Does a person who died of cancer as a result of smoking attain the status of a martyr?

It is proven in the saheeh
Sunnah that there are various kinds of martyrs who will
attain the status of martyrdom in the Hereafter; this is by
the grace and mercy of Allah. 

It was narrated from Abu
Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger
of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said:
“The martyrs are five: the one who dies of the plague, the
one who dies of a stomach disease, the one who drowns, the
one who is crushed beneath a falling wall, and the martyr who
is killed for the sake of Allaah.” 

Al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah
have mercy on him) said: 

Ibn al-Teen said: All of these
are deaths which involve hardship. Allah has bestowed His
grace upon the ummah of Muhammad (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him) by making them means of erasing their sins
and increasing their rewards, and enabling them to attain the
status of martyrdom. 

Fath
al-Baari,
6/44 

If a person dies of cancer, some
of the scholars are of the view that he is included among the
types of martyr mentioned in the hadeeth, on the basis that
the word mabtoon (the one who dies of a disease in the
abdomen) is general and includes everyone who dies of a
disease in his abdomen and that this does not apply to any
one specific disease. 

Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy
on him) said: 

The word mabtoon means the one
with a disease in the abdomen, which is diarrhoea. Al-Qaadi
said: And it was said that he is the one who suffers from
dropsy or oedema and swelling of the abdomen. And it was
said that it refers to the one who suffers some disease in
his abdomen. And it was said that it refers to anyone who
dies from a disease in the abdomen in general. End quote
from Sharh Muslim by al-Nawawi. 

But it should be noted that this
suggestion is connected to two conditions: 

(i)               
that the site of the cancer be in the
abdomen so that he may truly be said to be
mabtoon. 

Shaykh ‘Abd al-Muhsin al-‘Abbaad
(may Allah preserve him) was asked: 

Does a person who dies of cancer
come under the heading of mabtoon? 

He replied: 

No, because cancer is not always
in the stomach; it may be somewhere other than the
stomach. 

Sharh Sunan Abi
Dawood (tape no.
230) 

As the site of your friend’s
cancer was in the throat, he is not included among any of the
groups who are regarded as martyrs. 

(ii)             
that the disease should not have been
caused by smoking, taking drugs or drinking alcohol, or other
haraam things, unless he has repented sincerely from that and
has given up consuming those haraam
things. 

This condition is general and
applies to all those mentioned in the hadeeth. If a woman is
pregnant as the result of zina and dies in labour, she is not
regarded as one of the martyrs. If a person who drowned had
boarded the boat or ship in order to commit sin or some
immoral activity, and dies as a result of drowning, he is not
one of the martyrs. A person who is killed by a falling wall
when he is committing zina or drinking alcohol is not one of
the martyrs. In the answer to question no. 45669, we have
quoted the Standing Committee as saying that a person who
dies as the result of a car accident when he was inside the
car comes under the same heading as one who was killed by a
falling wall, so he is a martyr, by Allah’s leave. But this
cannot be applied to those foolish young men to whom this
happens when they are racing in their cars, or to those who
compete in difficult circumstances in the mountains or in the
snow (“extreme sports”). 

In the answer to question no.
22140, we quoted Shaykh
al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah as saying that if a person drowns after
boarding a ship for sinful purposes, he is not a
martyr. 

And elsewhere he
said: 

Whoever wants to follow a path
where the possibilities of being safe or being killed are
equal has to refrain from following it; if he does not
refrain, then he is aiding in his own destruction so he is
not a martyr. 

Al-Fataawa
al-Kubra,
5/381 

Al-Suyooti (may Allah have mercy
on him) said: 

Al-Qurtubi said: This and the
previous one — i.e., those who are killed by a falling wall
or drowning — if they did not take risks and did not fail to
take precautions, (then they are martyrs). But if they did
not take precautions and died as a result of that, then they
are sinners. 

Al-Deebaaj ‘ala
Muslim (4/508) 

In al-Mawsoo‘ah
al-Fiqhiyyah (26/273, 274) it says: 

An exception is made in the case
of one who travels for the purpose of sin and dies away from
home. Another exception is made in the case of one who drowns
but was sinning by boarding the ship when he knew that it was
most likely not to be safe for him to do so, or he boarded it
for the purpose of committing sin. Another exception is made
in the case of a woman who is pregnant as a result of zina
and dies in childbirth. End quote. 

If the person who is slain in
battle was fighting for the sake of tribalism or to show off,
he does not attain the virtue or status of martyrdom, and it
is more likely that such people will not attain that great
reward. 

Summary: 

Cancer in and of itself does not
mean that the person who dies of it is one of the types of
martyrs, unless the disease was in his abdomen. That is not
what is stated in the hadeeth; rather it is the ijtihaad
(opinion) of some scholars with regard to the meaning of
mabtoon. If a person’s disease was caused by smoking and the
like, and he dies of it before repenting, then he is not a
martyr, even if the disease was in his abdomen. But if the
disease in his abdomen was not the result of a haraam action,
we hope that he will attain the status of the martyrs in the
Hereafter, in sha Allah. 

And Allaah knows
best.