In Islamic jurisprudence, martyrdom is achieved not through unconscionable indulgence in acts of violence by elements with little or no knowledge of the fundamentals of Islam.
Martyrdom is not granted through unwarranted acts of suicide nor through egregious commission of murder. You do not become a martyr or enjoy divine redemption by committing infraction of divine injunction. People become martyrs when they die in and through unpremeditated events; when they die in plagues or pandemics, when they die by drowning, when they pass away in pleurisy, when they die as a result of terminal disease and when they die from being burnt.
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She is a martyr- the woman who die in the state of ’Jum’. They are martyrs – those who die from being crushed under something or from an accident. “Do not think of those who have been killed in the cause of Almighty as dead; rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision (Quran 3: 169). He was observing the Sittal-Shawwal – the 6-day supererogatory fasting exercise recommended for Muslims after the month of Ramadan. Early in the morning of that fateful day, he called his wife. He told her that their helicopter should land at Kaduna before 6.00 pm and that he would be coming home to break his fast. Full of life and a promising career, our late brother did not know that the only appointment he would be keeping that day was with death.
His was the General of the Nigerian Army. He was a Brigadier General. He was a flight Officer. He was the hope of his family; the hope of the nation. He got married only a couple of months ago. He had an aged mother. He was the only son of his father. Death has an uncanny way by which it reminds us of our ephemerality; of its inevitability; of the materiality and perishability of our earthly life; of the nothingness of our existence in comparison to His essence. Hardly does death occurs without a story to tell. This is probably because we are all stories told in storeys; stories we learn to forget; stories we never get to learn.
Thus she stood out in the scene, in the scene of sadness; the scene that was solemn and somber- the scene of grief and pain, of loss of life. She clutched his portrait on her bosom while tears cascaded her cheeks. She held his picture as if she was holding on to him; the way she always held on to him. But in reality, there was no way she could hold on to him; not any longer. What remains now is his memory- memory of love, of compassion, of kindness. This is because he has gone. He has departed this world. They have all departed our world. They left the way they came, without notice; unexpectedly. They left at a time things were looking up for them and their families. They left when the world was standing in obeisance to their authorities.
Yes. Tell me how to console their families. Tell me how the agony and pain of those women and those other women could be mitigated? Tell me how the emotional laceration the families of the military officers who died on Friday when their helicopter crashed in Kaduna could be healed. How do we console wombs whose fetus has been separated and forcefully too from its warmth and affection? How do you placate the tree whose fruits has been plucked ahead of harvest?
Long before the tragedy of Friday, General Attahiru and others had probably seen it all. They had gone through the furnace of war and violence. But they came back. They survived them all. They led a life of discipline and deprivation in defense of this nation. They led a life of the obedient servant and excellent officers to the highest echelon of the armed forces and the Commander-in-Chief. They abandoned their freedom in order that our nation might be free; in order that you and I may be free of fear and want; so that Nigeria may be free of fear; so that this land may become free of ‘death’, of hatred, of the Mephistopheles and Beelzebub the like of which had held parts of our nation hostage to their fiendish and roguish reign since the past couple of years.
Now General Ibrahim Attahiru is gone. But he is not gone. They are not gone.
They are not gone because they are martyrs. Martyrs enjoy eternal redemption from their Creator. They repose in bliss and peace. May the Almighty comfort members of their families; may such tragedies cease on our land and in our nation.
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