The Muslim Shahid as Sacrificial Intercessor

Shahid Belt

Designed by Tailor of Death

(Image from War Online)

I know that some of my readers know quite a lot about Islam, so perhaps one of you can tell me precisely where to find a particular hadith, cited by Osama Bin Laden, promising that a martyr can intercede for seventy of his relatives.

Here's Bin Laden's citation, found in his "A Declaration of War: Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places":

He [i.e., Muhammad] also said : "a martyr privileges are guaranteed by Allah; forgiveness with the first gush of his blood, he will be shown his seat in paradise, he will be decorated with the jewels of belief (Imaan), married off to the beautiful ones, protected from the test in the grave, assured security in the day of judgement, crowned with the crown of dignity, a ruby of which is better than this whole world (Duniah)and its' entire content, wedded to seventy two of the pure Houries (beautiful ones of Paradise) and his intercession on the behalf of seventy of his relatives will be accepted". Narrated by Ahmad and AtTirmithi (with the correct and trustworthy reference).

I've borrowed this from the website of John C. Lamoreaux, Department of Religious Studies, Southern Methodist University, which has Bin Laden's entire text as a source for reference. Regretably, I could find no specific citation to Ahmad and AtTirmithi.

By Googling, I found online Alfred Guillaume's book, The Traditions of Islam: An Introduction to the study of the Hadith Literature, which has the same hadith cited in Chapter 5, "Selections from Hadith":

Al Tirmidhi and Ibn Maja report the following:

the martyr has six privileges with God: his sins are pardoned when the first drop of blood falls; he is shown his seat in paradise; he is safe from the punishment of the grave and secure from the great terror (i.e. hell); a crown of dignity is placed on his head one jewel of which is worth more than the world and all that is therein; and he is married to seventy dark-eyed virgins; and he makes successful intercession for seventy of his relatives.

Al Tirmidhi, who lived from 824 to 892 (or: 209 AH - 13 Rajab 279 AH), was a medieval collector of hadith and is clearly the same individual as the one whom the Bin Laden text cites as AtTirmithi, the two variants being simply different transliterations of the original Arabic. Anyway, I have this citation from Guillaume via a website titled Answering Islam, but it also neglects to provide the precise bibliographical details on the exact source of this hadith.

I'm curious about this particular hadith because it expresses the belief that a martyr can act as an intercessor, which means that the one can understand the martyr's death as a sort of expiatory sacrifice, i.e., a sacrifice to cleanse others of sins and thereby purify them for life in the hereafter with God.

In short, a Muslim martyr takes on the role that Christ has in Christianity, which seems odd since Muslims usually argue that the Christian concept of vicarious atonement -- i.e., Christ sacrificing himself to expiate the sins of others -- is nonsense because each individual is responsible for his or her own sins.

Be that as it may, I'm also interested in this specific hadith because I've found, again by Googling, that it's often cited in justifications for suicide bombings. For instance, Naim Ateek, in "What is theologically and morally wrong with suicide bombings? A Palestinian Christian perspective" (Cornerstone, Issue 25, Summer 2002), notes the use of this hadith (or a close variant):

In one of the sermons preached by Sheikh Isma'il al-Adwan and broadcast on Palestinian TV, the Sheikh said, "The shahid [i.e., Islamic martyr], if he meets Allah (Arabic for God), is forgiven [by] his first drop of blood; he's saved from the grave's confines; he sees his seat in heaven; he's saved from judgment day; he's given seventy two dark-eyed women; he's an advocate for seventy members of his family."

Ateek footnotes this:

Akiva Eldar, "Ask Clinton what he thinks about Camp David," in Haaretz, August 21, 2001. In an unpublished paper, Dr. Mustafa Abu Sway of Alquds University maintains that the reference to the "seventy virgins" is neither mentioned in the Qur'an nor in the most authentic compendia of Hadith. It is, however, found in Mu'jam Al-Tabarani.

These citations appear to be headed in direction other than toward Al Tirmidhi. I presume that Al-Tabarani is the Medieval Muslim collector of hadith who was born in the lifetime of Al-Tirmidhi (sometime in 260 AH). Anyway, I'm no closer to finding the foundational source.

Can anybody supply the citation ... or citations?