Then he said: The martyrs are five: the one struck by plague, the one who dies of a stomach ailment, the one who drowns, the one killed by a collapse, and the one killed in the path of Allah. And he said: If people knew what is in the call to prayer and the first row, and they found no way to get it except by drawing lots, they would draw lots for it.

The Shaykh : The second point: Then he said: It appears that it was the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) who said this, though it is possible that it was Abu Hurayrah, meaning he also narrated this hadith: The martyrs are five: the one struck by plague, the one who dies of a stomach ailment, the one who drowns, the one killed by a collapse, and the one killed in the path of Allah. The greatest of them in reward is the one killed in the path of Allah. The one killed in the path of Allah is a martyr in the rulings of this world and the rulings of the Hereafter; he is not washed, not shrouded, and no prayer is performed over him. As for the other four—the one struck by plague, the one who dies of a stomach ailment, the one who drowns, and the one killed by a collapse—they are martyrs only in the rulings of the Hereafter. In this world, they are washed, shrouded, and prayed over. Who is the one struck by plague? The one struck by plague is the one who died of the plague. The plague is a deadly epidemic, may Allah protect us from it. The one who dies of a stomach ailment is the one who died of pain in his abdomen. Some of the later scholars said that this likely refers to an appendicitis, as the appendix kills a person quickly, like the plague. As for the ordinary pain of a stomach ailment, where the abdomen hurts, then heals, then hurts again, then heals, that is like ordinary illnesses. So the meaning of "the one who dies of a stomach ailment" is the one who died of a rapidly fatal abdominal disease. The one who drowns is the one who died by drowning. The one killed by a collapse is the one who died due to a collapse, meaning a wall collapsed on him, or earth collapsed on him while he was digging a well, for example, or something similar. As for the one killed in the path of Allah, he is the one who was killed so that the word of Allah would be supreme, and then he was killed. This is the best of them, and this is the one about whom Allah the Exalted said: and so on. As for the third point, he said: By "the call," he means the adhan. The first row is well known; meaning, if a person could not reach it except by drawing lots, he would draw lots against others. This indicates the encouragement to compete for it, which is the opposite of what some people do today. When a group descends to a place in the desert and the time for the adhan arrives, each one says to the other, "Call, call." Glory be to Allah! The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: If a person knew what is in the call, he would draw lots for it. But this is a form of deprivation. Therefore, a person should hasten; when the time enters, he should call the adhan, unless there is a regular mu'adhdhin appointed by the leader of the group, in which case he should not call in his presence. Is the virtue of the second row over the third like that of the first over the second? It appears not, and that this is specific to the first row. However, completing the second row before the first is the sunnah (recommended practice), based on the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): They asked, "How do you arrange the rows, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: