Elucidation

Submitted by Taj (United States), Oct 26, 2007 at 02:48

Donvan - unfortunately your contentions are devoid of reliable evidence, and in the end they are not very strong ones. For example, you cite "the hadith vol 2, book23, #329" - from the first reading of this citation there is a glaring indication of a novice command of what hadith are. Your use of the term "revelation" is terribly inaccurate, especially as the hadith you cited is not considered such. Also hadiths are actually compiled in a plethora of collections. If one is to cite them to others, they generally refer to the actual collection it is found. You did not do so, so it becomes problematic to verify if what you cite is accurate since one would not necessarily know what collection (of hundreds) to even look in.

Speaking of which, I have extreme doubt of its accuracy. There is only one particular hadith that is in a collection found under a Vol 2, in a 23rd book, with the designation of #329. It is a hadith found in the collection of Al Bukhari. When you actually open the book to this position, you find that hadith #329 does not say what you claim. Please see for yourself at this site: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/023.sbt.html

You'll notice that #329 is the first hadith listed and it isn't what you cited. Additionally, your use of the term "dar al shuda" is unlikely to be in any translated hadith and it is more likely your citation is regurgitated from some other source, critical of Islam no doubt. The term "shuda" is really not a proper arabic word while the word for martyrs is "shuhada". Nor would any arab source transliterate using the term "al" next to any word beginning with an "sh", since the letter "l" linguistically becomes an "sh", thus the term would be "dar ash-shuhada"...linguistic flubs like what you cited only demonstrate a degree of misinformation/lack of knowledge and don't serve rational arguments very well

The point remains that while you think that Islam preaches that murder leads to God's proximity, you have yet to extend any viable support to this claim. Your assumption of the simple term "martyr" or the concept of martydom is belied by the fact that martyrdom in Islam is achieved even my an accidental death. If you are adept at the use of hadith then surely you saw, for example, the one about Umm Haram bin Milham, a woman who died as a martyr from falling off of her camel during a journey. (see al bukhari )

In the absence of any teachings that would support your contention, there are teachings that address how to come close to God. Here is one from a qudsi hadith where Allah is quoted as saying:

My servant draws not near to Me with anything more loved by Me than the religious duties I have enjoined upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works so that I shall love him. When I love him I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks.

Note that the simple actions of prescribed worship (prayer, pilgrimage, charity, etc) are the mere requirements to come as close to God as one can probably get...

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