from outward attack or persecution by unbeliev-
ers. (2) The martyr can be one of the dissenting
minority of the Shia, whose watershed moment
is the martyrdom of Imam Husayn, prophet
mUhammad’s grandson along with members of
his household on the 10th of Muharram, 61 a.h.
(October 9–10, 680 c.e.) at karbala (in pres-
ent-day iraq), commemorated ever afterward as
simply, “Ashura,” or “the Tenth,” with communal
rituals of “mourning,” passion plays, and proces-
sions. (3) The martyr can die in defense of his/her
own understanding/ interpretation of Islam in
relation to the standards of faith articulated by the
Ulama, or jurists, and upheld by the Islamic state,
as in the Sufi “martyrs” of the Middle Ages (al-
hallaJ, d. 922 c.e., Ayn al-Qudat al-Hamadhani,
d. 1131 c.e., rUzbihan baqli, d. 1209 c.e.) who
were tried and executed for heresy due to making
public theopathic statements, shathiyat, or expres-
sions of temporary unity with God).
The original context for understanding “mar-
tyrdom” as a religious obligation in Islam is the
Quran, which discusses the Jihad incumbent
on the early male disciples who were required
to leave their homes in mecca, emigrate with
the prophet Muhammad to start the new com-
munity in medina, and fight to defend the baby
umma from the attacks of the pagan Meccans and
struggles with rebellious tribes of the Arabian
Peninsula. Jihad (“striving, exertion”) fi sabil
Allah (“in the way of God”) is defined in the
Quran in three ways: (1) struggle of leaving home,
family, and property, and emigrating (hiJra) to
spread the faith (daa wa) (Q. 4:95–100; 8:72–75;
9:20, 81, 87–89); (2) struggle against unbelievers
during the Prophet’s lifetime, such as the pagan
Meccan “disbelievers” (kafirun) and “hypocrites”
(munafiqun), and others (Jewish and Christian
tribes) who rejected Islam, as well as those who
did not “keep covenant” with the umma and
with God after the Prophet’s death, requiring the
community to engage in the “wars of ridda” that
brought the “backsliding” tribes back into the
fold (Q. 9:13–16, 73; 25:52; 60:1; 66:9); and (3)
the witness to faith or “testifying” by the self-sac-
rifice of martyrdom (Q. 4:66, 74–78; 39:68–70).
The Arabic root sh-h-d is resonant with multiple
meanings, and its nominal form, shahada, mean-
ing “witness to faith” (the first of the Five Pillars
of Islamic ritual practice) also means “martyr-
dom.” Thus, the Muslim who is killed in battle
in defense of the umma or fights to the death
resisting persecution of the religion of Islam is, at
one and the same time, a “martyr” who is thereby
“witnessing or testifying to the faith.”
hadith the Sira, or sacred biography of the
prophet Muhammad; and the taFsir (Quran
commentary literature) all amplify the notion
of martyrs and martyrdom, defining the rewards
of the martyr, and portraying the state of mar-
tyrdom as so special that the warrior killed in
battle wishes only to fall, so that he can return
to be killed and killed yet again. The hadith list
the prerogatives of the martyr: (1) his sins will
be forgiven with the first rush of blood, (2) he
will be shown his abode in paradise, (3) he will
be dressed in the garment of belief, (4) he will be
married to hoUris (beautiful maidens/“spouses”
who come to serve the martyr in paradise), (5) he
will be protected against the torment of the grave,
(6) he will be safe from the terror of the last
judgment, (7) the crown of dignity, one ruby of
which is better than this world, will be placed on
his head, (8) he will be married to 72 wives from
among the houris (another hadith mentions only
two: “the blood of the martyr will hardly be dry
on the earth when his two spouses will already be
rushing to meet him [at the moment of death]”),
(9) he will intercede for 70 of his relatives with
God. The reward of paradise is promised, but its
exact timing and location are not made clear; the
martyrs are “near” God and are fed on the “fruits
of paradise” but are not actually in paradise until
the bodily resurrection. There is a compromise
tradition that attempts to resolve the intermedi-
ate fate of the martyrs after death and before the
resurrection: the “souls” of the martyrs are in
the “shape of white birds that feed on the fruitsK 458 martyrdom