A person who defends another for justice is indeed doing right. The shuhadah are of two types: Those who are shaheed to the ummah, and those who are shaheed to Allah (SWT). Those people who are shaheed to the ummah have to be openly defending Islam in the process of their life being taken and they are not given a burial ceremony they are just buried. Their reality can be different. Some of the people who are shaheed to the ummah are indeed accepted as shuhadah to Allah (SWT), but some are not and while the ummah is stooped in deception about their state Allah (SWT) knows the truth about them. Otherwise there are also those shaheed that are treated like normal deaths or accidental deaths and are given burial ceremonies and treated like dead victims, but in reality their inner state has been accepted by Allah (SWT) as of the shuhadah. These people can never been known about in this life unless a wali gets a dream or something like that. So it is incorrect for us to say that Mr Taseer is shaheed, but we can pray for him to be given that status.
Now coming to the blasphemy law
In the state of anger a person can be very offensive and especially so an ignorant person will not find it easy to hold back. Such ignorant people may not even know the law of the country. The point is should a person who attacks Allah (SWT) or our dear prophet Muhammad (SAW) be sentenced to death?
The answer surprisingly is that it ‘depends’.
So far the way this is being done is that if witnesses stand up against a person then despite their denial they are sentenced. This method is actually against the spirit of Islam and against any known law of Shari’ah.
The correct way to implement blasphemy law is when a person “OPENLY” and under “TESTIMONY” commits blasphemy. So when in a court or behind a camera of a news reporter a person openly does blasphemy then they must be sentenced in accordance with the given punishment.
If a person denies saying anything, apologises or recants under oath and remains silent and states they have made a mistake under oath that in anger had stated something bad then this is the ticket to freeedom and should be given the opportunity to apologise and should then be let go completely or may be serve community service for a short while, depending on an agreed and just balance of scales, but either way no hudd punishment can be given here.
The problem with the law at the moment is that people can gang up on someone who they don’t like and give witness statements of blasphemy and then there is no way for the person to escape the full penalty then you ask where is the justice in that because the person could have said it out of anger for the people when taunted and could have been completely ignorant of the law and its punishment.
If a person however blasphemes under oath or behind a camera causing REAL fitnah then the situation is different.
Those people who are in agreement with the actions of Mumtaz Qadir should understand that he acted outside the law and is hence a murderer and if he is killed he will not be shaheed according to the ummah because the person who he killed was not PROVEN to be gustakh-e-rasool in a court of law. He was pinned that label (guilty before being proven innocent) and some hot-headed person took his life.
It may be that Taseer was wrong but before being proven wrong he was killed otherwise he also could have been right.
Now people should step back and think that just because an ignorant woman blasphemed and the situation was ignorantly handled three people may lose their life over this … The holy prophet Muhammad (SAW) who we are trying to defend will never have accepted this … never … Allah help us!