What is the ruling on what is called suicide operations, or martyrdom operations as some call them?

The Shaykh : Now we come to what? Suicide operations?!
The student : Suicide operations.

The Shaykh : Suicide operations: We have known these from the Japanese and their like, when a man would attack an American warship, for example, with his plane, exploding with his plane, but destroying the army that was in that American warship, for example. We say: Suicide operations in the present time are all not permissible, and they are all forbidden. They may be of the type that causes their owner to remain in the Fire forever, and they may be of the type that does not cause their owner to remain in the Fire forever, as I explained earlier. As for the suicide operation being an act of devotion to draw near to Allah: today, a person fights for the sake of his land, for the sake of his homeland. These suicide operations are not Islamic at all. In fact, I say today: What represents the Islamic truth, and not the truth that some enthusiastic Muslims want, I say: today there is no jihad in the Islamic land at all. There is fighting, there is fighting in many countries. But jihad is established under an Islamic banner, and it is established on the basis of Islamic rulings. Among these rulings is that the soldier does not act on his own opinion, he does not act on his own independent legal reasoning, but rather he obeys the order of his commander. And this commander is not one who appointed himself as commander, but rather the one appointed by the Caliph of the Muslims. So where is the Caliph of the Muslims today? Where is the Caliph, or rather the ruler, who raised the banner of Islam and called upon the Muslims to gather around him and to strive in the path of Allah (Mighty and Majestic)? This does not exist. So long as this Islamic jihad is supposed to be under an Islamic banner, and this Islamic banner does not exist, then Islamic jihad does not exist. Therefore, Islamic suicide does not exist. I mean a suicide that was known previously in the era of fighting with spears, swords, and arrows. A type of this fighting resembled suicide. For example: when an individual from the army attacks a group, a group of disbelieving polytheists, with his sword, striking them right and left. This is rare, and it is seldom that he survives. Is it permissible for him to do that? We say: It is permissible or not permissible. If the commander of the Muslim army is the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in the time of the Messenger, and he gave him permission, then it is permissible for him to do so. But for him to act on his own, it is not permissible for him, because it is a risk and an adventure, if we do not say a gamble, where the result is a loss. It is not permissible except by the permission of the Muslim ruler, or the Muslim Caliph. Why? Because it is supposed that this Muslim Caliph estimates matters correctly, so he knows when, for example, a hundred Muslims should attack a thousand, or fewer or more, and he orders them to attack. He knows that many of them may be killed, but he knows that the outcome is for the Muslims. So if the commander of the Muslim army, the one entrusted with this leadership by the Muslim Caliph, orders a soldier in one of the modern methods of suicide, this becomes a type of jihad in the path of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). But suicide by the independent legal reasoning of an enthusiastic young man, as we hear today, for example, individuals climbing mountains and going to an army of Jews and killing a number of them, then being killed themselves. What is the benefit of these things? These are personal actions that have no outcome in the interest of the Islamic call at all. Therefore, we say to the Muslim youth: Preserve your lives, on the condition that you study your religion and your Islam, and that you become acquainted with it correctly, and that you act upon it within your ability. This work, even if it is slow and even if it is gradual, is what will bear the expected fruit that every Muslim today hopes for, no matter what ideological or methodological differences exist among them. They all agree that Islam must be the ruler, but they differ in the methods, as I mentioned at the beginning.