For this reason he said, “If it breaks out in a land where you are, do not leave it, fleeing from it.” Whoever is stricken by the plague and dies of it is a martyr.

Second comes the mabṭūn—the person who succumbs to an abdominal illness. This refers to one afflicted by a disease of the stomach, resembling—Allah knows best—what people today call al-ghāshiyah: it attacks a person’s abdomen and he dies from it. Whoever dies in this manner is a martyr.

Third is the gharīq, the one who drowns—whether in a mighty river, by falling into a stream, in the sea, or anything similar. Such a person is counted among the martyrs in the Hereafter. For this reason a person is encouraged to learn swimming; he is instructed to acquire this skill so that, should such circumstances arise, he can protect himself.

As for the fourth, it is the one who dies beneath a collapsing structure: a house, a wall, or the like. He too is a martyr, for all these people perished in fatal accidents for which they bore no blame. May similar cases be included by analogy—such as someone who dies in a traffic accident or a collision? Allah knows best. Some maintain that the ruling is the same, arguing there is no difference between a wall collapsing and a car overturning; any fatal accident, they say, gives the deceased the status of martyrdom. Yet we cannot assert this with certainty, for matters of recompense—punishment or reward—are not established by analogy.

To sum up: there are martyrs other than those slain outright in Allah’s cause. Among them is the one who sets out in the path of Allah and dies along the way of natural causes; he is also a martyr, but a martyr of the Hereafter. In this world he is washed, shrouded, the funeral prayer is offered for him, and he is buried with the rest of the Muslims.