Shahid

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Shahid (Arabic: شهيد, romanized: Shahīd [ʃahiːd], fem. شهيدة [ʃahiːdah], pl. شُهَدَاء [ʃuhadaː]) denotes a martyr in Islam.^[1] The word is used frequently in the Quran in the generic sense of "witness" but only once in the sense of "martyr" (i.e. one who dies for his faith); the latter sense acquires wider usage in the hadith.^[2][3] The term's usage is also borrowed by non-Muslim communities where persianate Islamic empires held cultural influence, such as amongst Hindus and Sikhs in India.

The term is commonly used as a posthumous title for those who are considered to have accepted or even consciously sought out their own death in order to bear witness to their beliefs.^[4] Like the English-language word martyr, in the 20th century, the word shahid came to have both religious and non-religious connotations, and has often been used to describe those who died for non-religious ideological causes.^[5][6]