Martyrdom in Islam

by David Cook

Book Overview

In recent times Islamic martyrdom has become associated with suicide missions conducted by extremists. However, as David Cook demonstrates, this type of martyrdom is very different from the classical definition which condemned suicide and stipulated that anyone who died a believer could be considered a martyr. Ideas about martyrdom have evolved to suit prevailing circumstances, and it is the evolution of these interpretations that Cook charts in this...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521615518
• ISBN13: 9780521615518
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Muslim Islam Shahid Martyr Theology

This book reviews many old Islamic tracts in the author's fine attempt in trying to explain the energy that Islamic terrorists have in committing deadly Islamikazi attacks of martyrdom; attacks that non-Muslims view as being more of purposeless suicidal assassination than being constructive `in the way of Allah.' Part of the book is a history of some individual Muslims who are listed as dying as a "shahid" or a "martyr" in some militant jihad action, whether it was during a religious dispute amongst Muslim sects, on a medieval battlefield, during the 1980s Iran-Iranian War, or during the Israeli intifadas since 1990. Now, this is not a list of the names of hundreds of "shuhada." No, it is a research into how different Islamic writers viewed the theory of the use of a shahid in the killing of other Muslims or non-Muslim kafirs. The author raised the question of "if martyrdom through jihad is in the `way of Allah', how can a Muslim know if his attack or martyrdom is `just' and will be accepted by Allah when he attacks another Muslim?" The author poses the question, but acknowledges that Muslim theologians have yet to provide a satisfactory answer to this conundrum. The author provides the briefest review of the Quran in analyzing how Mohammad's book justifies jihad. (For more detailed analysis, for a start, one needs to read Robert Spencer's `Religion of Peace" or Mark Gabriel's `Islam and Terrorism'.) Instead, the author spends much more time in reviewing the hadith and numerous other ancient Muslim tracts that analyzed how Allah might approve of a warrior's death in a martyrdom event, but not in a mere suicidal-battle event that had no lasting consequence. The author's inquiry is more into understanding the Islamic beliefs of the usefulness of martyrdom during jihad operations, rather than of jihad itself. Most of the book extensively reviews the historical development of Islamic martyrdom theology during the Middle Ages. It also reviews how the concept of what constitutes a legitimate martyrdom event, as espoused and expanded upon by Egypt's Qutb, Iraq's Qassam and Iran's Khomeini, during the last half of the Twentieth century. Although the author is very aware of the extended militant campaigns of the Islamic armies following the death of Mohammad, he seems to downplay their impact as to why conquered peoples converted to Islam (chapter 5). The author wrote: "The Ottoman Empire...was beginning a long, slow retreat from the walls of Vienna..." (p.135), leaving the impression that Muslims were passively tilling farmlands outside of Vienna when they were surprisingly attacked by Austrians - whereas, in reality, the Austrians were repulsing an attack by an invading Muslim army that was attempting to conquer and loot the city. Nonetheless, this is really a very informative book in revealing many ancient Islamic documents discussing the theology of martyrdom. Chapters: (1) Martyrs in religions. (2) Martyrdom in the genesis of Islam. (3)