Shahid

Shahid (Arabic: شهيد, romanized: Shahīd [ʃahiːd], fem. شهيدة [ʃahiːdah], pl. شُهَدَاء [ʃuhadaː]; Punjabi: ਸ਼ਹੀਦ) denotes a martyr in Islam and Sikhism. 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.

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. 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. This suggests that there is no single fixed and immutable concept of martyrdom among Muslims and Sikhs.