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Then We save Our messengers and those who have believed. Just so is it compulsory for Us to save the faithful. (Q10:103)
ثُمَّ نُنَجِّي رُسُلَنَا وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كَذَلِكَ حَقًّا عَلَيْنَا نُنْجِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
Believers are dying all the time, many of them through calamities such as natural disasters, genocides, and armed conflicts. AL-LAH mentions not only the killing of the faithful in wars and persecutions, such as in Suratil-Buruj of the Qur’an, but even His messengers being murdered by their own people. What does it mean, then, for Him to say that We save Our messengers and those who have believed, if saving is not the same as rescuing from death? And in what sense is it compulsory for Him?
The answer is found in verses such as the following:
And do not say of those who have been killed upon the path of GOD ‘Deceased’. Rather [say] ‘Alive’, but you are not aware. (Q2:154)
وَلاَ تَقُولُوا لِمَنْ يُقْتَلُ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتٌ بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ وَلَكِنْ لاَ تَشْعُرُونَ
And do not think that those who have been killed upon the path of GOD are dead. No, they live, provisioned, with their Lord. (Q3:169)
وَلاَ تَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ قُتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتًا بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ
These verses tell us not to equate apparent, i.e., bodily, life with real life. We do not physically see the latter, but are admonished to believe that those who have it are with their Lord. In other words, the Qur’an is challenging our preconceptions of what it means to live and to die.
In the Qur’an, then, ‘saving’, is a rescue not from corporeal death, which no mortal escapes, but from the spiritual death of those who acknowledge nothing beyond ‘Deceased’. Faith in a greater life, the Life of GOD, saves us from the greater death, the death of the spirit. By trusting in this Divine intervention, we can become the friends of GOD for whom there is no fear and neither do they grieve. (Q10:62) The obligation GOD feels is that of friendship or guardianship, for AL-LAH is the friend of those who have believed. (Q2:257) It is not something put upon Him (for nothing can compel Him) but rather an expression of His Divine Character.
The manner or magnitude of death does not affect this relationship between GOD and those whom He befriends. The greatest worldly disasters, however ‘evil’ their label may be, are occasions for AL-LAH to reveal Himself, in situations like the nine scenarios of the previous chapter, more compellingly to those whom He chooses. His Power is apparent in the scale of the catastrophe, but His Love is manifest to individuals who discover a new life glowing brighter in the darkness engulfing them. They are impelled more certainly to Him by their greater need in those final horrible moments. It is their need, expressed as yearning for His absolutes, that marks them out for salvation.
The onset or threat of death is a particularly propitious time for these openings to the Divine. In many cases, only something as relentless and heart-breaking as death or its close relatives – disaster, defeat, and disgrace – can force a soul entrenched in its comforts and assumptions to scurry out into the open and frantically survey its world with the keenness of what could be its last look. It is then that GOD swoops down, so to speak, and beckons the soul to rise to a higher, more expansive frame of mind and heart. From this new height, death can appear small, or providential, or even inviting, depending on that soul’s condition. This ascent into the vastness of the hitherto unknown is the path of faith, which on the field of battle is called the path of GOD.
It is of the utmost significance that those who sacrifice their lives for GOD are designated shuhada’, or witnesses. In Ancient Greek, mártur had the same meaning. What inspires and enables the martyr’s extraordinary struggle in those closing moments is a vision that overwhelms or diminishes his fear. He sees another reality open up before him, and in the enthusiasm of that revelation he becomes, if only momentarily, a being transformed. But is it a vision of God he sees or, as we have come to suspect in the suicide attacks of recent years, an explosive mix of genuine ideals, exploitative propaganda, futile rage, savage despair, and a selfish obsession with heavenly rewards?
Even on the field of battle in a cause that is clearly for AL-LAH, we cannot know for sure.
‘Umarub-nul-Khattab narrated to me [‘Abdul-Lahibni-‘Abbas], saying, “On the day of [the battle of] Khaibar, a group of the companions of the Prophet (may GOD bless him and give him peace) fell to saying, ‘So-and-so is a martyr; So-and-so is a martyr’. Then they passed [the corpse of] a man and said, ‘So-and-so is a martyr’. Then the Messenger of AL-LAH (may GOD bless him and give him peace) replied, ‘No; verily I saw him in the Fire, in a cloak or mantle that he had misappropriated.’ Then the Messenger of AL-LAH (may GOD bless him and give him peace) said, ‘O Ibnal-Khattab, go and call out among the people that no one will enter the Garden but the believers.’” (Sahihu Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 216)
قَالَ حَدَّثَنِي عُمَرُ بْنُ الْخَطَّابِ، قَالَ لَمَّا كَانَ يَوْمُ خَيْبَرَ أَقْبَلَ نَفَرٌ مِنْ صَحَابَةِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَقَالُوا فُلاَنٌ شَهِيدٌ فُلاَنٌ شَهِيدٌ حَتَّى مَرُّوا عَلَى رَجُلٍ فَقَالُوا فُلاَنٌ شَهِيدٌ . فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم كَلاَّ إِنِّي رَأَيْتُهُ فِي النَّارِ فِي بُرْدَةٍ غَلَّهَا أَوْ عَبَاءَةٍ . ثُمَّ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَا ابْنَ الْخَطَّابِ اذْهَبْ فَنَادِ فِي النَّاسِ إِنَّهُ لاَ يَدْخُلُ الْجَنَّةَ إِلاَّ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
I [Abu Hurairah] heard the Messenger of AL-LAH (may GOD bless him and give him peace) say, “The first of men to be judged on the Day of Resurrection will be one who was martyred. He will be brought forward and His blessings recounted to him, and he will acknowledge them. GOD will ask, ‘What did you do with them?’ He will say, ‘I fought for you till I was martyred.’ GOD will reply, ‘You lie. Rather you fought that it might be said [that you were] a warrior. And it has been said.’ Then it will be commanded that he be dragged upon his face and cast into the Fire.” (Sahihu Muslim, Book 33, Hadith 218)
سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَقُولُ إِنَّ أَوَّلَ النَّاسِ يُقْضَى يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ عَلَيْهِ رَجُلٌ اسْتُشْهِدَ فَأُتِيَ بِهِ فَعَرَّفَهُ نِعَمَهُ فَعَرَفَهَا قَالَ فَمَا عَمِلْتَ فِيهَا قَالَ قَاتَلْتُ فِيكَ حَتَّى اسْتُشْهِدْتُ . قَالَ كَذَبْتَ وَلَكِنَّكَ قَاتَلْتَ لأَنْ يُقَالَ جَرِيءٌ . فَقَدْ قِيلَ . ثُمَّ أُمِرَ بِهِ فَسُحِبَ عَلَى وَجْهِهِ حَتَّى أُلْقِيَ فِي النَّارِ
The same hadith goes on to characterize the false scholar and the pretentious donor to religious causes in similar terms.
From Abi Hurairah (may AL-LAH be pleased with him), from the Messenger of AL-LAH (may GOD bless him and give him peace), who said, “A woman was forgiven – a prostitute [who] passed by a dog beside a well, panting and nearly dead from thirst. So she took off her shoe, tied it with her headscarf, and drew out some water for it. She was forgiven on account of that.” (Sahihul-Bukhari, Book 59, Hadith 127)
عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ ـ رضى الله عنه ـ عَنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ غُفِرَ لاِمْرَأَةٍ مُومِسَةٍ مَرَّتْ بِكَلْبٍ عَلَى رَأْسِ رَكِيٍّ يَلْهَثُ، قَالَ كَادَ يَقْتُلُهُ الْعَطَشُ، فَنَزَعَتْ خُفَّهَا، فَأَوْثَقَتْهُ بِخِمَارِهَا، فَنَزَعَتْ لَهُ مِنَ الْمَاءِ، فَغُفِرَ لَهَا بِذَلِكَ
The common element here, either present in the case of the prostitute or felt to be missing in the case of the pseudo-martyr, is sincerity (ikhlas in Arabic), a secret (sirr) in the heart of a believer that no one but AL-LAH can see. Following a religion or participating in ‘holy’ acts does not prove its presence, and a history of sin or crime does not necessarily bar one from access to it. This element is what GOD aims to expose in those precious life crises that precede our admission, ready or not, to the Everafter. And it is this same mysterious and dynamic insight that enabled the characters in the previous chapter to ‘see’ their way to a greater absolute, even if they did not frame their enhanced realization in those terms.
The GOD You Already Know 