Verse 155

3:170.

Important Words:

احیاء (living) is the plural of حی which, among other things, means: (1) one whose life work does not go in vain; (2) one whose death is avenged. A well-known pre-Islamic poet, Harith ibn Hillizah, author of the seventh Mu‘allaqah, says:

إن نبشتم مابین ملحة فالصا قب فیھا الاموات والاحیاء i.e. If you dig the graves between Milhah and Saqib, you will find some who are dead, and others who are living. In this couplet by the "living", the poet means such persons as were slain in battle but whose blood was avenged, and by the "dead" he means those whose blood was not avenged.

Commentary:

The teaching about صبر (steadfastness) naturally brings in the question of sacrifices that Muslims were making in the cause of Islam. Therefore the Quran suitably refers here to the subject of martyrdom. Death is not the end of life, and in this respect believers and unbelievers stand on the same footing and the martyrs too enjoy no distinction. Nor would it be wrong to speak of them as dead in the ordinary sense of the word. But the word احیاء (living) has been used here about martyrs in a special sense.

As explained under Important Words above, the word حی (living) is also applied to him whose work, or, more properly speaking, the cause for which he lays down his life, does not come to an end with his death. The verse, therefore, points out that those who lay down their lives for Islam should not be regarded as dead, because the cause for which they give their lives still stands and is all the more strongly upheld by others who take their places.

Again, according to the Arabic idiom, حی (living) is also one whose blood is avenged. The verse, therefore, implies that as full satisfaction is taken for the blood of Muslims killed in the way of God, not only in the sense that far more non-Muslims join the fold of Islam than those killed in the wars but also in the sense that the number of non-Muslims killed is much larger than those killed among the Muslims, therefore Muslim martyrs are not really dead.

The word حی (living) may possess yet another significance. As a rule, life after death does not fully begin immediately after death. The soul of man continues in a state of torpor for sometime after death. This period varies with different persons according to the degree of their spiritual purity. As martyrs sacrifice their lives for the sake of God, their souls do not remain long in torpor but are quickly revived into a new life. This is one of the reasons why martyrs are called living, not dead.

The verse comprises a great psychological truth which is calculated to exercise immense influence on the life and progress of a people. A community that does not duly honour those of its members who lay down their lives for the cause for which the community stands, sows the seed of its own ruin. Again, a community which does not arrange to remove the fear of death from the hearts of its members, seals its own fate. The verse under comment provides an effective safeguard against both these dangers.