The Ruling on Using the Term "Shahid"

The questioner : The questioner : The questioner asks: Is it permissible to call so-and-so a shahid, or to say that he was martyred in the path of Allah?

The Shaykh : The shahid in Islam—my dear brothers—has two states: either his martyrdom is real, or it is legal (judicial) and not real. There are two types of martyrdom. The first type is the Muslim who is killed in battle while fighting in the path of Allah; this is the shahid in reality. He has known rulings in Islam: he is not washed, he is not shrouded, and he is buried in the clothes that are stained with noble blood, and he is buried in the place where he fell. These are specific rulings for the shahid in battle.
Then there is legal martyrdom, and none of these rulings related to martyrdom or the real shahid apply to it. This type of martyrdom—the legal martyrdom—is naturally taken from what the Wise Lawgiver has ruled: that whoever possesses such-and-such a description is a shahid. For example, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , , , , . These are some examples of what is authentic from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding his use of the name "shahid" for them. Nevertheless, the scholars are in agreement that this usage does not grant the virtue of the real shahid who died in battle. Rather, it is a matter of approximation in virtue; meaning, those whom the Messenger (peace be upon him) called shahids, or each of whom he called a shahid, have a virtue that other people do not share, those who do not die in one of these states. But at the same time, they do not take the ruling of the real shahid who died on the battlefield.
If we take a man who threw himself into the service of Islam from the softness of his nails until the certainty from his Lord came to him and he died, there is no doubt that he died in a type of jihad in the path of Allah. But did Islam use the name "shahid" for such a person? The answer is no, despite the greatness of his work. Because the Messenger (peace be upon him) said, for example: , . So the one who writes articles, or prints treatises in refuting the disbelievers and polytheists; this is a type of jihad without a doubt. The one who helps these people with his wealth; he is also a type of jihad in the path of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). But he is not called a shahid by the Shari'ah when he dies in this state. That is because martyrdom is a legal ruling that it is not permissible to apply to everyone who fights in the path of Allah in any type of jihad. Rather, it is standing with the text.
We give you, for example, a man whom women rarely bore in terms of jihad in the general sense: namely, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah. It is sufficient for you that he died in prison, imprisoned unjustly and oppressively, because he was resolute in the truth, and no one could deter him from Allah. So show us which book of the Muslim scholars who write biographies of this man and explain that he was a nation by himself described him as "Ibn Taymiyyah the Shahid," "the Shahid Ibn Taymiyyah"!
The truth—and I say the truth—is that this word has become degraded today, to the extent that we laugh at some people: a man kills another unjustly, oppressively, and tyrannically, then another comes and kills the killer. And when this killer, who has become a corpse and received his due in this world, is carried on the bier and on people's heads, you hear people saying: "And the shahid is the beloved of Allah"! So martyrdom has become a word that is freely used. In Syria, the story of a man in the war with the Jews became widespread, named "George Jamil." You may have heard his name. This man was a Christian, and among the people, even Muslims, due to their ignorance, misguidance, and distance from Islam, he became "the Shahid George Jamil." Even his name was given to a school and a large sign: "The Shahid George Jamil School." What justified this extreme deviation in using this name, even for a disbeliever? We have been lax in using this word, to the point that we included under it any meaning that has a status in Islam. This is not permissible in Islam. We must stand as He (the Exalted) said: , so do not transgress them. Is that not the verse?

The questioner : .

The Shaykh : .
So we, especially in speech, do not use the title or name "shahid" except for what came in the Sunnah as a shahid, no matter how great his work is, as we gave you the example of this great man, namely Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, who died while a prisoner. We do not say about him that he is a shahid. And if we wanted to use this word for some of the heroes who performed well in the service of Islam and fighting the enemies of Islam, we would say "the Shahid Ibn Taymiyyah." But far be it from us to exalt people with words for which we have not been given permission in the Shari'ah of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to use them! In that is a lesson for those who take heed and a reminder for those who remember.