What is the criterion for people saying: So-and-so died a martyr, and is it permissible to declare someone a martyr?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner asks: What is the correct position regarding our saying that so-and-so is a martyr, as this term is frequently mentioned in recent times?
Answer:
Likewise, we do not declare that so-and-so is a martyr except where the evidence indicates it. As for others, we hope for them to be martyrs; we hope, we do not say "martyr," we say "we hope for them to be martyrs." This is because declaring someone a martyr requires knowing his intention: Is he fighting to exalt the word of Allah? Is this fighting prescribed or not? Everyone who is killed in the cause is a martyr, yes.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner asks: What is the correct position regarding our saying that so-and-so is a martyr, as this term is frequently mentioned in recent times?
Answer:
Likewise, we do not declare that so-and-so is a martyr except where the evidence indicates it. As for others, we hope for them to be martyrs; we hope, we do not say "martyr," we say "we hope for them to be martyrs." This is because declaring someone a martyr requires knowing his intention: Is he fighting to exalt the word of Allah? Is this fighting prescribed or not? Everyone who is killed in the cause is a martyr, yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [133 -560] ما الضابط في قول الناس: فلان مات شهيدا، وهل يحكم على أحد بالشهادة؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.