Suicide and time of death
Mu' meneen Brothers
and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa
Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be
upon all of you)
One of our
brothers/sisters has asked this question:
salamz,
i have just recently susbscribed to ur islamhelpline. and i am hoping that here
i would be able to get clear answers to a lot of things that nag me or a lot of
things which leave me confused. my question for today is, that in islam,
suicide is considered a sin,but then again, it is our belief that every person
has a fixed date at which they will die. so why when a person who is destined
to die at a certain date commits suicide considered a sin, when he would have
died anyway.
please explain.
(There may be some
grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not
change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our
readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask
for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever
He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that
there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam,
no dai, nobody!) worthy of
worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His
slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.
Your Question: my question for today is, that in islam, suicide is considered a sin, but then again, it is our belief that every person has a fixed date at which they will die. so why when a person who is destined to die at a certain date commits suicide considered a sin, when he would have died anyway.
Sahih Al-Bukhari
Hadith 1.1 Narrated by Umar bin Al
Khattab
I heard the
Messenger of Allah (saws) saying,
"The reward of deeds depends upon the intentions; and every person will get the reward
according to what he has intended."
Indeed, the time and place of death of each
individual is Decreed by Allah Subhanah!
But when a person commits suicide,
he is not being punished for dieing on a particular day or a particular
place, but he is being punished for the
grave sin of intending, and fulfilling
his intention to take his life! If one
commits any other sin (shirk,
murder, zina, etc.), he has the opportunity to turn back to Allah
Subhanah and seek His Forgiveness and Pardon because the door of Taubah is open
until the time of one’s death; but when
one commits suicide and takes his own life,
he cannot even seek repentance as the door of Taubah is closed
permanently with his death!
Suicide is considered a
grave sin because of the role the person intended and played in the taking of
his life; and not because of his place
or manner or time of his death! He
basically could not take or accept the tests Allah Subhanah put on him, and did not trust the Decree and Qadr of
Allah of giving life and death; but
rather, in his ignorance, he took the matter in his own hands and
intended, and fulfilled his intention
to kill himself! This intention, and the fulfilling of this his intention is what is the grave
sin!; for after he has fulfilled this
intention of suicide, he has lost the
opportunity to seek repentance for his sin!
If your argument that “a person who is destined to die at a certain date, commits
suicide, considered a sin, when he
would have died anyway”, then the person who murders
another person can use the same argument and say that he committed no sin in
killing a person, because he was
destined to die on that date: Would
such an argument be accepted from him?
No, my beloved sister, the murderer’s (and the one who commits suicide) sin is that he
intended and fulfilled his intention by taking a life that he had no right to
take! The murderer, after having committed the murder has the
opportunity to turn back to Allah Subhanah and seek forgiveness; but the one who commits suicide loses even
that opportunity, for the doors of
Taubah are closed with one’s death!
Thus it is the
intention, and the fulfillment of that
intention by playing the role with his own free will is what is considered the
sin!
A similar theme is declared in
one of the authentic hadiths of wisdom by the Messenger of Allah (saws):
Sahih Al-Bukhari
Hadith 9.14 Narrated by Al Ahnaf bin Qais
From Abu Bakr who
heard the Messenger of Allah (saws)
saying, 'If two Muslims meet each other with their swords, then (both) the killer and the killed are in
the (Hell) Fire.' I asked, 'O Messenger
of Allah (saws)! It is alright for the killer,
but what about the killed one?'
He (saws) replied, 'The killed one was eager to kill his opponent.'
"
The Messenger of Allah (saws)
declared that when two men fight and the one who kills another soul without
just cause, and the one who is killed, both will be in Hell Fire! When asked why would the one who is killed
be punished in Hell Fire, the Messenger
of Allah (saws) replied that because if the one who was killed could have
overpowered and killed his assailant,
he would have done so; and that
intention, and doing everything in his
power to fulfill his intention is what is considered a grave sin.
Whatever written of
Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever
of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows
Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.
Your Brother in
Islam,
