For the would-be-or-future martyr of Islam

Today as I read in BBC News about the testimony of a survivor of Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), my heart was torn. The bold writing is from the article:

“A woman who was inside Islamabad's Red Mosque when it was stormed by Pakistani troops on 10 July has given the BBC one of the first accounts of the final hours of the siege. Unwilling to be named, the survivor said she was not held hostage by militants inside.

More than 100 people died in the army operation - she was one of only 30 women to walk out alive after soldiers went in. Following are excerpts from the interview with Rafia Riaz of the BBC's Urdu service.”

She is writing after being in the siege of the mosque for a week. During the final assault she walked out with her hands up in surrender, actually hoping to be shot by the military. She wasn’t shot but instead…

“They took us to another room and gave us food. We were crying a lot because Korans were burning inside the Red Mosque which was on fire.

We pleaded with them to let us take the Koran. We were very sad to see them being burnt in front of our own eyes. At sunset we were told that we were going to be sent home, and at night, we left the area...

After meeting my father, I was overcome by grief as I had hoped to be a martyr and come back alive.

Now they've attacked the Red Mosque and Jamia Hafsa [the seminary attached to it], I hope the whole country will have Red Mosques. I will work for jihad, and open a madrassa and train people for jihad.”

Read the entire article here: BBC NEWS South Asia 'I hoped to be a glorious martyr'


Oh Lord I think about the testimony of the woman at Lal Masjid and I feel sick to my stomach. What could drive someone to carry out suicide attacks on their own countrymen? To eat leaves and honey, to spend sleepless nights, for what? For the straight path? Is that what the One True God would desire of his children? To cry over burning books but not over burning men? To grieve over not being a martyr?

I am willing to die for my faith and so is she. But she is willing to kill, to shed blood of men, women and children. She is willing to blow herself up for jihad. I think of the American missionaries who went into the Amazon to meet the Waodoni, a head hunting tribe that speared their victims. By the time the missionaries went to them, one of out two Waodoni men would be speared and killed by their own tribesmen. But the missionaries would not shoot them even when attacked. Why didn’t the Christians shoot? Because, as they said, they knew they were ready for heaven but the Waodoni were not. They did not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. All of the men who went to share the hope of the gospel with the Waodoni were speared. Due to the love that the missionary’s families had for the tribe, their wives and children moved into the jungle with the head hunting tribe to share the love of Jesus with them.

So what is the difference between this woman at Lal Masjid and myself or the missionaries to the Waodoni? This woman, this Muslim woman, was not only will to die for her faith, but to kill, to steal and to destroy. And what of her intended victims? Her blowing up the unholy, the apostates, the infidels would surely not ensure THEIR eternal salvation, but only HERS. What then is the motivation for her martyrdom? For the sake of Islam, the Quran and the Prophet….no! For her own selfish desire to see paradise. I’m not quite sure what she would do with the 72 voluptuous virgins, but she did desire paradise.

I actually think I do know why she grieves though. Why she grieves over being alive and not being a martyr. She grieves for her eternal salvation. She grieves for her relationship with God. For in Islam, God is not personal. The only assurance of your salvation lies in being killed for your faith. No one can be sure whether he will go to paradise or to hell. As a Muslim, when you die your good deeds and your bad deeds are weighed on a scale. If you’ve done more good deeds and followed the checklist of things a Muslim must do (statement of faith, prayer five times a day, giving to the poor, going to Mecca, fasting during Ramadan every year) then perhaps God will have mercy on you and allow you into heaven. But, if you are to die in holy war, in jihad, you will surely become a shahid – a martyr. This gives you assurance of your salvation, no matter how many bad deeds you have done. In the name of Allah, the Qur’an, and Islam – the click of a detonator, bodies blown to bits, blood shed…Paradise.

But you and I know that this a lie of the enemy – sent to kill, to steal and to destroy. He prowls around like a roaring lion. The click of a detonator, bodies blown to bits, blood shed – end of life. Beginning of hell. Eternity without God. Eternity of pain.

So as this woman, the would-be or future martyr, jihadi, champion of the faith, grieves, so do I. She grieves for her salvation and I grieve with her.

Oh Lord, open the blinders on her eyes. Open her ears that she may hear truth. She is living for a lie. I know your heart grieves for her soul, as you desire all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of you. Jesus, rescue her. Bind the strongman and release her from this lie. May truth and light break forth in her life. May she find true salvation in you – Jesus, the way the truth and the life.