4423436Notes on Muhammadanism — Chapter XLV: MartyrsThomas Patrick Hughes

XLV.—MARTYRS.

The title of Shahíd, or martyr, is given to anyone who dies under the following circumstances:—

1. A soldier who dies in war for the cause of Islám.

2. One who innocently meets with his death from the hand of another.

3. The victim of a plague.

4. A person accidentally drowned.

5. One upon whom a wall may fall accidentally.

6. A person burnt in a house on fire.

7. One who dies from hunger.

8. One who dies on the pilgrimage to Mecca.

If a martyr dies in war, or is innocently murdered, he is buried without the usual washing before burial, as it is said that the blood of a martyr is a sufficient ablution.