Verdict Regarding the Permissibility of the Martyrdom Operations

Question:

You know what is happening to the Palestinians at this time from the crimes of the Jews and the humiliating Arab silence. So is there, in the suicide operations against the Jews, any opposition from the Shari’ah?

The Answer:

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful..

The pestering Jews are the gatherers of all the shameful defects and the collectors of the aggravations and the evils and they are the harshest enemies of Allah against Al-Islam and its people. He, the Most High said: {“Verily, you will find the strongest among men in enmity to the believers (Muslims) the Jews and those who are Al- Mushrikun.”} [al-Ma’idah: 82]

And Allah has made compulsory the fighting against them and making Jihad against them so that the Word of Allah is the highest and the word of those who disbelieve is the lowest. Yet all this is when the enemies of Allah remain within their states and do not break their contracts and covenants and do not seize the wealth of the Muslims and overtake their states.

He, the Most High said: {“Fight against those who believe not in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth [i.e. Islam] among the people of the Scripture [Jews and Christians], until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”} [at-Tauba; 29]

But when the enemies of Allah place their swords upon the throats of the Muslims and terrorize their young and their elderly and overtake their states and violate their chastity, then it is obligatory from among all the people of ability to fight them and spill their blood and make ongoing Jihad against them until the full liberation of Palestine and all the countries of the Muslims.

And it is not allowed in the Shari’ah to surrender any of the lands of the Muslims to the Jews or to make peace with them because they are a people of deception and deceit and of breaking of treaties. And I see that in this time, in which the Muslims are unable to [fully] fight the Jews and destroy them and expel them from the Holy Land, that the best treatment and the greatest medicine that we apply to the brothers of the monkeys and the pigs [i.e. the Jews] is that we perform the suicide operations and put forward our souls as a ransom for motivation of Iman and for praiseworthy goals from planting the fear in the hearts those who disbelieve and inflicting harm upon their bodies and losses in their wealth.

And the evidences concerning the suicide operations are many and I have mentioned elsewhere some ten-odd proofs and I’ve listed their fruits and benefits of performing them. He, the Most High said: {“And of mankind is he who would sell himself, seeking the Pleasure of Allah. And Allah is full of Kindness to [His] slaves.”} [al-Baqarah: 207]

And from the narrations of the Sahabah and the Imams of those who witnessed them, concerning the meaning of this verse is a strong evidence concerning that the one who sells himself to Allah and plunges into the ranks of the enemy headlong, without retreating, even if he is certain that they will kill him, that he is a Muh’sin [i.e. sincere in his devotion] in that and that he receives the rewards from him Lord with the patient ones and the hopeful martyrs.

And in “Sahih Muslim” #3,005 from the path of Hammad Ibn Salamah, Thabit al-Banani narrated to us from Abdur-Rahmān Ibn Abi Layla from Suhayb from the Prophet, peace by upon him, in the story of the Sorcerer and the Monk and the Boy.

This Hadith; and in it the monotheist boy proclaimed to the Kafir King, “…you will not be able to kill me until you do what I order you to do.’ He said: ‘And what is that?’ He said: ‘You join all the people on an upland plain and crucify me upon a tree trunk. Then take an arrow from my quiver and place the arrow in the bow and then say, ‘In the Name of Allah, the Lord of the boy,’ and then shoot me. And verily, if you do that, you will kill me.”

So he joined all the people on an upland plain and crucified him to a tree trunk and then he took an arrow from his quiver. The he placed it in the bow and said: ‘In the Name of Allah, the Lord of the boy,’ and then he shot him and the arrow entered the temporal region of his skull. So the boy put his hand over the temporal region of his skull and then he died. So the people said:

“We have believed in the Lord of the boy, we have believed in the Lord of the boy, we have believed in the Lord of the boy!”

So the king was approached and it was said to him: “You know what you were afraid of? I swear by Allah that that which you were afraid of has fallen upon you. The people have believed.” So he ordered for trenches to be dug out of the mouths of paths. So the fires were lit and he said: ‘whoever does not turn back from their religion [i.e. Islam], I will throw him in it or he will be commanded: ‘Jump in it!’ So they did that until a woman came and she had with her an infant boy and she was afraid for him to enter it. So the boy said to her: ‘O mother, be patient because verily, you are upon the truth!”

So in this, there is evidence for the correctness for these suicide operations that the Mujahideen in the Path of Allah perform; those who are waging war against the Jews and the Christians and those who make mischief in the Earth. This is because; the boy instructed the King the means with which to kill him when the King was unable to do that after trying unsuccessfully and seeking the help of the soldiers and aids. So this action of the boy; within it there is the method of the killing of himself and [the one who instructs how to kill is the] partner in that. His judgment is the same judgment as the one who killed him. And the goal of these two matters [i.e. the story of the boy and the infant boy commanding his mother to jump into the fire] is making the truth apparent and supporting it, and [evidence for] inflicting harm against the Jews and the Christians and the Pagans and their supporters and weakening their strengths and planting fear in their selves. And the benefit rules [in favour] of the slaughtering of the Muslims and the Mujahideen with one of their own men or some of their men in the path of harming the disbelievers and terrorizing them and weakening their strengths.

He, the Most High said: {“And make ready against them all you can of power, including steeds of war [tanks, planes, missiles, artillery, etc.] to terrorize with it the enemy of Allāh and your enemy, and others besides whom, you may not know but whom Allah does know.”} [al-Anfaal: 60]

And most of the people of knowledge had permitted for the Muslim to plunge himself headlong into the ranks of the disbelievers even if he is certain that they will kill him. And the evidences for this are many and most of the scholars made permissible the killing of the Muslim prisoners if the disbelieving enemy takes them as shields and if the evil of the disbelievers and their harm can not be prevented except by killing the Muslim prisoners, then the killer is a Mujahid and receives the rewards and the killed [prisoner] is a martyr. And Allah knows best.

Your brother, Sulayman Ibn Nasir al-’Alwan Buraydah, al-Qaasim 10/07/1421

Translated by at-Tibyyan Publications