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In a July 5, 2024 Friday sermon at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center, in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Nasser Karimian said that the mujahid fights in order to seek martyrdom, not war booty. He said that "if he wins, he wins, and if he loses, he wins." Karimian explained that the mujahid will continue to fight until he loses, and that this is "what made Islam so great." He said: "Loving this world is for losers […] by dying that is how I live, by living that is how I die."
Dr. Nasser Karimian was a guest speaker at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center of Indiana, he is the imam and resident scholar at the Al-Huda Islamic Center of Indiana, and he came to raise funds for a MCYC – MAS (Muslim American Society) Cultural Youth Center, serving Islamic Youth.
Nasser Karimian: "We know, subhanallah, of the things that are paradoxical thinking in Islam, perhaps one of the most paradoxical, is that we think that when the warrior goes to war, he's looking to win. Why? So that he can attain the ghanima – war booty. That's the goal – you go to war, you fight, you become a brave warrior, you win the day, you get your ghanima, your war booty.
"Whereas the fact of the matter is that subhanallah, the mujahid isn't seeking ghanima. The mujahid is seeking shahada [martyrdom]. The mujahid is not fighting to win, he is actually fighting to lose, and if he wins one battle then he will go again to the next battle, and if he wins that he will go to the next, and the next, and the next, why? Because he doesn't want to win in the end.
"Why is that the case? Why is it that he'll try to keep fighting and keep fighting until he finally loses? Because he understands that loving this world is for losers. That's the true mujahid. The one who understands that loving his dunya [the earthly world], that's for losers to begin with. So I don't want to be a loser, I'm going to keep fighting, and I will keep winning until finally I lose, and that is my victory. How can you beat somebody like this? You can't. Because if he wins, he wins, and if he loses, he wins. Subhanallah. This is what made Islam so great.
[...]
"This is paradoxical thinking. I'm not fighting to win, I'm fighting to lose. Why? Because by dying – that's how I live, and by living – that's how I die. So, subhanallah, this is Islam. But are we teaching our kids to see things in such a paradoxical perspective?
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"Nobody who enters Paradise will want to go back to the world. Even if he had everything in his world – maybe he would want to go back. Except for the mujahid, except for the shaheed, except for the martyr. He will wish to return back to the world so he can be martyred and killed again ten times over, because of the honor and dignity, the karama [honor] that he received.
Subhanallah, we turn on the news, we look on our phones, we see people getting killed. We see one after another.
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"The disgusting display of what's taking place to our brothers and sisters around the world, limbs blown off, white phosphorus melting the skin, and it makes us all cry, and it should make you cry. And yet, subhanallah, it is those who are martyred for simply being with Allah are those who say: 'Yeah, I want to go back to that.'"
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