Naomi Ragen: Kolberg on the Shahid

Friends:

In my ongoing attempt to explain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the wider religious context in which it needs to be viewed by all intelligent and serious people, I send you the following article by Pro. Kolberg of Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Don't let anyone tell you that Islam is the religion of love and it is now being misinterpreted by fanatics. This is Islam. This is what all decent, peace-loving people face. Let's just face the facts before it's too late.

Naomi Ragen

"Shahid": Dead in Their Lifetime, Murderers in Their Death"

(translated from Hebrew)

Prof. Kolberg from the department of Arab language and literature at the Hebrew University is considered one of the foremost Oriental researchers in the world concerning martyrdom in the Muslim religion. He wrote the entry for "Shahid" in the updated edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam.

In the years 623-625 AD Muhamad had a revelation. It happened during the battle of Uhud in the Arabian peninsula. The souls of the warriors killed in this battle rose to heaven, according to one legend, and discovered the pleasures awaiting them. The sought to tell the warriors on earth about them so that they will not fear the battle. Another legend says that 12 virgin will await the Shahid in heaven. Thus the Muslims were first introduced to the Shahada phenomenon: the martyr's death.

The word "Shahid" ("Shuhadaa" in plural) appears in the Kuran meaning "witness". It says (Kuran, 3, El Amran, 140): "...so that god will know who are the believers and will take Shuhadaa from among you", that is, those who died as martyrs.

The Shahid phenomenon is connected to holy war ("Jihad") which relates to the world order as seen by the Muslim religion. Islam, from its beginning, divided the world in two: "Dar Al Islam", which includes all Muslim believers and "Dar Al Harb", the other humans on earth - who must be destroyed. The approach changed over time. The Muslims understood that if they killed all the infidels in the world there would be no one to pay them "head taxes" ("Gizia"). Then they adopted the approach that those among the infidels who surrender to them can continue to follow their religion and pay the tax.

The Prophet Muhamad identified three types of Shahid: The first goes to battle not to kill and not to be killed; the second goes to battle with the aim of killing the enemy without being killed himself; the third seeks to kill the enemy and be killed. All will get their reward, but the greatest reward will come to the martyr of the third kind. This behavior is called "Talab Al-Shahada" (the wish of martyrdom). At the day of judgement he will appear with his drawn sword resting on his shoulder, he will be given more respect than the prophets, and will rest in heaven wherever he chooses... ... Kolberg writes in his article that "there are Islamic scholars today who state explicitly that, if there were modern explosives in the Prophet Muhamad's time, they would have used them exactly as they are used by the Shahid warriors today."

The oath of the Abreks: "The Abrek (a sort of highway bandit with principles from Islamic tradition in the Caucasus) sneaks into the mosque at midnight and takes the oath - 'I swear in the name of the holy place in which I now am and which I respect to be ostracized from this day forward. I want to spill human blood and to have mercy on no one. I will persecute people. I swear to rob them of all that is dear to their heart, to their conscience and to their honor. I will slice with a dagger the baby on its mothers breast, set fire to the beggar's last refuge. And to every place where there was happiness I will bring trouble and worry. If I do not fulfill this oath, if love or mercy should sway my heart, let me never again see my father's grave, may water no longer quench my thirst and food will never satisfy my hunger. Let my corpse be thrown by the roadside and a dirty dog releave itself on it. (from the book "The Love of Ali and Nino", first published in 1937, by Kurban Said, a Jewish writer from Azerbaijan who converted to Islam).

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