The Ruling on Wishing Death for Another Person
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
A message was received by the program from the Democratic Yemen, Hadramaut Governorate. The sender—preferred not to give his name—asks and says: My parents forced me to marry my cousin’s daughter, and I married her out of fear of disobeying them. Later, I considered divorcing her, but I was afraid of that too. In the heat of my anger, I wished for her death. After a year, she died in childbirth and left behind a daughter. I have regretted it many times and cried a lot, to the point where I thought I was the cause. Am I sinful for that? Please give us a ruling, may Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
There is no harm in that for you, if Allah wills. Wishing for death is not a form of supplication, nor is it injustice. Rather, this stems from the intensity of your anger toward her and your hatred of her, so it does not harm you. Wishing for death does not harm people; rather, it only burdens the one who wishes it. As for the wish itself, it does not harm the person for whom the thing is wished. If you wished for a person to be poor or such, it might be said that this falls under the category of engaging in what is not befitting for a believer, because a believer only loves for his brother what he loves for himself, and a believer does not love death for himself, so he does not love it for his brother.
The bottom line in this matter is that you should not wish for such things, but this is not the cause of her death. You should not be distressed in such a case; rather, you should praise Allah for what happened and say: “Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we return.” You should seek forgiveness from Allah for what occurred from you. The door of repentance is open, and praise be to Allah.
The bottom line in this matter is that you wished for something you should not have done, because a believer loves for his brother what he loves for himself. This may fall under that category, and one might say: You wished for something you do not approve of for yourself, so how can you wish it for your sister in Allah? At most, you have erred in this. So you must repent and seek forgiveness, and praise be to Allah. Yes.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good.
A message was received by the program from the Democratic Yemen, Hadramaut Governorate. The sender—preferred not to give his name—asks and says: My parents forced me to marry my cousin’s daughter, and I married her out of fear of disobeying them. Later, I considered divorcing her, but I was afraid of that too. In the heat of my anger, I wished for her death. After a year, she died in childbirth and left behind a daughter. I have regretted it many times and cried a lot, to the point where I thought I was the cause. Am I sinful for that? Please give us a ruling, may Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
There is no harm in that for you, if Allah wills. Wishing for death is not a form of supplication, nor is it injustice. Rather, this stems from the intensity of your anger toward her and your hatred of her, so it does not harm you. Wishing for death does not harm people; rather, it only burdens the one who wishes it. As for the wish itself, it does not harm the person for whom the thing is wished. If you wished for a person to be poor or such, it might be said that this falls under the category of engaging in what is not befitting for a believer, because a believer only loves for his brother what he loves for himself, and a believer does not love death for himself, so he does not love it for his brother.
The bottom line in this matter is that you should not wish for such things, but this is not the cause of her death. You should not be distressed in such a case; rather, you should praise Allah for what happened and say: “Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Him we return.” You should seek forgiveness from Allah for what occurred from you. The door of repentance is open, and praise be to Allah.
The bottom line in this matter is that you wished for something you should not have done, because a believer loves for his brother what he loves for himself. This may fall under that category, and one might say: You wished for something you do not approve of for yourself, so how can you wish it for your sister in Allah? At most, you have erred in this. So you must repent and seek forgiveness, and praise be to Allah. Yes.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.