Suicide Or 'Martyrdom'-Operations And The Killing Of Civilians Are Unlawful And Cursed

Collection of Texts by Omar K Neusser

The reasons why we deem suicide or 'martyrdom'-operations and the killing of civilians as unlawful and cursed, constituting without exception a reprehensible innovation (bid`ah) [17] in Islam and a crime in general, will be shown below, with proofs and various texts presented, but also diverging opinions for references. → In order to remedy this evil, it has to be understood! [1]
Allah knows best!
It has been held by some Muslims – and there was a difference of opinion in the Muslim ummah – that it would be allowed to using the above option in the case where 'no other ways for defense are left for the Muslims' [7], as in occupied Palestine; but as is shown not least in the fatwa by Shaykh Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti [14] these actions are not sanctioned by the Law Shari`ah, and therefore Haram. In consequence, those suicide or 'martyrdom' -operations do not fulfill any good purpose in this life or the Next; except for bringing grave sins to the perpetuators, destroying the name of Islam and lending the enemies of Islam more pretexts.

1- As Muslims we are not at war [15], but we lead our lives in a normal way according to the Divine Law of Almighty God - Allah (Shari`ah) and according to the example of His Beloved, Prophet Muhammed . Islam was established as a mercy to mankind and the universe, it guides the believers towards the highest human qualities in order to gain the pleasure of Allah, therefore fighting and warfare have also to follow the principle of mercy and futuwwah - chivalry. [2]
Whereever a Muslim can follow his religion in peace there he will dwell, while respecting the laws of the land. In the West, he is in the dar al-ahd, or dar as-sulh: he has entered a tacit contract with his new country state as to abide by its laws, as long as his worship (`ibâdah) of the One God - Allah - is not hindered, otherwise he should move to a place where he can practice his religion. [16]
Fighting is for those countries where the Muslims and their religion are attacked or where their country is occupied by non-Muslims (for example Afghanistan, Iraq), but warfare (jihâd) has to follow the well-defined rules of the Shari`ah (Islamic law): Neither are the innocent, the believers, women or children the object nor the 'bilateral' consequences of Islamic defensive warfare. [5]
How can it be that during the whole long Afghan war (jihâd) - which constituted the Muslims' war of defense against the Soviet superpower in the 1980-ies, there was never a single report of a suicide bombing?
This has never - in the whole of the Islamic history - been an issue, because the Muslims fighters recognized and affirmed that “the Shari`ah (Divine Law) came to preserve five fundamental interests (maqâsid), which are religion, life, intellect, honor, and property.
Things that harm any of these are contrary to the very foundations of the Divine Law.” [8] [h]

2- To kill oneself is in any case, both in times of peace or in war in the course of battle, clearly and without any ambiguity forbidden just as suicide is forbidden haram. And it is still forbidden even if some try to circumvent the principle [11]: no matter what state of mind one has or reason, when engaging in this evil practice: it is haram.
Were it not haram, it would at least be a doubtful course of action, which - according to the Shari`ah - the Muslim has to avoid, to steer away from. [3]
Another matter altogether is to be killed in the course of (engaging in military) action, while knowing that death can be the possible or probable outcome, which is completely different from turning oneself into a 'human bomb'(!) and even entering civilian, non-military areas - may God forbid! - in order to make oneself burst off in an explosion. [18]
In the first case the intention is to fight the enemy while risking capture, damage or death, in the second it is to fight the enemy while killing oneself. [4]

3- Seen from a general point of view, acts of suicide (missions) are obviously part of a recent trend in this (post-)modern era, where mostly young people tragically invest their hopes and - or frustrations into the ethic of hatred and realize this hatred through weaponry and killing. Compare the suicide trend in contemporary Japan or the high-school killings in the USA and other Western countries. Or compare suicide as political weapon invented by various so-called liberation-movements from different religious background, as shown by Abdal-Hakim Murad [6]. The difference with young Muslims is that this despicable method is clad in Islamic terms while actually turning the Islamic ethics of tolerance and forgiveness upside-down, following corrupt interpretations (of the Islamic Law) by those false leaders of Neo-Islamism. [6]

4- Those who hasten to bring forward their own interpretations (of reality and) of the Shari`ah, while clouding their hearts with the ethics of hatred of all those who do not agree with them, tend to forget and wish to ignore that the final judgement is Allah's only.
He - no-one else - will reward the good and punish the evil. Therefore no-one has the right to exert “punishment” or “retaliation” (qiSâS) by himself in an anarchist manner, perpetrating crimes in the land. It is certainly not the ethos of Islam to have enraged hangmen roaming the streets.
NB: In the same way, the enemies of the muslims and of Islam have to realize their fault of breaking international law, persecuting the muslim peoples. This way they only hasten their own downfall.

Retaliation can be declared to another country only by a leader (khalîfah) who has the authority in the Muslim ummah to do so. As by now there is no such leader. Does this mean no retribution is executed? Of course not.
Retaliation (qiSâS) is there all the time by Allah Himself. One aspect of it is what happens in Iraq, another are natural desasters and fitna persecution and tribulations in the USA, and finally but not the least: the balance (on the Day of Judgement) and the events of the Afterlife.
Because THERE IS justice, if not now then eventually.

Self-inflicted death with political or pseudo-religious intentions of hatred toward fellow human beings is part of the post-modernist mindset, which - unfortunately - has also influenced extremist Muslim circles; especially those with little training in religion, prone to misguidance by those false leaders, devoid of taqwa and warâ`a, wolves in sheep's clothing.
We hate to see anyone calling himself a 'Muslim' while propagating or engaging in these criminal and abominable acts.

5 - On the one hand the false leaders of Neo-Islamism intend to provoke or increase a polarization (fitna) between the populace of the West and the residing Muslims. Then they indulge in takfîr. And while killing non-Muslims and Muslims alike [9], they still dream of building an 'Islamic state'.[12] But Allah and His Prophet never support schemes that are based on coertion and injustice. [13] No blessing or barakah in it and no tawfîq. [10]
       On the other hand the arrogant neo-imperialist world powers want to subdue if necessary all peoples of this earth and reduce them to willing and passive consumer-slaves. Therefore they try every scheme imaginable, including false flag ops, rigged news material etc. only to fight against the Islamic tradition, which is the Muslims' identity, dignity and Islamic way of life, not tomention the liberty, honour and well-being of their own people.
They will not succeed:

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hadith:

I heard Allah's Apostle saying,
'Both legal and illegal things are evident but in between them there are doubtful (suspicious) things and most of the people have no knowledge about them. So whoever saves himself from these suspicious things saves his religion and his honor. ...
-
Narrated An-Nu`man bin Bashir from the Prophet of Allah Al-Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 2, Number 49
For the complete hadith see:

The Hakim ibn Hizam Allah be pleased with him, passed by a group of people in Sham who had been made to stand in the sun after oil had been poured over their heads. He asked, “What is this?” He was told that they were being punished for failing to pay their land tax. Hakim ibn Hizam Allah be pleased with him, responded, “Truly, I have heard the Messenger of Allah peace and blessings be upon him) say:
'Allah shall torment those who torment others in this life.'”
-
Sahih Muslim, 2613

Hadith in which the blessed Prophet considered DHIKRULLAH as greater than even Jihad with the sword:
Adu Ddardâ' may Allah be pleased with him, relates that the Prophet Allah's blessings and greetings on him, said: "May I not tell you what is the best in your deeds, which is the purest in the estimation of your King*, the deeds which are the highest and noblest among your deeds, and are better for you than spending gold and silver, and are better for you than that you should encounter your enemies and cut off their necks and they be cutting off yours**."
The Companions said: 'O Messenger of Allah! Do tell us.'
The Holy Prophet blessings and greetings of Allah on him, said:
"It is the remembrance of Allah, the Most High. (dhikru-LLahi ta`âla)"
-
Tirmidhi, and Imam Hakkim Abu Abdullah said it is sound.
Riyad al-Salihin: hadith 1441;
* (or: and which is the purest of your property)
** (i.e. you meet them in Jihad)

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footnotes:

[6] "If al-Qaida is indeed a product and mirror not of the Sunni story, but of the worst of the Enlightenment's possibilities, if it is, as it were, the Frankenstein of Frankistan (as Zionism is a golem [i.e. an artificial, soulless creature]), how effective can be America's currently chosen antidote?"
[ Abdal-Hakim Murad: Bombing Without Moonlight, The Origins of Suicidal Terrorism ]

[9] September 9, 2001, Afghanistan; two days before the attacks of 9/11:
Ahmed Shah Massoud, Northern Alliance leader, who valiantly withheld the Soviet onslaught unto his country for many years, was killed by two cowardly men posing as journalists who concealed a bomb in a camera. Also killed was the Afghan opposition's ambassador to India.

[10] The perpetrators of (those) ghastly crimes ..., if they are found to be Muslims, are not from our ranks. We have nothing to do with them. [ Imam Zaid Shakir ]

[13] The idea of a nation-state is a modernist idea, not an Islamic concept. "The Islamic state is essentially a universal state, a state without borders." The muslims do live of course in de-facto nation-states, but they should not accept in principle the division of the world into nations and states. And if "in power their main concern would be more the preservation of the integrity of the borders than the integrity of Islam." (Charles-André Gillis, L'intégrité Islamique)

[17] The Sunni scholars of today from the East to the West agree in rejecting outright the opinion of "attacking the non-muslims in the West" and of suicide or 'martyrdom'-operations and the killing of civilians and they consider this an anomaly, completely wrong and a misguided innovation. See: [ Fatwa(1) ]

[18] The verse which is the foundation of all acts of self-sacrifice on the mujahid's part as the licit price of his purchase of Paradise is { Allah has bought from the believers their lives and properties... } (9:111). Another related verse is { Among people are those who sell themselves seeking the pleasure of Allah; and Allah has compassion for His slaves. } (2:207). As seen in the reports cited further down, the Companions took these verses as the proof that one who sells himself for Allah cannot be called a suicide even if, as a fighter, he acts recklessly by worldly standards. [ more ]

le: [18]

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upd. 2011-11-25

from 2005-07-16

 

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