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wa-lladhīna hājarū fī sabīli llāhi thumma qutilū ʾaw mātū la-yarzuqannahumu llāhu rizqan ḥasanan wa-ʾinna llāha la-huwa khayru r-rāziqīna
Those who migrate in the way of Allah and then are slain, or die, Allah will surely provide them with a good provision. Allah is indeed the best of providers.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-Hajj – Verses 58 - 59
58. “And those who migrate in the cause of Allah and are then slain or die, certainly will Allah provide them with a goodly sustenance, and verily Allah is the best of providers.”
59. “Certainly He will admit them into a place of entrance which they shall be well pleased with; and verily Allah is All-Knowing, Most Forbearing.”
An immigration, which is done for a certain goal and a good purpose, is a value. The death of the emigrant persons is a kind of martyrdom. Death or martyrdom is not a matter of significance, what is important is that the one is on the path of Allah. In the former holy verses, the Qur’an spoke about some emigrants whom were sent out from their home and houses because of the name of Allah and that they supported the Divine religion. Now, in this verse, they are considered as an excellent group.
The verse says:
Some commentators have said that the Qur’anic phrase /rizqan hasana/ here refers to some blessings that attract the person when he sees them so that he cannot look at anything other than them, and it is only Allah who can give a man such a sustenance. Some of the Islamic scholars have mentioned an occasion of revelation for this verse, the shortened of it is as follows: At the advent of Islam when the Muslim emigrants came into Medina, some of them died with a natural death, while some others suffered martyrdom. At this time a group of the Muslim believers considered the virtue of martyrdom utterly for the martyrs; the above-mentioned holy verse was sent down and introduced both of them as the bearers of the best blessings of Allah.
That is why some of the commentators of the Qur’an, taking this meaning, have concluded that giving the life in the path of Allah is important, whether it is by the way of martyrdom or by the way of natural death. Then, whoever passes away for the cause of Allah and in the way of Allah will receive the reward appropriate for martyrs. It has been said:
“Verily those who are slain in the way of Allah and those who die in the way of Allah (both) are martyrs.” 1
An example of this Divine ‘goodly sustenance’ has been mentioned in the next verse, where it says:
In this present world, they were banished and sent out, with difficulty, from their home, then, in the next world, Allah will admit them into a place by which they will be pleased from any points of view, and thus their donation will be recompensed with the best form. At the end of the verse, the Qur’an implies that Allah is All-Knowing and is aware of the deeds of His servants, and, in the meanwhile, He is the Most Forbearing and does not hasten in punishing and giving the retribution of the sinners so that the believers can be trained and experimented in this field of examination.
The verse says:
By the way, there is cited a narration in Tafsir-i-Burhan implying that Imam Sadiq (as) said this verse was revealed for the rank of Hadrat Ali (as). This does not contrast the general concept of the verse, and Hadrat Ali (as) is the most perfect example of it.
Footnotes