Deputy Secretary-General of Hizbullah, Sheik Naim Qassem: We Received Jurisprudent Permission to Carry Out "Martyrdom" Operations and to Fire Misilles at Israeli Civilians from Iran
Following are excerpts from an interview with Naim Qassem, deputy secretary-general of Hizbullah, which aired on Al-Kawthar TV on April 16, 2007.
Naim Qassem: As for the issue of the culture of death, the culture of martyrdom, the culture of life – with all its different names... It is no secret that the materialistic West, and the atheists in general, and all those who see that the power of Islam is on the rise, and that it is gaining influence – and especially with regard to the philosophy of martyrdom-seeking... They all take a negative position and exert pressure, in order to make the believers abandon the culture of martyrdom. What is the reason? They seek (the pleasures of) this world and compete in this world. They know that if we competed with them according to the rules of this world, they would overcome us, because they are more materialistic than us. Therefore, by materialistic criteria, they would be victorious. But if they compete with us on the issue of faith, we will overcome them, because the competitive power of faith is greater, stronger, and more influential.
So they challenger us, or provoke us, by saying that we have a culture of death. They call martyrdom "death," in order to make us renounce martyrdom. If we renounce martyrdom, we will only have the strength of our weapons and our numbers, and then they will be able to overcome us. The enemies will be able to overcome us.
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Do we really believe in a culture of death? Absolutely not. We believe in the culture of martyrdom. Martyrdom is valuable, sacred, respectable, and great, not something that can be used as an accusation. It is an honor for us to be accused of believing in the culture of martyrdom. What is martyrdom? It is death for the sake of Allah, and in defense of what is just. Can martyrdom change the fact that a person dies when his time has come? "When their time comes, they shall not remain another hour, nor go before it." We say that one way or the other, a person dies at a specific time. Brother, instead of dying – when your time is up - in your bed, die – when your time is up - on the battlefront, through martyrdom.
Interviewer: It's the same moment anyway. You will live the same number of years.
Naim Qassem: You benefit from this, and, at the same time, you end your life in a glorious manner, which is accepted by Allah.
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Let's see if this culture of martyrdom is a culture of death or of life. It is, in fact, a culture of life, because whoever strives for martyrdom does so in order to improve his materialistic life, to prevent the enemies from occupying his land, and to live in pride, honor, and freedom. Therefore, he is improving his life circumstances, by preventing the enemies from accomplishing their goals. Therefore, this is the most noble culture of honorable life in this world, and of life in the world to come – in the event that his life comes to an end.
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Hizbullah, when it comes to matters of jurisprudence pertaining to its general direction, as well as to its Jihad direction, based itself on the decisions of the Jurisprudent. It is the Jurisprudent who permits, and it is the Jurisprudent who forbids. When the resistance of Hizbullah was launched in 1982, it was based on the jurisprudent position and decision of Imam Khomeini, who deemed fighting Israel to be an obligation, and therefore, we adhered to this opinion. How Israel should be fought, what equipment you should prepare, when you should or shouldn't attack – there questions are guided by principles in Islamic religious law, and you can act in this direction, according to your abilities. Therefore, we covered our Jihad position with regard to fighting Israel with the decision of the Jurisprudent. With regard to all the other details – whenever we need jurisprudent clarifications regarding what is permitted and what is forbidden on the Jihad front, we ask, receive general answers, and implement then. Even with regard to martyrdom operations – a person cannot kill himself unless he has jurisprudent permission. Since, as a Shura council, we have the authority to make decisions on martyrdom operations, and then there are operative channels to carry this out... Let's assume that some Lebanese citizen gets it into his head to carry out a martyrdom operation without consulting anybody - it is not certain that he is carrying out his duty according to religious law. He might be committing a sin, because despite the sanctity attributed to an act of such a high level, it requires permission, it requires operative channels, and it requires someone who can evaluate whether this is good or not, because lives are at stake. Even with regard to the firing of missiles on Israeli citizens, when they were bombing citizens on our side... This was done in order to put pressure on them. Even that required general permission based on Islamic law. As for Hizbullah, it receives general permission from the Jurisprudent, and if we have questions regarding the religious law, there are channels through which we can learn what is permitted and what is forbidden, what is our obligation, and what is the extent of our freedom of choice.
Hizbullah, Sheik Naim Qassem: We Received Jurisprudent Permission to Fire Misilles at Israeli Civilians from Iran
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