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Due to the important status of martyrdom in the context of Islam and Muslim thoughts, especially Shiites, some orientalists such as Wim Raven have sought to write works in this field. Throughout an article published as "Martyr" in the Encyclopedia of the Qur''an, Raven has explored the meaning of martyrdom and its genealogy, using the books and articles by other western scholars, especially Goldziher and Wensinck. According to them, he believes that "martyr" in The Qur''an means "witness" and "hearer of confession", and that reference of the term to the concept of "being killed in the path of Allah" is the result of a semantic transformation that occurs in the Old Testament and the use of "shahīd" in the sense of martyr owes to hadith literature. Orientalists believe that the term "shahīd" in the sense of martyr is a loan and post-Qur''anic word whose root is derived from the Syriac origin of Sahda. In the present article, with a descriptive-analytical approach, after examining Raven''s semantics discussions and outlining his viewpoints and sources, we have considered the semantics of "martyrs" in lexical and Islamic books and then analyzed Orientalists'' viewpoints in this regard. According to the historical analysis of the usage of the word "shahīd" in the sense of "the killed", its application is traced back to the outward contiguity of the concept of the killed with the basic meaning of the word "shahīd" (witness and presence). That is to say, due to the adjacency of the presence some of the killed on the battlefield and their practical witness to the faith of God and the Prophet, the concept of "being killed" is linked to "the presence", and gradually, this contiguity has led to the independent usage of the word "shahīd" in the sense of "the killed".

The Holy Qur’an, in addition to its primary purpose of guiding humanity, contains numerous scientific references that were not fully understood at the time of its revelation. Verse 25 of Surah al-Ḥadīd refers to the sending down of iron. The use of the verb anzala (to send down) instead of more commonly used verbs such as khalaqa (to create) and jaʿala (to make) has led to various interpretations of this verse throughout history. This research employs a descriptive-analytical method to examine the concept of the sending down of iron (inzāl al-ḥadīd) and its strong nature (ba's shadīd), as well as its relation to new scientific findings regarding the origin of iron on Earth. Additionally, it investigates whether people at the time of the Qur’an’s revelation had any knowledge of the extraterrestrial origin of iron.Contrary to some extreme approaches to the scientific interpretation and miracles of the Qur’an in recent centuries, this research advocates a balanced perspective that utilizes scientific findings, without any imposition, to better understand the verses of the Qur’an. Recent scientific discoveries indicate that iron is primarily produced in the cores of massive stars, and it cannot be produced in the solar system. Therefore, the use of the verb anzala may allude to the extraterrestrial origin of iron. The results of this research reveal that, from a scientific standpoint, various phenomena are involved in the process of iron's incorporation into Earth that could embody the concept of "sending down," including the production of iron in massive stars and its transfer to Earth through certain cosmic processes, the collision of iron-rich meteorites and asteroids with Earth, and the sinking of iron towards the Earth's core. Regarding the knowledge of people about the extraterrestrial origin of iron at the time of revelation, although it has been claimed that the term used for iron in ancient Egypt means "metal from heaven," the findings of this research indicate that this claim is merely a possibility and, despite extensive research, has not been definitively verified.