Principles and Indexes of the Culture of Self Sacrifice and Martyrdom

Different questions appear on minds when we speak about the culture of self sacrifice and martyrdom. These questions may be asked by ordinary people and even by some of the educated people. As examples, we can refer to the following questions: 1 – What is meant by “The Culture of Self Sacrifice and Martyrdom”?? 2 – Considering the fact that sacred defense has finished, what is the necessity for bringing up this subject?

News ID: ۲۳۳۵۷۶

پنجشنبه - ۰۴ فروردين ۲۰۱۰ / 2010 04 January

Different questions appear on minds when we speak about the culture of self sacrifice and martyrdom. These questions may be asked by ordinary people and even by some of the educated people. As examples, we can refer to the following questions:
1 – What is meant by “The Culture of Self Sacrifice and Martyrdom”??
2 – Considering the fact that sacred defense has finished, what is the necessity for bringing up this subject?
And tens of other questions

These questions are usually rooted in lack of appropriate and multi - dimensional knowledge about the subject of self sacrifice and martyrdom.
If we think about this subject deeply, all questions and doubts hidden on minds would be answered. And it is what we intend to achieve in this short article.

In the introductory of this article, I should mention the fact that fighting with cruelty and aggression is a holy and necessary issue in all of the societies and cultures. And it is one of the important elements for preserving the true life of men. And people have always needed it during the history; but in some periods of time and due to some special situations, this culture has appeared more than other times. Any time that a cruel person or aggressive force has appeared during the history, brave and devoted men with strong will have stood against that cruel or aggressor person or power with self sacrifice. They have fought with cruelty and aggression. Now, they have been either killed in the way of their high value target or they have conquered and achieved victory and have forced the cruel people to stop.

We can find numerous true evidences for such fights in the history of different nations with any religion. And some of these examples have been narrated to the next generations by fathers in stories and poems. But in the holy religion of Islam and in the Shiite Religion in particular, important emphases have been made on fighting with cruelty, aggression, corruption and … due to special characteristics of this religion and also its emphasis on preserving the spiritual life and honor of the Muslim people.
These advices and emphases are so important that fighting with the aggressor is one of the secondary bases of Islam. And it requires following some regulations for it as we should obey these regulations and conditions for “Prayers”?, “Fast”?, “Hajj”? and … [These are secondary bases of Islam]
Therefore, we study the principles of the culture of self sacrifice and martyrdom in this article. We have written this article in the form of answering to the above mentioned questions.

Written by:

Marzie Mokhtari-pour,
University Student of PhD in “Teaching Management”? in Esfahan University

Hassan Mokhtari-pour,
Deputy Head of Research and Cultural Relations Department of “Martyr Foundation and Isargaran Affairs”? in Esfahan Province

Dr Sayed Ali Siadat,
Member of Esfahan University Scientific Board