Hamas Culture of Martyrdom - Preacher Mahmoud Al-Khila: Those Next to the Martyr Receive Divine Reward Too, of a Lesser Degree

Gaza preacher Mahmoud Al-Khila said that the martyr is not the only one to receive divine reward. "Someone could be standing right next to his brother - one gets martyred, another gets wounded, and a third returns unharmed. ... the reward is one and the same, but it is a matter of degree." He cited a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad, saying that a martyr feels no more pain upon his martyrdom than the sting of a mosquito or an ant. His statements aired on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV on April 8.

Mahmoud Al-Khila: "The people who are setting out on the Return marches, and who are stationed out at the borders – borders that, Allah willing are bound to be eliminated...These are people who follow the orders of their factions...If they end up returning to their families – are they really empty-handed? Is the martyr the only one to receive divine reward? Or do the people who were right next to him also receive divine reward? Someone could be standing right next to his brother – one gets martyred, another gets wounded, and a third returns unharmed. Do they receive different divine rewards? We say that the reward is one and the same, but it is a matter of degree. The martyr differs from the other two by ascending to the level of martyrs."

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Interviewer: "Does the martyr feel pain? Does he feel the pain of his death throes?"

Mahmoud Al-Khila: "The Prophet Muhammed answered this. He said that when a martyr is killed, he does not feel any more pain than he would feel from a sore or from the sting of a mosquito or an ant."