COVID-19 ☠ = Martyr?!

The topic of discussion might be a bit sensitive to some, and in some ways it is. So if you are not comfortable or not interested, you may not want to read the article. This is just an independent research.

Most of the scholars, if not all, without a hesitation would attribute a death of a Muslim caused by COVID-19 as martyr (shaheed). This has become a common knowledge among all Muslims. Therefore it would be frowned upon if anyone even remotely questioning this very idea. I was also on the same bandwagon, until I came across a statement that COVID-19 is not considered a plague. That, right away conflicted with my understanding, thus quickly triggered my curiosity – does that mean, death from the COVID-19 won’t be considered martyr as well?

Initially I thought this might not be the right time to deep-dive and scratch the topic which everyone – scholars and followers – seem to be very comfortable with. So I was very hesitant. But the reward of a martyr isn’t a simple thing. It is one of the highest rank we can ever achieve in the sight of Allah. So I became bit more skeptical. I wanted to know for myself more than anyone else as I am living through the time of the pandemic. It may have significance on my perception of the of the situation. So I began.

As with any research idea – it is haunting until you get it out of your head. And on the way you have to open some cans of worms and follow many rabbit holes. Yet outcome is never complete nor concrete. So you can read the article if you wish, then follow through with your scholars and take the position that stays ease with your heart. At the end of the day, it is up-to Allah to give his slaves reward how ever He chooses to do so.

Quick summary (tl;dr;)

With relatively a little bit of research from the Islamic texts and the medical terms, it was apparent that attributing a death of a believer caused by COVID-19 as a martyr, might not be as creditable as we think.

Most of such claims originate from one of the two assumptions: 1) In the hadeeth traditions, the word describing the disease ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) refers to any epidemic, or 2) The English/medical term plague refers to any epidemic. None of these understandings are accurate.

In medical term plague refers to a specific disease caused by bacteria (not virus, please refer to the Terms section below), and from my brief research it would seem that the word ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) refers only to that specific disease – the plague. Two main evidences for this are – 1) Prophet ﷺ differentiated the disease when said that ṭāʿwun (plague) was originally sent to the nations before Islam. COVID-19 is a modern disease, 2) Also he stated that no plague would enter Mecca and Madina. We know that Covid-19 has reached both of the cities.

Consequently, since all of the hadeeth traditions used the same word ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) when referring to the death as martyr, we cannot use those hadeeths for other diseases, such as COVID-19. Hence, we cannot claim with certainly that Muslims dying from COVID-19 are martyrs. Or ones witnessing the pandemic will also get the same reward. Unfortunately.

At the end of my research, I did contact one of my teacher, Dr. Ashiq who has a PhD in Arabic Language from Islamic University of Madinah, to get his thought, specially with regards to usage of the word ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) in light of the hadeeths. After few days of quick review of the term, he also agreed that ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) refers to a specific disease not the one we are currently witnessing.

There are other more general narrations from the Prophet ﷺ that we can use to consider death of believers as a martyr. But we cannot categorically attribute those narrations with COVID-19 pandemic. We can certainly hope the best from Allah from His ultimate Mercy.

The Terms

Understanding some of the terms from both Islamic and technical prospective is crucial to the entire research. So let’s start with basic definitions of the 5 important terms.

Plague	Plague refers to contagious bacterial disease caused by Yersinia pestis bacterium. So viral diseases such as Spanish Flu, smallpox or Covid-19 (Coronavirus) would not be considered plague in medical field. Plague has some variations, but all of them originate from the same bacterium.
ṭāʿwun طَّاعُونِ	This is the most important word of this research. In fact entire research is based on understanding this word. In summary the word can be looked into three different angles: 1) Linguistically this word can mean different kind of hardships including non-disease related. It can also mean stabbing. 2) Standard translation of this word is plague. Some may translate as any contiguous disease. 3) Technical definition, from Islamic tradition, it refers specifically to a plague.
wabaa’ وَبَاءَ	refers to epidemic of any kind. This term is also used in the Islamic tradition to describe disease outbreaks.
Epidemic	refers to any disease that rapidly spread within large number of people in relatively short period of time. The disease can be bacterial or viral.
Pandemic	refers to when an epidemic reaches much broader area and spreads around the world.

Pop quiz: Are million people dying from any kind of epidemic considered plague? (answer: NO)

So technically COVID-19 is not a plague. It’s viral disease that has gone pandemic.

So now, the rest of research revolves around the understanding of the word ṭāʿwun (الطاعون). What did the prophet ﷺ mean and what did his companions understand by ṭāʿwun. Is it a specific disease or any general epidemic. Answers to these questions are important because, all of the narrations used the same word when attributing the death of a believer from it as martyr. So if we can identify the disease, we can verify its reward.

✔ Death from a plague = Martyr.

It is very clear from the hadeeth traditions as well as it is unanimously agreed by the Islamic scholars that death of a believer caused by ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) is considered as martyr.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “Plague is the cause of martyrdom of every Muslim (who dies because of it).
الطَّاعُونُ شَهَادَةٌ لِكُلِّ مُسْلِمٍ ‏
Sahih al-Bukhari 2830

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “He (a Muslim) who dies of an abdominal disease is a martyr, and he who dies of plague is a martyr.”
الْمَبْطُونُ شَهِيدٌ، وَالْمَطْعُونُ شَهِيدٌ
Sahih al-Bukhari 5733

The prophet ﷺ also gave glad tiding to those who live through the plague patiently that they would also get the reward of martyr.

“…if one in the time of an epidemic plague stays in his country patiently hoping for Allah’s Reward and believing that nothing will befall him except what Allah has written for him, he will get the reward of a martyr.”
لَيْسَ مِنْ أَحَدٍ يَقَعُ الطَّاعُونُ فَيَمْكُثُ فِي بَلَدِهِ صَابِرًا مُحْتَسِبًا، يَعْلَمُ أَنَّهُ لاَ يُصِيبُهُ إِلاَّ مَا كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَهُ، إِلاَّ كَانَ لَهُ مِثْلُ أَجْرِ شَهِيدٍ
Sahih al-Bukhari 3474

In all of the above traditions, the word that is used in Arabic is ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) which specifically refers to plague, not any generic epidemic, as discussed with the evidences in the section below.

⚠ Death from Covid-19 ≠ Martyr!?

So far we have established that – 1) death from ṭāʿwun (plague) is considered Martyr in Islam and 2) that viral infectious diseases such as Covid-19 technically is not considered a plague. So does that mean death caused from other epidemic such as Covid-19 isn’t considered martyr?

Answering this question heavily depends on whether the word ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) refers to general epidemic or only specific to plague. It turns out, it might refer to the later of the two.

If we assume that plague refers to any epidemic, then we will run into some major issues:

The prophet ﷺ himself defined the ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) to a specific disease (sent to Bani Israel).
He also said that no ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) will enter the Madinah (and Mecca). COVID-19 had effected people of the Mecca and Madinah.
From the plague of Amwas at the time of Umar (RA), they used the word الطاعون for bubonic plague.

1. Plague is an ancient disease, not modern

The Prophet (ﷺ) referred ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) with earlier nations – children of Isra’il or even before, thus indicating few things: 1) this is a specific disease, not referring to general contiguous infection, 2) it is an ancient disease.

Plague is a calamity which was sent to Bani Isra’il or upon those who were before you. So when you hear that it has broken out in a land, don’t go to it, and when it has broken out in the land where you are, don’t run out of it.
الطَّاعُونُ رِجْزٌ أَوْ عَذَابٌ أُرْسِلَ عَلَى بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ أَوْ عَلَى مَنْ كَانَ قَبْلَكُمْ فَإِذَا سَمِعْتُمْ بِهِ بِأَرْضٍ فَلاَ تَقْدَمُوا عَلَيْهِ وَإِذَا وَقَعَ بِأَرْضٍ وَأَنْتُمْ بِهَا فَلاَ تَخْرُجُوا فِرَارًا مِنْهُ
Sahih Muslim

From the hadeeth, the origin of the plague clearly referred to before Islam. Therefore cannot be any disease that is discovered in our modern time.

There have been many studies on history of bacterial and viral diseases – some of which are listed below in the reference sections. It is very clear from these studies that bacterial disease such as plague is much older than the viral disease such as smallpox or influenza (flu). In fact, recorded history of smallpox disease discovered was on 6th century in China, which is around the time Islam began. And influenza spread among human is even much later.

Outbreak of Coronavirus affected human was first SAR on 2002. And new variation Covid-19 broke out on 2019. This disease cannot be the one that the prophet ﷺ mentioned that was sent to nations even before Bani Israel.

2. Plague cannot enter Mekkah and Madinah

Another evidence that can be used that shows the Prophet (ﷺ) clearly distinguished between plague and other type of epidemic is from the hadeeth regarding where he (ﷺ) said plague will not enter Madinah (and Mecca).

Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said, “There are angels guarding the entrances (or roads) of Medina, neither plague nor Ad-Dajjal will be able to enter it.”
عَلَى أَنْقَابِ الْمَدِينَةِ مَلاَئِكَةٌ، لاَ يَدْخُلُهَا الطَّاعُونُ وَلاَ الدَّجَّالُ
Sahih al-Bukhari

In some authentic narration Mecca along with Madinah was also mentioned. Imam An-nawawi (RA) commented that no plague had ever occurred in Makkah and Madinah.

However we know for facts that some epidemics had afflicted the people of Madinah and Mecca in the past and the present.

One of such incident was during the time of the Prophet (ﷺ) as narrated in Muwatta of imam Malik – “When we arrived at Madina we were struck down by a severe epidemic (وَبَاءٌ) which debilitated us greatly.” [Muwatta]. Please note that the word ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) was not used, rather the word for epidemic was used. In addition, it is also narrated from some scholars that another type of epidemic might have entered Mecca in 749 AH. And of course, recently the Covid-19 which caused the both Harams to be completely shutdown and Tawaf to be suspended.

So how do we reconcile where the Prophet ﷺ said not plague would enter Mecca and Madinah, yet we have few epidemic reaching these lands? Easy, as Ibn Hajr stated that those epidemic cannot be plague, rather other types of infectious diseases.

3. The plague of Amwas – understanding of the Sahaba of ṭāʿwun

It is very well documented historical event that at the time of the battle of the Amwas, a plague broke out in Syria that killed thousands of sahaba.

In this incident, the famouse sahaba Abdur Rahman bin Auf informed Umar (RA) and others about the saying of prophet ﷺ about the plague (ṭāʿwun) which I mentioned earlier – “…If you hear the news of an outbreak (plague) in a certain place, do not enter that place…”[Bukhari].

We know for fact that it was bubonic plague that affected the area of Syria around 638-639. So we can deduct that it was also the understanding of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ that ṭāʿwun (الطاعون) specifically referred to plague.

Conclusion

Every plague is an epidemic. But not every epidemic is a plague. Prophet (ﷺ) had distinguished this differences in his lifetime, just as medical science distinguishes the two. Plague is a specific disease that was sent by Allah to the previous nations and allowing the disease to live through our current nation. The disease has different history and different type of affliction which caused more death than any other diseases in the history of mankind.

It is this plague that the Prophet (ﷺ) gave glad tiding for the believers who suffered death from it. And the believers who witness the outbreak even if they live through it. We don’t have any evidence to use these attributes to other diseases.

However, there are many other traditions of the Prophet ﷺ where he give us many different categories and factories that can be used to consider death of believers from various diseases as martyrs. However those aren’t as explicit and does not qualify us to make general and categorical statement about COVID-19 victims.

Final thought

I am fully aware that this is a sensitive topic. We are currently going through a pandemic. A deadly disease that locked down the entire world. People are dying. Some of our loved ones, people we know are falling victim of this deadly disease. May Allah protect us all, but we may also fall on its prey as we don’t know the extend of this pandemic as of yet, we seek His protection. So at least we would like to know that we will have higher status in the hereafter through this suffering and death. So why write about anything contradicting this faith? specially in time like this?

I thought about this a lot. It is important to point out that – yes, people dying from this disease could be martyrs and achieve highest status in the sight of Allah. Allah reserves the full right to decide who gets what status. Specially the front-line Muslim brothers and sisters who risked and are risking their lives to save ours.

But I still went on with the research and wrote the article for few reasons:

I personally felt the need to know as it is relevant and may remain relevant for years to come.
I also feel every Muslim has right to know the accurate ruling of every action and situation.
Some people might take the pandemic less seriously and have sentimental of dying from the disease because of the reward of a martyr.

Allah can reward martyrdom whom ever He wishes to. May Allah make us among them.

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