Who is a martyr (Shaheed)

Question.

what is the status of such a person who is killed by robbers in his house or on the road, will he be classified as a shaheed ? Is the laws of shaheed applied to him ? 

Answers.

In Shari’ah there are few conditions for a person to be classified as a shaheed. If all these conditions are found then only will he be considered to be a shaheed in this world and in the hereafter. And in some cases he will only be considered as a shaheed in the hereafter (not in this world), i.e. when some of the conditions are not found.

The conditions of a shaheed are as follows:
- He must be a Muslim.
- He must be mature (baaligh) and sane.
- He must not be impure (state of hadath-e-akbar).
- He should be killed oppressively and unjustly.
- He should be killed by Kuffar (non muslims), highway robbers etc irrespective of the weapon employed thereof, however if he is killed by a muslim or a zimmi (non muslim living in an Islamic country) then it is subject to the condition that the weapon employed for the implementation of his murder should be such that it is designed to kill. E.g. guns, swords, knives, etc.  
Hence if a Muslim killed him with an object such as a stone then the laws of a shaheed will not be applicable to him in this world.
  - Irti-thaath should not be found. i.e. that a person should not derive any worldly  
benefit in any form whether by eating, drinking, sleeping, or by being accorded any medical treatments even thought it might be very minimal. Other conditions are that one salaah time should not elapse in a state of consciousness from the time of his injury up to the time of his death; neither should he be removed from the battlefield while conscious.

Therefore the answer to your question is that if a muslim who is mature, sane and not in the state of hadath-e-akbar is oppressively killed by robbers etc in his house etc, together with this condition that Irti-thaath is not established then he will be considered to be a shaheed and the laws of shahaadat will also applicable to him, hence ghusl will not be given to him and he will be buried together with his very blood stained clothing in which he was made shaheed. However if he had such garments on him which do not conform to the masnoon kafn then that should be removed, (i.e. jacket. Coat etc) and if there is any shortage to the masnoon kafn i.e. his body is not fully covered etc then that will be completed. If any of the above conditions is not found then he will be considered as a shaheed in the hereafter only, hence ghusl will be given to him and he will be buried in normal kafn.

الشهيد إسم لكل مسلم طاهر مكلف عند أبي حنيفة, قتل ظلما في قتال ثلاث, إما مع أهل الحرب أو مع أهل البغى أو مع قطاع الطريق, و فى مختصر خواهر زاده : أو قتل دون ماله أو دون نفسه أو دون رجل من المسلمين أو أهل الذمة .م: بأي آلة قتل, و لم يحمل من مكانه حياً, ولم ينتفع بحياته, ولم يبق بعد الجراحة يوما و ليلة...............و حكمه فى الشرع أنه لا يغسل و يصلى عليه عندنا.....ألخ

التاتارخانية ص139 ج1
أنظر رد المحتار ص249 ج2