Previous: Justification for
Violence in Islam, Part VI: Pacifist Activism in Islamic Legal
System
[56] In the legal heritage of Islam, as discussed above, it emerges
that majority of the Muslim community maintains pacifist activism,
'striving' (literal sense of jih_d) for peace by upholding the
religious-moral law of Islam that promises lasting peace by
redressing violated justice. That being the case, our focus in the
Islamic tradition and its views on quietism or pacifist activism,
should be on its view of the nature and requirements of a summons
to struggle for justice in general. In this connection it is
pertinent to raise questions about violence that erupts in the form
of willingness to end one's life in the name of God. How different
it is from suicide which would seem to be rooted in a tendency to
lose the ability to ascribe meaning to life in light of the amount
of suffering in it? Inasmuch as decision to terminate one's life
indicates certain condition of human will, there is a tension in
Islam's approach to the prohibition of suicide and the affirmation
of martyrdom.1
[57] Affirmation of Islamic faith requires obedience to God.
True piety is expressed in one's adherence to Islamic precepts. One
should be ready to die for one's faith. That is the meaning of
martyrdom in Islam. Shah_da, literally meaning "witness," implies
willingness of those who exalt the divine command to give their
lives for the divine purposes. It involved a kind of confrontation
which necessitated resistance with courage and faithfulness even at
the risk of their lives. But should one court death when those in
power are insensitive to the common expectations cultivated in the
tradition? Should one risk one's life when the procurement of
justice is in doubt?
[58] To begin with, Islamic denial of personal autonomy in the
matter of suicide is based on the conviction that one's life is a
trust from God which demands an ongoing relationship between the
Creator and the caretaker. The primacy of the God-human
relationship necessitates its maintenance through human submission
to the divine will. Human being is entitled to utilize the bounties
of God only when he marches forward on the path of evolution
prescribed for him by nature, that is path of faith, piety and good
deeds. Moreover, nature also requires him to seek the perfection of
the self as a responsible member of the community of the believers.
There is no difference between actions towards the self and actions
toward the other on this path of evolution. Suicide, as
self-murder, is judged accordingly as an affront to God, the
individual, and the community. Martyrdom, as self-sacrifice, is
seen as virtuous because it bears witness to God's existence and
strengthens the community. Moreover, martyrdom is regarded heroic
and admirable because it results out of a voluntary, conscious, and
selfless action.
[59] Besides the language of voluntariness of self-sacrifice
there is, however, the language of duty and responsibility found in
connection with martyrdom in Islam. It is here that one can sense
the tension between a voluntary and an obligatory act of giving
one's life. The zealous seeking of martyrdom when engaged in jih_d
appears to be in tension with the definition of it as a voluntary
act of piety. Since participation in jih_d is required by the
Shari'a could it give rise in the community of a situation of
desperation to find opportunity to be a martyr? The process of
self-justification towards use of jih_d as a means to attain
martyrdom has historically led to the adoption of extreme violent
posture in the name of God. Those engaged in suicidal acts of
terrorism continue to regard their violent acts as a struggle for
the cause of God, in which death is seen as martyrdom. There is no
doubt that the value of human life is totally connected with how
one serves God. If by giving one's life one can serve God, then
human life has no greater value than the purpose for which such a
struggle is undertaken. On the other hand, the fundamental question
of proportionality serves as an important criterion in determining
whether such a self-sacrifice or sacrifice of other innocent human
lives is worth the cause. The tactics of achieving the divine goal
could not justify indiscriminate destruction of human life, however
irregular the warfare might be. Ultimately, the readiness to use
violent means and even wage war to meet and overcome the oppression
used by those already in power, carries with it the burden of
establishing the validity of one's own position with the ever
present temptation of excluding others as having a share in that
truth. Violence in the name of religion necessarily involves the
claim to exclusive validity for one's own position. Every
perception of truth is accompanied by its own characteristic
defects. A unique test of Islam as a religion that was led by the
vision of ethical order through the use of force lies in explaining
the supreme virtue of dedication to a goal beyond oneself to the
point of readiness to give up one's life, that is, martyrdom in
jih_d, without falling prey to a spirit of exclusivity that led to
the vision of the ideal community and that found expression in
violent death.
Next: Justification for
Violence in Islam, Part VIII: Quietism rather than Pacifism in
Islam
© February
2003
Journal of Lutheran Ethics (JLE)
Volume 3, Issue 2
1 For Islamic views on `suicide&=javascript:goNote(39
see: Franz Rosenthal, "On Suicide in Islam," in Journal of the
American Oriental Society, Volume 66 (1946), pp. 239-259; For views
on `martyrdom' see: Todd B. Lawson, "Martyrdom," in The Oxford
Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1995), Vol. 3/54-59.