Are the young men who made an effort to go to jihad without a banner or the ruler's permission, and were then killed, considered martyrs?

The questioner : We know that jihad, especially when it is for the purpose of spreading the da'wah and conveying the message, must have a banner. And for the Muslims to gather under this banner, the one who holds this banner, namely the imam or the ruler, must call the ummah to jihad in the path of Allah. However, as we see, the lands of the Muslims are in a state of division, disagreement, and fragmentation, with many banners. For the Muslims to unite under a single banner, this requires a long time, and perhaps it will not happen in the current generation or in the near future. So, many young Muslims, burning with enthusiasm and eager to see their religion victorious and its banner raised, rush the matter and engage in purely individual operations. They do not submit to, or perhaps they even flee from, the systems and rulers governing those lands, fearing that they will fall into a prohibited act and be held accountable for it. So, what I am saying is: if a group of young men, for example, enter the land of the disbelievers, or Muslim land occupied by the disbelievers, without the ruler's permission and not under a single banner, and they are sincere, directing themselves to Allah, and their goal is to fight in the path of Allah, and they are killed, are they considered martyrs by virtue of this intention or not?

The Shaykh : I say that regarding these people, their action is not prescribed, without a doubt, because they are individual actions that do not benefit or satisfy hunger. As for whether they are martyrs? The answer may be the same as the previous one, with a simple addition: if they set out on this individual action to fight the disbelievers with knowledge and deliberation, it is possible that if their departure was based on knowledge, even if their ijtihad was wrong, they can be considered martyrs. But what I know is that many of these young men who set out driven by extreme enthusiasm do not study the issue in light of the rulings of the Shari'ah; rather, they surrender to their misguided emotions. And as you all know, if emotions are not restrained by the rulings of the Shari'ah, their harm is greater than their benefit. So we do not see this as acceptable except with this condition: that it is accompanied by knowledge and ijtihad.
The student : In fact, I was also asked this question today. Some brothers came to me and asked, perhaps this same question, so I gave an answer similar to this one. I mentioned to these brothers an example of the consequences resulting from such individual operations. Some enthusiastic young men who follow leaders—we do not want to discuss the legitimacy of their leadership or their knowledge or ignorance of the matter, that is not our concern now—but I say that such people fight or enter, and perhaps one of them carries a dagger, or perhaps a landmine, or perhaps a pistol or a rifle, and he attacks a car, or a group, or a single individual, killing him, or perhaps killing two or three. The immediate effect of this operation, which they call "operations," is that some aircraft bomb the camps and residential gatherings where the people have nothing to defend themselves with. And even if they do have defensive means, these means cannot resist these aircraft, which kill dozens, if not hundreds, of innocent people living in these camps. Please.

The questioner : Does this apply to the interests of the enemy in countries outside the lands of the Muslims?
The student : It is so. Good, Shaykh, please answer, meaning.

The Shaykh : It applies and it does not apply; there are two cases. If these operations are against the fighting disbelievers with the permission of the state in which these incidents occur, then this is obligatory. But if it is not with the permission of the state, then that is what I meant by saying it does not apply. It is not permissible if the state in which those foreign interests are located—the fighting of the Iraqi people—the state here permits these operations, then it is obligatory. But if it does not permit it, then the harm of these operations, as the professor mentioned earlier regarding these suicide operations, will be that their harm is greater than their benefit. In summary, it is not permissible for every individual Muslim to order himself to make himself an imam and act as he pleases, and I do not say as he desires, because behind that are many harms that follow one another. Allah knows best the outcome of the matter. Yes.
The student : Perhaps, just for clarification, Shaykh, for the noble brother, let us give an example so that the picture is clear. For example, in Greece or in Turkey, which is naturally considered now—the Turkish government or state considers itself to be standing with America, for example, in the fighting. So we do not know who carries out such operations first; that is one point. Because many of those who carry out operations do not do so in support of Iraq, but rather there are some matters that can be exploited in such a circumstance for these people to, for example, blow up an office or a bus, or kill a person, or attack an embassy or the like. This may have no connection to the subject we are discussing now; that is one point. Also, perhaps we can clarify from the Shaykh, when he said "with the permission of that state." I am naturally of the opinion that this state in which such an incident occurs cannot possibly permit such an action, even if that state supports Iraq, for example. So I imagine, Shaykh, that this scenario is far from happening or impossible to happen.

The Shaykh : Ah, in any case, this is the fiqh answer.
The student: Yes.