[Pew Research Center]]|chapter=Chapter&nbsp;4. Views of Extremist Groups and Suicide Bombing|pages=30–31|url=http://www.pewglobal.org/2011/05/17/chapter-4-views-of-extremist-groups-and-suicide-bombing/}}</ref> In 2013, Pew found that "clear majorities of Muslims oppose violence in the name of Islam"; 89% in Pakistan, 81% in Indonesia, 78% in Nigeria, and 77% in Tunisia said that "suicide bombings or other acts of violence that target civilians are never justified".<ref name=pew2013>{{cite news|title=Muslim Publics Share Concerns about Extremist Groups: Much Diminished Support for Suicide Bombing|url=http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/09/10/muslim-publics-share-concerns-about-extremist-groups/|work=[[Pew Research Center]]|date=10 September 2013}}</ref>

Militant groups like [[Hamas]] and the [[Palestinian Islamic Jihad]] consider martyrdom as the highest form of sacrifice for the Palestinian cause, leading to acts of terrorism, including suicide bombings.<ref name=":0" >{{ cite journal | last = Hatina | first = M. | year = 2005 | title = Theology and power in the Middle East: Palestinian martyrdom in a comparative perspective | journal = [[Journal of Political Ideologies]] | volume = 10 | issue = 3 | pages = 241–267 | doi = 10.1080/13569310500244289 }}</ref><ref name=":1" >{{cite journal| first1 = Meir | last1 = Litvak | author1-link = Meir Litvak | year = 2010 | title = Martyrdom is Life: Jihad and Martyrdom in the Ideology of Hamas | journal = Studies in Conflict & Terrorism | volume = 33 | issue = 8 | pages = 716–734 | doi = 10.1080/1057610X.2010.494170 }}</ref> This ethos is widespread in educational materials, visual media, community events, ceremonies, and has influenced the indoctrination of children from a young age, impacting the psychological well-being of Palestinian children.<ref name=":32">{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=Tianshe |date=June 2012 |title=Exploration of the Hamas Suicide Attacks |journal=Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (In Asia) |language=en |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=106–120 |doi=10.1080/19370679.2012.12023205 |issn=1937-0679|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":42"> Daphne Burdman (2003) Education, indoctrination, and incitement: Palestinian children on their way to martyrdom, Terrorism and Political Violence, 15:1, 96-123, DOI: 10.1080/09546550312331292977 </ref>

== Quotes from the Quran and Hadith ==
{{see also| Shaheed (disambiguation) | Martyrdom #Islam }}
{{ anchor |Quotes}}{{Multiple issues|section=y|
{{religious text primary|date=August 2018}}
* Please also cite the specific translations quoted. 
{{over-quotation|date=August 2018}}
{{primary sources|date=November 2021}}
}}
=== Quran ===
{{further| Quran | Quranism | list of common misconceptions about arts and culture #72 virgins }}

A shahid is considered one whose place in [[Paradise]] is promised according to these verses in the [[Quran]]:

{{Blockquote|Think not of those who are slain in [[Allah]]'s way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the presence of their [[God in Islam|Lord]]; They rejoice in the bounty provided by Allah. And with regard to those left behind, who have not yet joined them (in their bliss), the (Martyrs) glory in the fact that on them is no fear, nor have they (cause to) grieve.|[[Quran 3:169–170]]<ref name=AYA>[[Abdullah Yusuf Ali]]</ref>}}

{{Blockquote|Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth, through the [[Torah]], the [[Gospel]], and the Qur’an: and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? then rejoice in the bargain which ye have concluded: that is the achievement supreme.|[[Quran 9:111]]<ref name=AYA/>}}

The Quranic passage that follows is the source of the concept of Muslim martyrs being promised Paradise:

{{Blockquote|Those who leave their homes in the cause of Allah, and are then slain or die,- On them will Allah bestow verily a goodly Provision: Truly Allah is He Who bestows the best provision. Verily He will admit them to a place with which they shall be well pleased: for Allah is All-Knowing, Most Forbearing.|[[Quran 22:58–59]]<ref name=AYA/>}}

=== Hadith ===
{{main| Hadith }}

There are at least five different kinds of martyrs according to hadith.
{{Blockquote| Allah's Apostle said, "Five are regarded as martyrs: They are those who die because of plague, abdominal disease, drowning or a falling building etc., and the martyrs in Allah's cause." | Collected by [[Muhammad al-Bukhari]]|''[[Sahih al-Bukhari]]''.<ref>{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|4|52|82}}</ref>}}

The importance of faith is highlighted in the following hadith:
{{Blockquote|It has been narrated on the authority of Anas b. Malik that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: Who seeks martyrdom with sincerity shall get its reward, though he may not achieve it.|Collected by [[Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj]]|"[[Sahih Muslim]]"<ref>{{Hadith-usc|muslim|usc=yes|020|4694}}</ref>}}

It is thus not the outcome that determines the placement in Heaven but rather the intention.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Nonetheless, Paradise for a shahid is a popular concept in the Islamic tradition according to Hadith, and the attainment of this title is honorific.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

[[Muhammad]] is reported to have said these words about martyrdom:

{{Blockquote|By Him in Whose Hands my life is! I would love to be martyred in Allah's Cause and then get resurrected and then get martyred, and then get resurrected again and then get martyred and then get resurrected again and then get martyred.|Collected by [[Muhammad al-Bukhari]]|''[[Sahih al-Bukhari]]''.<ref>{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|4|52|54}}</ref>}}

{{Blockquote|The Prophet said, "Nobody who enters Paradise likes to go back to the world even if he got everything on the Earth, except a Mujahid who wishes to return to the world so that he may be martyred ten times because of the dignity he receives (from Allah).|Collected by [[Muhammad al-Bukhari]]|''[[Sahih al-Bukhari]]''.<ref>{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|4|52|72}}</ref>}}

Several hadith also indicate the nature of a shahid's life in Paradise.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}} Shahids attain the highest level of Paradise, the Paradise of al-Firdous.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}
{{Blockquote|Haritha was martyred on the day (of the battle) of Badr, and he was a young boy then. His mother came to the Prophet and said, "O Allah's Apostle! You know how dear Haritha is to me. If he is in Paradise, I shall remain patient, and hope for reward from Allah, but if it is not so, then you shall see what I do?" He said, "May Allah be merciful to you! Have you lost your senses? Do you think there is only one Paradise? There are many Paradises and your son is in the (most superior) Paradise of Al-Firdaus.|Collected by [[Muhammad al-Bukhari]]|''[[Sahih al-Bukhari]]''.<ref>{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|5|59|318}}</ref>}}

Furthermore, Samura narrated:
{{Blockquote|The Prophet said, "Last night two men came to me (in a dream) and made me ascend a tree and then admitted me into a better and superior house, better of which I have never seen. One of them said, 'this house is the house of martyrs.'|Collected by [[Muhammad al-Bukhari]]|''[[Sahih al-Bukhari]]''.<ref>{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|4|52|49}}</ref>}}

A Muslim who is killed defending his or her property{{ambiguous|date=November 2024}} is considered{{who|date=November 2024}} a martyr.<ref name="auto"/>

One who dies protecting his property is also considered a martyr according to Hadith:
{{Blockquote|I heard the Prophet saying, "Whoever is killed while protecting his property then he is a martyr.|Collected by [[Muhammad al-Bukhari]]|''[[Sahih al-Bukhari]]''.<ref name="auto">{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|3|43|660}}</ref>}}

While the Qur'an does not indicate much about martyrs' death and funeral, the hadith provides some information on this topic. For example, martyrs are to be buried two in one grave in their blood, without being washed or having a funeral prayer held for them. The following Hadith highlight this:
{{Blockquote|The Prophet collected every two martyrs of Uhud in one piece of cloth, then he would ask, "Which of them had (known) more of the Quran?" When one of them was pointed out for him, he would put that one first in the grave and say, "I will be a witness on these on the Day of Resurrection." He ordered them to be buried with their blood on their bodies and they were neither washed nor was a funeral prayer offered for them.|Collected by [[Muhammad al-Bukhari]]|''[[Sahih al-Bukhari]]''.<ref>{{Hadith-usc|bukhari|usc=yes|2|23|427}}</ref>}}

== See also ==
{{portal| Islam }}
* {{ annotated link |Islamophobic trope}}
{{div col| colwidth = 30em}}
* {{ annotated link |Martyrdom in Chinese culture}}
* {{ annotated link |Martyrdom in Christianity}}
** {{ annotated link |Military saint}}
* {{ annotated link |Martyrdom in Iran}}
* {{ annotated link |Martyrdom in Judaism}}
** {{ annotated link |Self-sacrifice in Jewish law}}
** {{ annotated link |Olei Hagardom}}
* {{ annotated link |Martyrdom in Palestinian society}}
* {{ annotated link |Martyrdom in Sikhism}}
=== Sections ===
* {{slink| Martyr #Islam }}
* {{slink| Religious views on suicide #Islam }}
* {{slink| Islamic view of death #Suicide }}
{{end div col}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist|35em}}

===Bibliography===
*{{cite book|last=Abrahamian|first=Ervand|title=Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic |url=https://archive.org/details/khomeinismessays00erva|url-access=registration|year=1993|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-08503-9}}
*{{cite book|last1=Dodd|first1=Henry|title=A short history of suicide bombing|date=23 Aug 2013|publisher=Action on Armed Violence|url=https://aoav.org.uk/2013/a-short-history-of-suicide-bombings/|access-date=6 October 2015}}
*{{cite book|last=Nasr|first=Seyyed Vali Reza|title=The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future|date=2006|publisher=W.W. Norton and Company}}
*{{cite book |last1=Schweitzer |first1=Yoram |last2=Goldstein Ferber |first2=Sari |title=Al-Qaeda and the Internationalization of Suicide Terrorism |date=November 2005 |publisher=Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies  |url=https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/91065/2005-11_(FILE)1188301256.pdf |access-date=2 July 2023}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote|Martyrdom in Islam}}
* [https://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/06/brooks.htm "The Culture of Martyrdom"] How suicide bombing became not just a means but an end, by [[David Brooks (journalist)|David Brooks]] in ''[[The Atlantic]]'', June 2002
* [http://www.livingislam.org/k/dcmm_e.html "Defending the Transgressed"], Fatwa against suicide bombing by [[Afifi al-Akiti|Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti]]
* [https://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/06/hoffman.htm "The Logic of Suicide Terrorism"] by [[Bruce Hoffman]] published in ''[[The Atlantic]]'', June 2003
* [http://islam.about.com/cs/currentevents/a/suicide_bomb.htm "Suicide Bombers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040731083315/http://islam.about.com/cs/currentevents/a/suicide_bomb.htm |date=2004-07-31 }}: Why do they do it, and what does Islam say about their actions?
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050906062050/http://www.ihsanic-intelligence.com/dox/The_Hijacked_Caravan.pdf "The Hijacked Caravan"] Study refuting suicide bombing in Islam by Ihsanic Intelligence
* [http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP95805 ‘The Seekers of Martyrdom Command’: Another State-Inspired Organization of Suicide Attackers in Iran (Official Website Based in U.S. and Germany)]
* [http://wiki.arcs.com/index.php?title=The_Supplication_of_the_Second_Secretary_General_of_'Hezbollah' "The Supplication of the Second Secretary General of 'Hezbollah'"]{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}

{{Islam topics}}

[[Category:Arabic words and phrases in Sharia]]
[[Category:Sharia legal terminology]]
[[Category:Suicide attacks]]
[[Category:Terrorism tactics]]
[[Category:Islamic terrorism]]
[[Category:Military history of Islam]]
[[Category:Martyrdom]]