It is to oppose the desires of the nafs (nafs, the lower self). (Insān, II, 85)
Shahāda (testimony/martyrdom) is of two kinds: shahāda-i kubrā (the greater testimony) and shahāda-i sugrā (the lesser testimony; the small and the great testimony). Shahāda-i sugrā has several categories. It is mentioned in a hadith that a person who dies as a stranger, by drowning, by abdominal illness, or in similar circumstances will be considered a shahīd (martyr). The highest station (maqām) of shahāda-i sugrā is to fight in the path of Allah.
Shahāda-i kubrā, on the other hand, is divided into two: the highest and the lowest. The highest is to witness the Truth (al-Ḥaqq) with the eye of certainty among other creatures. (A person who possesses such witnessing, for example, when seeing something among created beings, does not perceive incarnation or ...