In the story of Khalid Ibn Al-Waleed, it was reported that he drank poison after pronouncing the Name of God so as to prove the truth of Islam and to prove that it is based on justice. Yet in fact this is just a tale that is told in order to delude simple-minded Muslims, for according to this claim, if those same Muslims met an enemy who tried to deceive them by telling them to show that their faith was true and that their religion was the right one by drinking poison, they would do so, following the example of Khaled Ibn Al- Waleed. Then, in no time they would be surprised by difficult afflictions or maybe unavoidable death.
Thus the enemy would have mocked them and their faith, and would have put them to death.
Refuting such claims, we say the following:
1) Has God not forbidden us to kill ourselves? Has He not said: “…you should not kill yourselves. Al’lah is Merciful towards you”?
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 4, An-Nisa’ (Women), verse 29.
Is poison not deadly?
Is this contention not opposite to the statements of God?
Did Khalid Ibn Al-Waleed break the word of God?
If he did, then how would God honor him?! What is this strange contradiction?!
The priest Stanly Choberge had a difficult situation to deal with once during a debate between himself and Sheikh Ahmed Didat, when one of the audience said to him, “if you really believe in the Messiah, then do what he said, which is mentioned in the Bible: ‘those who really believe in me will be hurt by nothing, even if it is fatal poison’.”
But the Priest saved himself from that difficult position when he said, “for the past three days, my wife has been telling me that there is someone who wants to kill me, and she repeated that this morning. So, if you want to, please just give me five minutes”.
2) Islam is a religion based on sound logic, correct thinking, and proofs that are founded on firm and strict rules and fundamentals. Its principles, views and rules excel all other rudiments and principles that have been set by human beings.
The statement “In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful” means to observe the Godly Statute and not to break it by preternatural acts.
When a judge says, “In the name of the law”, he means that he judges according to the articles of the law without deviation from them.
Also, when the President says, “in the name of the nation”, he means that he rules only according to the people’s will and without overstepping this mark.
I wonder, how would Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed say “In the Name of God” and then act in a way that contravenes this by drinking poison, as has been claimed? Is such an act part of God’s Statute?
3) Since humanity has known about the existence of poison, we have known that it kills the person who drinks it. So drinking it willingly amounts to suicide, which is definitely prohibited in Islam. God says: “…and do not with your hands cast yourselves into destruction…”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 2, Al-Baqara (The Cow), verse 195
And there can be no jurisprudence for that which has a clear judgment relating to it within the Qur’an.
In addition, the messenger (cpth) said that a person who commits suicide is an unbeliever, and that a person who commits suicide by drinking poison will see themselves continually drinking poison and suffering the resultant pain from the time they leave this life until the arrival of Doomsday. So, with this lie which has been fabricated against a venerable companion, those who propagate it countermand the words of the messenger (cpth).
Revealing that self-destruction results in loss and eternal torment, the prophet (cpth) said, “He who throws himself from a mountain to kill himself will keep himself in hellfire and be kept there, throwing himself off a great height therein forever; he who drinks poison to kill himself will keep himself in hellfire and be kept there, drinking poison by his own hand therein forever; and he who kills himself with a blade, he will keep himself in hellfire and be kept there, stabbing his belly with his own hand therein forever.”[17]
Thus, however sublime and lofty the intention may be, it is not permitted to break God’s Statute. The Almighty does not allow us to drink poison, as this action is deemed to be killing oneself by one’s own free will.
The words “in the Name of God” indicate that your behavior should always be within the bounds of God’s law and according to His legislation, which does not permit anyone to drink poison, even if such a person was the highest and most pious man or woman.
Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed himself, said “I have entered about one hundred wars, and there is no length of my body that has not been stricken with the strike of a sword, the piercing of an arrow or the stab of a spear” (he did not mention a drink of poison). “Nevertheless, here I am, dying as natural a death as the camel dies, here on my bed. Let the eyes of the cowards be sleepless.”
How, then, can they claim that he drank poison without being affected by it?
4) There are some false stories and sayings which suggest that the messenger (cpth) departed this life after being affected by poison that was given to him after he faced a challenge by a Jewess. So how can they also allege that Khalid Ibn Al-Waleed drank a glass of poison without being affected by it?
No doubt, this story and the one before it are only lies that were invented by the magicians and the charlatans.
What these people do is nothing more than devilish deception and their actions are very far from truth, facts and religion. Behind such acts, only vicious intentions are hidden.
The person who calls people to Al’lah does so only to glorify Him, so that such a person will lead people to Al’lah only so that they will turn to Him and think of His graces and of the greatness of His creation (glory to Him). Such a person does not wish to be worshipped themselves, and does not say “Glorify me, appreciate me”. The self-extoller is a devil. He sees himself as superior to all people because of his quackery, as he does what other people cannot do. Anyone that ascribes such an action to themselves shall be destroyed, because the agent is God alone.
God says: “Whoever of them declares: ‘I am a god besides Him’…”: in reference to those who say it in letter and in spirit whenever they have the chance, attributing actions to themselves, claiming that they are the agents; “…shall be requited with Hell-Fire. Thus shall the oppressors be rewarded”; thus, any one in all of creation that says, “I do, I make” will end up in ignominy and humbleness.
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 21, Al-Anbiya’ (The Prophets), verse 29
The words “I am a god” mean “I give, I deprive, I strike…” and are just like the magician’s statements, “I shall paralyze you, make you mad”, or “await nightmares tonight” or “I am the admiral of land, sea and air” and other such nonsense.
The phrase: “…shall be requited with Hell-fire. Thus shall the oppressors be rewarded”, means that ignominy and lowness will be the result. The fate will be nothing but humiliation: this is the penalty for somebody who thinks that action and power are in their own hands rather than the hands of God: “there is no power or might except with God”.