Suicide… Withdrawing from human's major mission Featured

By Dr Ahmed Al Gohary July 16, 2023 5505

The Muslim has a major mission in this life. God Almighty said: (Just recall the time when your Lord said to the angels, "I am going to appoint a vicegerent on the Earth.") (Al-Baqarah: 30), and this mission cannot be performed by anyone other than Him in the way that He performs it, and cannot be performed by Him. Someone else will replace him, so it will always be as he performs it, because man’s perception of this life, his work in it, and his method of achieving this work differs from the perception of others, the work of others, and the method of others.

That is why the Muslim’s rise to this mission is considered obligatory, and his withdrawal from it is forbidden (haram). In our religion, work is obligatory, and idleness is forbidden. Activity in our religion is obligatory and laziness is forbidden (haram). Hope in our law is a necessity and despair is a crime. Movement, striving and vigilance in our law are a blessing, while idleness and heedlessness are a curse.

Have you not seen how a Muslim looks at the universe in moderation between the exaggeration of a people and their excess and the estrangement and negligence of others? There are people who worship some of the phenomena of the universe and some of its individuals, and hope and fear them, and expect goodness from them as the owners of everything in it, and other people who take the universe and what is in it as enemies who fight them and seek - as they put it - to subjugate and humiliate them to the point that they no longer see the universe as anything but a storehouse of wealth and a repository for waste.

A Muslim befriends the universe and considers it a creation of Allah like himself.

A Muslim sees the universe as a means through which he can reach Allah Almighty.

A Muslim looks at the universe as a means and a tool that he lent to him in order to benefit from it in his mission entrusted to him by Allah Almighty.

The Muslim considers this universe as a trust that Allah Almighty has entrusted him with and a responsibility that Allah Almighty will ask him about. Therefore, he seeks to preserve, grow, and develop it. He has to avoid its destruction, corruption, and transgression against it, or even neglecting it.

The Muslim sees life and living beings - including himself - as a gift that God Almighty bestowed on him, and God is observing him and looking at what he does with them. A Muslim cannot help but treat the universe as Allah Almighty commanded him in his book, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, explained to him in his Sunnah.

Regarding self-treatment, we find many verses warning against attacking and destroying it, such as the saying of Allah Almighty: "And do not kill yourselves [or one another]. Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful (29) And whoever commits that through aggression and injustice, We shall cast him into the Fire, and that is easy for Allah."(30) (An-Nisa’) And in this prohibition for a person to kill himself.

Many hadiths confirm this meaning, such as the saying of the Prophet, ( ﷺ): Abu Hurairah narrated (from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) : "Whoever kills himself with (an instrument of)iron, he will come on the Day Of Judgment with his iron in his hand, to continually stab himself in his stomach with it, in the fire of Jahannam, dwelling in that state eternally. And whoever kills himself with poison, then his poison will be in his hand, to continually take it in the Fire of Jahannam, dwelling in that state eternally." Jami` at-Tirmidhi Sahih and The Prophet (ﷺ) saying, “He who commits suicide by throttling shall keep on throttling himself in the Hell Fire (forever)."

This is the upbringing of Islam for the Muslim whom God has provided with life, entrusted him with living things and things, and made for him a law that deals with it on the basis of it: he strives for its reconstruction, growth and development, and before that he preserves what exists and protects him from corruption, and between this and this he does not corrupt or destroy: (And do not do mischief on the earth, after it has been set in order) (Al-A’raf: 56).

Do we find in a belief other than Islam that the heavens, the earth and whatever is in them and whoever is in them glorifies the name of Allah and obeys Him and submits to His command, and that benevolence is obligatory for a Muslim for everything, even the killer who is taken from him and the animal that lies down for slaughter, and that removing harmful things from the road is charity, and that a woman entered the fire in A kitten she kept,  she did neither feed it, nor did she let it eat from the vermin of the earth, and that what does not harm it is not permissible to kill it, and it is not permissible to harm it.

So does Islam attach all this importance but overlook the master of the earth (man)?!

Man is the master of these beings whom Allah Almighty has possessed, made lawful for him, commanded him to benefit from them, and authorized him to preserve and care for them. If all of this is part of his mission and responsibility, then is it appropriate for him to go voluntarily - rather, aggression, injustice and transgression - and leave them? It is not surprising that we found The jurists decide: that the one who commits suicide is greater in sin than the one who kills someone else, and he is a sinner and a transgressor against himself so that some of them said: He is not washed or prayed over him like the transgression.

It was also said: His repentance is not accepted as a harsh punishment, just as the apparent meaning of some hadiths indicates his eternity in Hell.

And we found that the commentators do not differentiate between the one who kills others and the one who kills himself in applying the harsh rulings mentioned in this verse to both of them: "But whoever kills a believer intentionally - his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and Allah has become angry with him and has cursed him and has prepared for him a great punishment."   (An-Nisa: 93)

Islam elevates the value of every human being and makes him responsible for his surroundings, environment, and world. There is no difference in this between the president and his people, the rich and the worker for him with his money, the merchant and the servant who is with him in his shop, and the man and his wife in her house. All of these in the view of Islam are responsible in their positions that are distributed in all aspects of life. They are equal in the task of reforming life, struggling with corruption, and establishing the religion of Allah Almighty in all its aspects. Ibn 'Umar reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, "All of you are shepherds and each of you is responsible for his flock. A man is the shepherd of the people of his house and he is responsible. A woman is the shepherd of the house of her husband and she is responsible. Each of you is a shepherd and each is responsible for his flock." Al-Adab Al-Mufrad, Sahih.

There is no one among Muslims who is unemployed, neglected, or superfluous. All workers are assigned and all energies are required, and therefore an official should not withdraw from his position, and it is not appropriate for a worker to flee from his mission. Islam does not accept that a trustworthy person abandons his trust, let alone neglecting the tools of reform, the greatest of which is the spirit for which God granted man all this honor.

Suicide is not only a crime committed by a sinner against himself, his family, his society, humanity, the universe, and against religion, but it is a withdrawal and abandonment of man's greatest mission in this life.