A person who dies as a
mujahideen becomes a shaheed.
Shuhadah, have a very special status in this life, and in the hereafter. Here are some of the benefits they receive:
- They aren’t really dead; we only perceive them to be dead. They are actually alive. I don’t know if they are walking around like ghosts, or if they are just hanging out in their grave, either way they don’t die.
- The grave of a shaheed is extended in all directions as far as the eye can see. Angels great the shaheed with smiles and good tidings. A window is also opened to paradise for the shaheed.
- When the Day of Judgment comes the shaheed does not have to wait around for his questioning. This is a great benefit since questioning can last as long as 50,000 years.
- Most people who do enter paradise are restricted to certain levels of paradise. The shaheed is turned into a bird and he/she has the ability to travel freely to any level of paradise. This is perhaps a good place to note that there are over 6500 levels of paradise. The size level n when compared to level n+1 is likened to a grain of sand in a desert.
The common misconception is that a person can only die as a shaheed if they partake in some type of a war. So, here are some other ways to die as a shaheed:
- If a person becomes a student of Islam, hence memorizing the Qur'an or studying Islamic Jurisprudence, etc. they die as a shaheed.
- If the child of a parent dies and the parent take it with patience then the parent dies as a shaheed.
- If a person dies while traveling for the purpose of spreading Islam he is a shaheed.
- If a person is being subjected to some injustice due to their faith, and they die due to that, they die as a shaheed.
- If a person prays from Allah to die as a shaheed, and they die, they die as a shaheed.
- If a person dies in a battle that is being fought because Muslims are being subjected to some injustice, that person dies as a shaheed.
- If a person dies in a war, see the previous list item.