You knew there would be a catch, didn’t you?
This is interesting because every once in a while some blog-troll pops up who insists that suicide bombing is forbidden in Islam, or something… In that case, we point out that 9:111 is perfect justification for suicide attacks, but you know how adamant blog-trolls are. We might be able to use this as a reference in the future:
“Praying behind imams who endorse terror declared haram,” from the Daily Times, December 16 (thanks to JW):
KARACHI: Offering prayers behind any imam who endorses terrorism and suicide attacks on Muslims, mosques, imambargahs, women and children and the country’s security forces is declared haram (forbidden in Islam), according to a decree issued by religious scholars on Tuesday. “Suicide bombings and terrorist attacks in Pakistan are haram. Offering namaz behind those religious leaders who support suicide bombings and terrorism in the country is also haram,” the decree stated. The decree against the pro-terrorism clerics and religious party leaders came at an Ulema Convention that was held at the Jinnah Ground, under the aegis of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. The clerics urged unity among the various sects of Islam, saying that all sects should respect each other in the light of the teachings of the holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). MQM chief Altaf Hussain had appealed to scholars to condemn pro-terrorism leaders as well. The MQM chief asked religious scholars to create awareness among the masses about religious extremism. He said their role was crucial in defeating extremism in the country. He said use of force to impose sharia as well as terrorists involved in suicide bombings had defamed Islam across the world.
Suicide car bomber strikes Kabul hotel
- Eight killed in blast outside hotel used by westerners/The Guardian
- Former Afghanistan vice-president may have been target
- Terror alert after suicide bombers enter India – India – The Times …
- Suicide Bomber Kills 6 at Pakistan Court – CBS News
Is suicide for jihad an innovation in Islam?
A few minutes ago I received an email that made this assertion:
As gris eminence Bernard Lewis has pointed out, the terrorists loosened Islamic law interpretations fairly recently to permit suicide in the cause of jihad. Why can’t it be changed back?
I responded:
Actually the idea of suicide in the cause of jihad is no innovation. It is founded upon Qur’an 9:111, which guarantees Paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah. It is a phenomenon that is actually found throughout Islamic history, and is not new. In the 18th century John Paul Jones wrote about Ottoman sailors setting their own ships on fire and ramming the ships of their enemies, although they knew this meant certain death for them.And centuries before that, the Assassins, Hashishin, went into their missions knowing that death was virtually certain, and energized by the promise of Paradise that had been made vivid for them in an artful scenario that was used as a recruitment tool: the prospective assassin would be given hashish and then taken into a garden full of beautiful women, and told that he was enjoying a taste of Islamic Paradise. Then to return to that Paradise, he was told that he had to go out and kill his victim, and be killed in the process.
One key word in the history of Islamic warfare to understand their ultra-kamikaze penchant — is inghimass, which means “to plunge into” battle.
To pick one example out of a fez, back in 2008, Jihad Watch reported a minor jihad in Chad against Christians and “atheists”, where the Muslim attackers were described by Chad’s security minister as “intoxicated by indescribable extremism … almost mad” as they “threw themselves” against the fire of security forces in the belief they were immune to bullets.”
traeh has supplied many hadiths about “martyrdom” in battle. Here is one from Sahih Muslim that could well be using the Arabic word inghimass:
“The tradition has been narrated on the authority of ‘Abdullah b. Qais. He heard it from his father who, while facing the enemy, reported that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: Surely, the gates of Paradise are under the shadows of the swords. A man in a shabby condition got up and said; Abu Musa, did you hear the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) say this? He said: Yes. (The narrator said): He returned to his friends and said: I greet you (a farewell greeting). Then he broke the sheath of his sword, threw it away, advanced [inghimass?] with his (naked) sword towards the enemy and fought (them) with it until he was slain.”
Book 020, Number 4681
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muslim/020.smt.html#020.4681
Also:
1.
Sheik al-Qardawi [on Al Jazeera television in 2005 as reported by Walid Phares] went as far as linking today’s suicide bombing to what he called “inghimass” (to throw oneself against the enemy). According to him, this has been permitted by religious teaching since the early days of Islam.
http://jihadwatch.org/archives/007583.php
2.
The Muslims of the Philippines have been suicidally attacking for apparently centuries — attacking first the Spanish (and most likely attacking the original island dwellers when Muslims first arrived), then the Japanese, then the Americans — also known asjuramentados. These juramentados were “fanatics who, believing that they would enter Paradise if killed in battle against infidels, would whip themselves into obsessed states of self-hypnosis and, kris [dagger] in hand, charge blindly into the ranks of the enemy, be he Spaniard, American, Japanese or Filipino. In this semimystical trance the juramentados often raced directly into heavy volleys of rifle fire, shrugged off incredible wounds, and had to be killed on their feet literally, before their attack ended.”
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196504/kris.and.crescent.htm
3.
“As for the arguments that have been used to prove that it is permitted for someone to kill himself in order to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy, like the proofs that it is permitted to be courageous and plunge into enemy lines [inghimas]… this [permission] does not allow one to kill one’s self, but rather [permits one to enter into situations where] one is killed by the enemy or by someone else…”
“we use the proofs and the texts calling for bravery and penetrating [iqtiham] andstorming [inghimas] enemy lines – but this without being foolhardy – and [this is permitted] even if it leads to one’s being killed by the enemy, so long as there is in one’s storming [enemy lines] an overriding benefit to the jihad, to Islam, and to the Muslims. On the other hand, we have the proofs and the texts that forbid one to kill one’s self. The reconciliation [of these two groups of texts] is possible and easy, and there is absolutely no need to have recourse to limiting [the application of] or abrogating [texts]!”
– Syrian Sheik Al-Tartusi as reported in Memri
http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sr&ID=SR4006
Also, I read somewhere (but lost the reference) that Muslim in SE Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia) resisted Western colonialism in the 19th and early 20th century through suicidal attacks, and may have been the first to use explosives this way — thus antedating the Tamil Tigers whom everyone trots out as the “inventors” of suicide bombing attacks.
