Suhaib Webb – Those Lost To COVID19 Are Shahd, inshallah.
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The question that I've been getting a lot
from people is
if a person dies in this pandemic
because of this illness, are they
a shahid? Are they considered a martyr?
Before I answer the question, let's first extend
our prayers for the dead, for their families.
I know that we know a lot of
people. I think Imam Khad was telling us
today at the ICNYU around 50 people that
we know of that have been either explicitly
or implicitly
impacted by this challenge.
And we pray for them, pray for their
families, pray for those of you who may
be sick
and those of you who have family members
that are sick may Allah bring a quick
cure
and make this a means of forgiveness,
and blessings.
To the answer, the answer really has 5
parts and forgive me if I go a
little bit too long, but I like to
explain to you sometimes the logic of answers
so that you can really appreciate
kind of the depth and beauty of our
religion Masha'Allah and then appreciate like the depth
of scholarship that takes place in our community.
So the first is what happens
if something
occurs which is not explicitly addressed
in the Sharia?
What imam ibn Hazm called al mazkutu anha,
like something that's not really addressed by the
or the communication of God.
The majority of jurists would look at what
are called the Ilal. And the Ilal are
the undermining
causes of something. And if there is a
correlation between something which is found in a
text, it's elah,
and then that thing which is not mentioned
in a text or by the
prophet
explicitly, then they try to see can you
match
those
underlying causes and then apply the same potential
ruling.
One of the words used to describe this
is asbaab,
asbaab
sharia,
the things which the sharia has identified as
causes
for the ruling on something.
And there's a very beautiful axiom that says,
the causes of Sharia.
It's a very important axiom that says the
causes that are found in certain Sharia related
text and acts
are not restricted to
context
in many instances. Not all instances,
but many instances, and that can be because
of a number of reasons.
Number 1, it's what we call
mana allogawi,
that we find a correlation between the language,
the meaning of something
that is found in a text like alcohol,
for example,
and the meaning of something that's not found
in a text
like marijuana, for example. Right? The meaning of
intoxication,
could be shared there.
Another example
is that there is a mosharak
in some of the
strange outcomes and occurrences that may be associated
with something,
maybe
in the Sharia, maybe found in something which
are not explicitly mentioned in the Sharia. So
number 1 is the Mahna. Number 2 is
the Arod.
The third is that the thing which does
not have a text,
the the underlying cause which is found in
a text may be greater
in the thing which does not have a
text for it. So I'll give a simple
example, Allah says
like don't say it to your parents like,
well then hitting them, right? Because you don't
want to say to your parents because it
would harm them. Well hitting them, although it's
not mentioned explicitly,
the pain caused by a physical
hit, may Allah protect us from that, is
gonna be greater than going.
So here what I'm trying to do, and
let's not get caught up in the arguments
about certain things. It's just to show you
how
scholars, and there's only 3, there's many, are
going to like bring out the asbaab of
Sharia
and then the causes found in Sharia and
then find how they are shared and things
which are not in Sharia. This is a
very beautiful process.
What Imam Al Haramain said is the Taj
of the Faqih, this is like the pride
of the scholar because in this way
the Deen stays relevant in the lives of
others Masha'Allah.
Again the axiom says
and I didn't mention last part it says
that these causes
found in Sharia texts are actually like alarms
or alerts to show how you can create
this relationship,
Masha'Allah Masha'Allah.
That takes us now to something really cool
like if you look at some of the
works of scholars Sayna Imam Asiyuti, he wrote
a book called Abuaba Sa'adafi
asbab shahada
And the title is very important if you
think about what I just told you. He
wrote a book called The Doors of Happiness
Found in the Causes of martyrdom.
As Bab al Shahada.
The process I talked about earlier, those relationships,
he actually wrote a book on this. What
are those things that we find either explicitly
mentioned in Sharia or can be extracted
from the causes found in Sharia that would
cause someone to be determined
a martyr?
He mentioned 56. One of my teachers, Masha'Allah,
he actually did his PhD on this and
is very very profound. For example, he mentioned
someone who dies of hypothermia.
There's a hadith that supports this. Someone who
dies of a temperature or someone who dies
of a stomach illness, someone who defies dies
defending his home, his family, his honor, his
property, all these are considered insha'Allah shuhada,
martyrs. He mentions
56. Now that takes us to the next
question is like what's a shahid?
In our tradition, we have 3 types of
shahid, 3 types of martyrs. Number 1 is
what's called shahid, a dunya wal akhira. It's
the shahid who is considered a martyr in
the dunya and the akhira. In this life,
the temporary life, and the next life. What
do we mean by in the dunya? Meaning
that they have specific
akham,
specific rulings which apply to them in dunya,
that don't apply to anyone else, and then
they also reap the benefits of the akhira,
and that's someone who dies on the battlefield
as the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said whoever
fights so that the word of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
sincerely right can be raised and they are
killed in that process
then they are a shahidfa'huvisa
bidillah.
The second is what's called shahidat dunya
and what that means is that someone
engages
in, for example, a battle, but they're not
doing it sincerely.
So they would be given the rewards
or the rulings, excuse me, of the dunya
so they would not be washed, they would
not be given janazah, They would be buried
with everyone else, but in the hereafter, we
know the hadith of Sahih Muslim, they'd be
punished because they did not do it sincerely.
They did a houriah. They did it to
steal something or so on and so forth.
The third is someone who is considered shahid
al akhira only.
What we call shahid al hokomiya, someone who
receives
the understanding that they are shahid
in the hereafter
but not in this life and that's the
person who dies as the prophet mentioned sallallahu
alaihi wasallam in numerous hadith
of things which are outside of the battlefield.
Those 56
categories that Sayidna Imam Asiyuti mentioned. So again,
3 types of shahid. Number 1 is shahidid
dunya al akhira, the shahid in this life
and the next the one who dies sincerely
defending
on the battlefield.
Number 2 is the person who isn't engaged
in that sincerely. So that's shahid adunya only.
And then the third is shahid al akhira,
a person who dies of one of the
causes
recognized by Sharia or extrapolated by scholars Insha'Allah,
but they didn't do so on the battlefield.
So that person is going to be preyed
on, That person is going to be washed.
That's why they are not in Dunya. They
are only in Achera.
To expand on this concept quickly and this
takes us kind of to the 4th and
5th points, the prophet he said to Sahaba
in a sound hadith,
he said, do you know, do you know
who is the shahid?
Do you know who is the martyr? And
they said, yeah, the one mankutilafi
sabillila fahu a shahid,
the person who dies on the battlefield,
and then he said
then he said, oh well then from my
then there's only going to be a few
people, because most people are going to be
able
to to to experience that.
And then He said, salallahu alaihi wasalam, manmatabifaisa
billillah whoever dies,
whoever dies fighting,
in a battle is a shayhid, whoever dies
without fighting on the battlefield like you could
say nurses, doctors, and so on, then that
person is a shahid.
And whoever dies in an epidemic or a
pandemic
or a plague and
whoever dies because they have a stomach illness
and he expands on it. Another narration, Buhari,
Ashuhada hamza you know that the martyrs are
5 and then he mentions them
It takes us to the last point about
the people who have died from this virus
and that is that the predominant opinion amongst
our scholars, some of my teachers is that
they are in fact martyrs because if we
look at the asbaab,
the 56th hadith
about people who are going to die and
be considered shahid, the 3rd the 3rd type
of shahid, the 3rd tier, shahid al akhira,
we find that some of those qualities
are all found in someone that has this
virus potentially. So for example, digestive issues.
Another narration talks about people who have heart
attacks, Mella protect us. People who have,
infections in their lungs is mentioned in these
hadith. Someone who has a temperature.
So the Ulema, many of them they said
if we look at the coronavirus we find
a number of Asbaab
found
even in isolation in other texts
that note that that person Insha'Allah will be
a shahid, and I mentioned some of them.
Fever, digestive issues, respiratory failure, a stroke is
mentioned by the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in
his terms. So now insha'Allah we should, you
know, we should give people good news man.
Like why would you fight about this online?
Like why would you tell someone something? You
know, I understand you want to stand for
the truth, but especially if you don't know
the process and you may be wrong, you're
gonna hurt people, you're gonna harm them, you're
gonna damage them,
and you're gonna give them something which may
be not the correct information.
So the last point Insha'Allah,
is those people are going to be Shuhada
and the akhira, they're going to martyrs, be
martyrs in the hereafter. As one scholar said
that
because of the pain and suffering associated with
this illness
that it is
unquestionable
that these people are going to be Insha'Allah,
Shaheed. The last is the idea of
excuse me and Al Waba. You know some
people said there's a difference between a plague
and an epidemic.
Again, when we take all of the asbaab
of the hadith that talk about Ta'un,
we find those asbaab also at a micro
level to a certain degree in a pandemic
or an epidemic so the same applies here
the rulings inshallah match for those of you
who've lost family my sincere condolences to you.
Ask Allah subhanahu to accept them. I know
that it's very difficult for you, but I
want you to know that we love you
as an Ummah
and we pray for your family. Barakalafiqum.
I hope this helped inshallah to a certain
degree. Assalamu alaykum Rahmatullah.