This is an interesting bit, about renunciation and martyrdom. Christianity is the quintessential religion of martyrdom. From its inception—beginning with Jesus followed by his disciples and the early Church—many Christians have accepted martyrdom rather than recant their faith, whether it be in ancient times at the hands of Romans, in Medieval or in modern times at the hands of pious Muslims and others.
This is because Christ’s own words: “whoever denies me before men, I will deny him before my Father in heaven” (Matt 10:33; see also Luke 14:33).” Obviously implying that Heaven and the hereafter will be closed to them, and of course to Christians that is the glorious aim.
Now conversely, Islam teaches Muslims to openly renounce their faith (taqiyya)—not just when their lives are threatened, but even as a stratagem of war—as long as they remain Muslim in their hearts.
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows, and it seems so does Allah, and that it seems it good enough.
The historical usage of taqiyya is whenever and wherever Shiites have been outnumbered and thus threatened. Conversely, Sunni Muslims, have deployed taqiyya—not as dissimulation but as active deceit which considered as superior—to other universal military virtues, such as courage, fortitude, or self-sacrifice. From Ray Ibrahim.
My father, God bless him, saw the last bit when he was working in the 70’s in the Arabian peninsula when Sunni’s would try to out boast the other in who was the worst Muslim to get American favor. He mentioned this to his Saudi host who told Pop, “Allah blesses them in their boasts”. When he came home, he put all his energy into oil-independence saying, you can’t have allies that can lie like that and still get to heaven.
Alas he was ahead of his time, and no one was interested in his solar technology…until about 8 years later when Grumman sued him for it for infringing upon their patent. The court case killed him.
In my anguish... 