The Formation of the Concept of Martyrdom in the First Years of AH

In the contemporary Islamic culture, the highest example of a Shahid (martyr) is a killed person who has given his life to achieve the ideals of Islam. However, it is difficult to provide a definition that includes its various examples throughout the history of Islamic culture; because during different periods, many instances such as the killed on the battlefield, those who have died due to the refractory diseases, unfair invasions even outside the face-to-face wars and the falling of a building, dead persons who were away from their hometown, and other such cases have been considered as a martyr and most of them have been documented in the narrations of the prophet. On the other hand, according to the current studies, this concept can't be found in the Holy Quran. In this Divine book, Shahid always means a court witness except in one case in which this word and its derivatives have been used to refer to the killed in the way of religion. In the prophetic narrations, not only the word Shahid has been used in a general sense including the killed person in the way of religion, but also its concept isn't in conformity with its Quranic meaning that is a court witness. It's not clear when this word has undergone a semantic change and has been used in the meaning of a killed person in the way of religion. Also, it's not known why in the considerable volume of the prophetic narrations, this word has found a different meaning from its Quranic usages. To reach the answer, first of all, we should reconsider the remaining evidence from the oldest period of this usage i.e., a killed person in the way of religion. In this way, we hope to show a picture of the oldest understanding of the concept of Shahid. With this aim, this article is conducted.