Jihad, Martyrdom, and the Torments of the Grave
by Raymond
Ibrahim
Pajamas Media
March 14, 2009
http://www.meforum.org/2102/jihad-martyrdom-and-the-torments-of-the-grave
Why do some Muslims become suicide bombers or "martyrs"? In
fact, these two near antithetic words — on the one hand, broken, desperate
suicides, on the other, heroic martyrs — intrinsically demonstrate the
radically different epistemologies the average Westerner and Muslim will
articulate their answer through. In other words, that Westerners consider
them suicides while Muslims consider them martyrs in and of itself speaks
volumes on motivation.
To the secular Western mind, such Muslims are simply
frustrated: oppressed and depressed, and with nothing to lose, these
Muslims (so the logic goes) end their suffering in the name of some
"noble" cause — be it the "liberation of al-Aqsa" or the razing of U.S.
skyscrapers. All their talk about Islam, "obligations," or 72 dark-eyed
virgins is but a cover for their true motivation: "revenge" on the one
hand, escape from an oppressive existence on the other. Most recently,
"shame" has been cited as another culprit: al-Qaeda has been raping and
thereby shaming women
— and men
— into becoming "martyrs."
Conversely, from a purely Muslim point of view, becoming a
martyr is not only a guarantee to eternal paradise — which, if many
secular Westerners deem "silly," the devotees of Allah take very seriously
— but a paradise that may appeal to some of man's most libidinous desires.
Thus, whereas the Christian heaven is purely spiritual — "they shall
neither marry nor give into marriage" (Matthew 22:30) and not necessarily
"enticing" — some Muslim accounts of paradise are downright
hedonistic.
Scriptural references demonstrative of this are many.
Consider Koran 36:55-56: "For the inhabitants of paradise on that day
shall be engaged in joyous activities [shughlin fakihun] — they and
their wives, reclined on raised cushions." A number of the most
authoritative exegetes, such as Ibn Kathir (see here), have interpreted
"engaged in joyous activities" as meaning "they will be busy deflowering
virgins." (See also al-Jalalayn's
tafsir, where he concurs.)
That said, it is of course difficult to accept that any
Muslim man would become a suicide bomber primarily because he wants to
copulate in perpetuity — even if Islam's prophet is on the record saying
that men in heaven will have the sexual potency of 100 men (to better
handle the countless maidens). Also, what about women, who have
increasingly taken to becoming suicide bombers? Surely sex is not their
motivation.
However, before concluding that Muslims become suicide
bombers purely out of desperation, frustration, or shame, it should be
borne in mind that, aside from the theological guarantee of a hedonistic
paradise, there is yet another, antithetical reason that may subtly compel
Muslims to seek martyrdom.
This is the little-known doctrine of 'adhab al-qabr,
or the "torments of the grave." Anyone familiar with Islam's texts has
repeatedly come across this curious phrase; anyone who has listened to
Muslim sermons has been severely warned against it. The torments of the
grave are a very real doctrine that has the tendency to drive believers to
despair — I have watched grown men and women on Arabic satellite relay the
terror this doctrine has worked in their lives — making them eager to do
whatever is necessary to avoid it.
Based on a close reading of Islam's texts, the following
account represents Sunni Islam's standard teachings of after-death
experiences:
First, the soul is said to return to the corpse while it is
interred. As the pallbearers carry the body to the grave, its soul follows
behind crying, "Oh my, wherever are they taking me?!" — all while the
gaping grave moans, "I am the house of strangeness; I am the house of
loneliness; I am the house of dust; I am the house of worms."
After being laid to rest by the gravediggers, the dead
"hear" the gravediggers as they walk away — implying, as the forthcoming
torments suggest, and ulema maintain, that the dead experience "physical"
sensations. (Perhaps this is why Muslims are in the habit of offering
audible "greetings" to the dead — who "hear" — whenever they pass their
graves?)
Every soul, once entombed along with its body, is tried by
two angels. The hadith states: "His [the dead's] soul returns to his body;
then two angels arrive and sit him up for questioning" — specifically,
"Who is your lord, what is your religion, who is your prophet?" If he
answers Allah, Islam, and Muhammad, respectively, he is granted paradise;
if not, the torments begin.
While these questions appear deceptively easy to answer, and
thus even the most nominal Muslim should be able to pass this ghoulish
inquisition unscathed, the reason Muslims fear failing the test may be
associated with Islam's infamous fatalism: "Those who believe, Allah will
strengthen with a firm word, in this world and the hereafter; but the
unjust he leads astray [in this world and the hereafter]. Allah does what
he will" (Koran 14:27). Ulema have interpreted this verse as revolving
around the angels' interrogation and the ability of the dead — or rather,
Allah's desire for them — to answer right or wrong.
As for infidels and nominal Muslims (al-muslim
al-'assi), their response to each of the angels' questions is
inevitably: "Uh, uh … I don't know." After being verbally chastised by the
angels and a "voice from heaven," the torments begin in earnest.
First, the angels pulverize the body with a "massive iron
hammer" — one that "has no equal [in power and size] in the world." In the
process, "he [the dead] cries out in such a manner that all creation —
minus humans and jinn [supernatural beings] — hear him." Another hadith
states that this hammer is such that "if a mountain was struck by it, the
mountain would crumble into dust; the dead [man] is struck such a blow
that he crumbles into dust — but Allah reassembles him, and he is struck
again," apparently in perpetuity.
Next, the grave is said to "tighten" around the corpse, till
its bones pop and crack — all while the soul is still trapped inside,
suffering, suffocating. Some ulema maintain the dead — with their souls
experiencing these travails — stay in this position till judgment day.
Then comes the turn of the tomb-snake, known as al-shaja'
al-aqra' (roughly translated as the "bald brave one"); designed by
Allah to torment the dead, this snake "eats his [the dead's] flesh, from
head to toe; then his flesh returns, and it [the snake] eats his flesh
from toe to head, and so on." Yet another hadith has not one snake, but 70
dragons: "Allah shall set upon him 70 dragons, such that if one of them
were to blow upon the earth, the earth would fail and wither away. They
will rend and tear, maul and mull upon him until the day of reckoning" —
all while he continues screaming, though no human or jinn hears. Still
another hadith declares that the dead will be attacked by 99
dragons; each dragon will consist of 70 serpents; each serpent will have
nine heads — for a total of 62,370 serpent heads tormenting the corpse in
perpetuity.
At this point, the (especially) Western reader may think all
this absurd, that no Muslim can truly believe such things, that this is
all moot and can hardly ever drive anyone to action, much less suicide.
That (according to Muhammad) one of the greatest "sins" responsible for
sending people to the torments of the grave is failing to properly clean
oneself after urinating may further lead to the conviction that this is
all farcical, hardly a reason to bring Muslims to despair.
Yet here again we are entered into the tricky realm of
epistemology: every civilization has its own particular sources, physical
or metaphysical, whence knowledge, and thence "truth," is articulated. For
mainstream Islam, the Koran first, followed by the vast corpus of hadith —
particularly the "canonical six," which the aforementioned account of
graveyard torments is mostly based on — form the basis of all truth and
reality.
Moreover, everything written in these sources is generally
taken literally. Thus the same literalism that compelled Islam's most
authoritative institution, al-Azhar, to issue a fatwa prompting women to
"breastfeed" strange men, compels Muslims today to accept the
torments of the grave literally — pounding mallets, 62,370 snapping
serpents, and all.
Anyone who closely follows Arabic-Islamic TV will further
know that the torments of the grave, as described, have instilled fear and
terror in the lives of Muslims. I have personally watched an al-Haya TV
episode where a young Muslim woman, in tears and almost hysterical, was
describing her morbid fear of the torments. I have also seen the ulema on
Iqra TV, also in tears, lament the fate of those ("moderate") Muslims who
are destined to experience the torments of the grave. Other recovering
Muslims maintain that sheikhs regularly cultivate fear of the torments of
the grave in the lives of the youth.
The fact is, Muslims, even the most pious among them, have
good reason to be fearful of the torments of the grave: Talking about his
pious dead companion, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, Muhammad observed, "The grave has
an oppressive tightness, and were [it possible for] anyone to escape this,
Sa'd ibn Mu'adh would have done so, for he is the one for whom the Throne
of the All-Merciful shook." Moreover, there is the famous hadith where
Muhammad said, "My ummah shall be split into 73 sects — all of which will
go to the fire [hell], except one which shall be saved." In other words,
few Muslims have any guarantees that they will not visit the torments of
the grave.
Still, what does any of this have to do with the jihad in
general, or suicide bombing/martyrdom operations in particular? Plenty.
Inasmuch as the torments of the grave clearly terrify Muslims, so too are
there clear-cut ways of evading them. Three have been ascertained. The
first two are quite haphazard: Muslims who happen to die on Friday
(al-jum'a, the day of Muslim congregation) and Muslims who happen
to die of stomach aches are exonerated from the torments. Why? The prophet
said so.
However, the ulema have been quick to point out and stress a
third way — dying as a "martyr" fi sabil Allah (in the cause of
Allah), i.e., during the jihad. In fact, in a hadith I first encountered
when translating al-Qaeda texts for The
Al Qaeda Reader, Muhammad said:
The martyr is special to Allah. He is forgiven from the
first drop of blood [that he sheds]. He sees his throne in paradise,
where he will be adorned in ornaments of faith. He will wed the
'aynhour [wide-eyed virgins] and will not know the torments of
the grave and safeguards against the greater horror [hell]. Fixed
atop his head will be a crown of honor, a ruby that is greater than the
world and all it contains. And he will copulate with seventy-two
'aynhour and be able to offer intercessions for seventy of his
relatives.
And here one sees that, alongside the enticement of
celestial copulation, the torments of the grave have the potential to
terrify Muslims into "martyrdom." This also begs the question: if these
torments of the grave have the capacity to terrorize Muslims into
considering a premature death fi sabil Allah, how much more can
fear of Islam's hell — the "greater horror" — goad Muslims to seek out
martyrdom, which not only safeguards against the torments of the grave but
hell itself?
The torments of the grave are a reminder of how important it
is to take Islam's doctrines — no matter how quaint or esoteric —
seriously; dismissing them out of hand, since they seem silly to "us," is
arrogance. Anyone who truly wishes to ameliorate the phenomenon of Muslim
suicide bombings, while taking into account all those "secular" reasons —
poverty, frustration, desperation — should also, to be thoroughly
holistic, take into account the psychological damage created by such
arcane doctrines.
Finally, it is well to observe that, if little-known
doctrines such as the torments of the grave have the capacity to goad
Muslims into seeking martyrdom, how much more can be expected from the
very well-known doctrinal obligation of jihad itself?
Originally published at: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/jihad-martyrdom-and-the-torments-of-the-grave/
Raymond Ibrahim is
the associate director of the Middle East Forum and the author of
The Al Qaeda Reader, translations of religious texts and
propaganda.
Related Topics: Islam |
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