Suicide Attacks (Martyrdom)

 

Question:

 

Are suicide bombings justified or condemned under Islam?

Summary Answer:

 

Suicide is against Islam.  Martyrdom is not. 
"Suicide bomber" is a derogatory term invented in the West to try and describe what in Islam is known as a Fedayeen or Shahid... a martyr.  The point of the bomber isn't suicide - it is to kill infidels in battle.  This is not just permitted by Muhammad, but encouraged with liberal promises of earthy rewards in heaven, including food and sex.

The Qur'an:

Qur'an (4:74) - "Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward."

Qur'an (9:111) - "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 Law, 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."

Qur'an (2:207) - "And there is the type of man who gives his life to earn the pleasure of Allah..."

Qur'an (61:10-12) "O ye who believe! Shall I lead you to a bargain that will save you from a grievous Penalty? That ye believe in Allah and His Messenger, and that ye strive (your utmost) in the Cause of Allah, with your property and your persons: That will be best for you, if ye but knew! He will forgive you your sins, and admit you to Gardens beneath which Rivers flow, and to beautiful mansions in Gardens of Eternity: that is indeed the Supreme Achievement."  This verse was given at the battle Uhud and uses the Arabic word, Jihad.


The dark-eyed virgins are mentioned in several places as well, including verses 44:54 and 52:20.  For those who swing the other way, there are "perpetual youth" verse 6:17, otherwise known as "boys" verses 52:24 and 76:19.

Qur'an (17:33) "And do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden, except by right" An important verse that is used by Shahid to not only justify their own deaths, but that of other bystanders who might be believers as well.  The end justifies the means, with the goal being the defeat of the kafir and the establishment of Islamic rule.

From the Hadith:

Bukhari (52:54) - The words of Muhammad: "I would love to be martyred in Al1ah'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."  This is why modern-day Jihadists often say that they love death.

Muslim (20:4678) - During the battle of Uhud, Muhammad was desperate to push men into battle.  He promised paradise for those who would martyr themselves, prompting a young man who was eating dates to throw them away and rush to his death.

Muslim (20:4655) - A man asks Muhammad "which of men is the best?"  Muhammad replies that it is the man who is always ready for battle and flies into it "seeking death at places where it can be expected."  (Tellingly perhaps, the next most saintly man in Islam is the hermit who lives in isolation "sparing men from his mischief.")

Muslim (20:4681) - "Surely, the gates of Paradise are under the shadows of the swords."  After hearing Muhammad say that martyrdom leads to paradise, a young man pulls his sword and breaks the sheath (indicating that he has no intention of returning) then flings himself into battle until he is killed.

Muslim (20.4635) - "Nobody who enters Paradise will (ever like to) return to this world even if he were offered everything on the surface of the earth (as an inducement) except the martyr who will desire to return to this world and be killed ten times for the sake of the great honour that has been bestowed upon him."

Additional Notes: 

A suicide bombing is really an act of homicide.  When Muslim apologists in the West say that Islam is against such practices by pointing to the hadith that oppose killing oneself, such as Bukhari (23:446), they are being disingenuous.  Muslims in the Arab world, who are less concerned about public relations, celebrate and revere suicide bombers, knowing that martyrdom in battle is glorified by their religion.  As the Ayatollah Khomeini once put it, "The purest joy in Islam is to kill and be killed for Allah."

CAIR's Jamal Badawi, often held up as an example of moderate Islam, says "Suicide out of despair is not acceptable…Giving one’s life in a military situation is different and can be heroic if there is no other way of resisting…Killing civilians should be avoided if possible, but not everyone out of uniform is a civilian.”  (One wonders how families of the 12,000 Iraqi civilians killed by suicide bombers would feel about Badawi's armchair analysis).

Another prominent CAIR figure, founder Omar Ahmad, actually praised suicide bombers to a youth convention in 1999: "Fighting for freedom, fighting for Islam, that is not suicide.  They kill themselves for Islam."

Muhammad was quite shrewd in making suicide a crime while at the same time painting paradise in the most prolifically decadent terms - an endless orgy of sex, food, and aesthetic comfort.  The frustration of the young believer, who is convinced that such eternal gratification lies just on the other side of death, but is forbidden from attaining it directly by his own hand, therefore comes to think of martyrdom as a relief - particularly if he is deprived of these comforts in life.  Given this, it's a wonder that suicide bombings aren't more common than they are.

As a side note: the first suicide bomber in history may well have been Amalda de Rocas, a Christian teenage girl who was captured by the Turkish armies that were sent to conquer Cyprus in 1570 for no other reason than that they were not Muslim.  During the campaign, the Muslims slaughtered entire towns (after promising them safe passage) and captured about 2,400 children for transport back to the robust sex slave market in Islamic Turkey.

Amalda, one of the older girls, realized the hell that awaited them and threw a burning torch into a powder keg, blowing up the ship and sparing several hundred Christian children the indignity of sexual exploitation at the hands of the Muslims of the day.

It is probably unfair to compare Amalda's noble and desperate act to the homicidal mass-murder sprees of Muhammad's modern-day Fedayeen, who heap misery onto innocent people simply for the purpose of achieving a gluttonous paradise for themselves... but we thought that it makes for an interesting note.