[Pooya/Ali Commentary 2:154] Those, who die and give themselves fully for the sake and in the way of Allah, are not dead. They are alive, attached and closely connected with the ever-living Allah. It is reported that verse 154 was revealed for the Muslims who were slain in the battle of Badr. In those days the new converts to Islam, like the disbelievers, thought that death means loss of life for ever. Fisabilillah means "in the way of Allah" or "for the cause of truth". "The way of the devils" means "for the cause of falsehood" (Nisa: 76). Sale's interpretation of fisabilillah (wars fought against non-Muslims to propagate Islam) is a deliberate distortion. There is no compulsion in religion (Baqarah: 256), therefore, the Holy Prophet went to war only when it was forced upon him. All the created beings are given the opportunity to prove their potential, therefore, everyone is tried with something of fear, hunger, and loss of possessions and children. Those who have attained the highest spiritual maturity through personal virtues, ability to exercise patience, with faith and reliance upon Allah, face the trials successfully and reach the highest stations nearest to Allah. Each individual occupies a different status according to the degree of faith and patience he employs to encounter the test and trial. Some souls are not considered fit to be tried. It is their misfortune. The exemption may be to let their infidelity or hypocrisy grow to its full scope for which there is a painful punishment. (Ali Imran: 178). The Holy Prophet and the twelve holy Imams occupy the highest status near Allah with reference to the faith in and reliance upon Allah, personal virtues and ability to exercise patience. For the cause of truth, in the way of Allah, they gladly suffered every kind of misery, hardship and calamity of the utmost severity throughout their lives. Only once in the history of the world all kinds of trials, mentioned in this verse (155), to the maximum conceivable degree, have been happily and triumphantly endured and coped with by Imam Husayn and his family and friends in the desert of Karbala. No less was the situation of the other holy Imams under the tyrannical rule of the Ummawi and Abbasi rulers. Aqa Mahdi Puya says: The soul of every conscious being will taste death (Ali Imran: 185), therefore, this verse does not refer to the departure of the soul from the body. It refers to a particular state of blissful life which the souls of the non-Muslims are deprived of. The term "life" and "death" has also been used in the Quran to signify "knowledge" and "ignorance" (Ya Sin: 70), or "belief" and "disbelief" (An-am: 123) respectively. The life the soul lives after its departure from the body can be termed as death if it is more painful and miserable than the life of this world when it was in the body, because it has been deprived of the bliss it enjoyed here. And if the life of the hereafter is more blissful than here, the life of this world should be described as death. The Holy Prophet has rightly observed: This world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the disbeliever. A poor Jew once asked Imam Hasan to tell him how could his poverty be a paradise and Imam's plenty be a prison? The Imam replied: "If you would know the miseries awaiting the disbelievers, and the blessings in store for the believers in the life of hereafter, you will then agree that even your present plight is a paradise compared to those miseries, and my affluence here is a prison for me as compared to the blessings that will be bestowed on me there." Life and death should be understood in the sense of gain and loss in the various stages man passes through, as described by the Quran in verse 154 of this surah. In verse 169 of Ali Imran it is advised not to think that those who are slain in the way of Allah are dead, because they are alive, getting sustenance from their Lord. It means that they are in direct communion with their cherisher and sustainer. The term shahid, in the Quran, refers to this state of existence.