Shaheed

Funeral of a Shaheed who died in battle during the Iran-Iraq War which lasted from 1980-1988

Shaheed (Arabic: شهيد [ʃahiːd], fem. [ʃahiːdah], pl. شُهَدَاء [ʃuhadaː]; Punjabi: ਸ਼ਹੀਦ) denotes a martyr in Islam and Sikhism.^[1] The word is used frequently in the Quran in the generic sense of "witness" but only once in the sense of "martyr" (i.e. one who dies for his faith); the latter sense acquires wider usage in the hadith.^[2]^[3]

Quranic references

A shaheed is one who is promised to go to Jannah according to these verses of the Quran:

Think not of those, who are slain in the way of Allah, as dead. Nay, they are living. With their Lord they have provision. Jubilant (are they) because of that which Allah hath bestowed upon them of His bounty, rejoicing for the sake of those who have not joined them but are left behind: That there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve.

- Quran 3:169–170^[4]

Lo! Allah hath bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because the Garden will be theirs: they shall fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain. It is a promise which is binding on Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur'an. Who fulfilleth His covenant better than Allah? Rejoice then in your bargain that ye have made, for that is the supreme triumph.

- Quran 9:111^[4]

Those who fled their homes for the cause of Allah and then were slain or died, Allah verily will provide for them a good provision. Lo! Allah, He verily is Best of all who make provision. Assuredly He will cause them to enter by an entry that they will love. Lo! Allah verily is Knower, Indulgent.

- Quran 22:58–59^[4]

Shaheed Media

Detail of Taru Singh being scalped alive from a 19th century Sikh drawing depicting his martyrdom

References

↑ Khalid Zaheer (November 22, 2013). Definition of a shaheed. http://www.dawn.com/news/1057801. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
↑ "The word shahid (plural shahada) has the meaning of "martyr" and is closely related in its development to the Greek martyrios in that it means both a witness and a martyr [...] in the latter sense only once is it attested (3:141)." David Cook, Oxford Bibliographies
↑ "Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, μάρτυ^ς". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 Marmaduke Pickthall

[1] Khalid Zaheer (November 22, 2013). Definition of a shaheed. http://www.dawn.com/news/1057801. Retrieved 11 January 2016.

[2] "The word shahid (plural shahada) has the meaning of "martyr" and is closely related in its development to the Greek martyrios in that it means both a witness and a martyr [...] in the latter sense only once is it attested (3:141)." David Cook, Oxford Bibliographies

[3] "Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, μάρτυ^ς". www.perseus.tufts.edu.

[pi-4] 4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 Marmaduke Pickthall

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