A request from one of the attendees for the Shaykh to clarify the issue of suicide operations, including the Shaykh’s clarification of the ruling on suicide, its severity, and the ruling on its perpetrator absolutely.

The questioner : In another question, just to open the floor for our brothers, and I hope you don’t make the answer too long, otherwise people will get annoyed with us later...

The Shaykh : But right now I’m hearing my neighbor say: “The one who asked the question told us, as we were leaving the mosque, to explain it, and now he’s saying to me: ‘It was too long!’”

The questioner : He’s taking it away from us, our Shaykh.

Another questioner : May Allah reward him with good. His intention, our Shaykh, is that it is permissible or not permissible, but in a more developed way.

The Shaykh : This is the problem of setting boundaries. No, it is the problem of setting material boundaries for theoretical scientific ideas. This is one of the most difficult things. So what is its limit? By Allah, the longer we go, the longer it gets. Yes, it was long, my brother!

The questioner : It was long, may Allah bless you, but we also need to open the floor.

The Shaykh : Okay, let’s give the turn to the next one. Please, what do you have?

The questioner : Let’s continue with the second question. Forgive us!

The Shaykh : Hehehe, this one is strange.

The questioner : The question is: If you don’t want to record it, meaning if you want to answer it, may Allah bless you. Allow us, our brothers. I mentioned in a previous session: I did not permit suicide operations.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : I did not permit suicide operations, so we need a simple clarification, may Allah bless you? And can a man or a woman go out for jihad if their parents do not allow it?

The Shaykh : In my opinion, regarding suicide operations, I have spoken more than once with some detail. But the problem is that sessions differ; sometimes we summarize, sometimes we elaborate. It is well known among all scholars, without disagreement among them, that it is not permissible for a Muslim to commit suicide, meaning to seek relief from calamities, from financial hardship, from an illness that afflicted him until it became chronic, and the like. This suicide for the sake of relief from such matters is undoubtedly forbidden. And there are authentic hadiths in al-Bukhari and Muslim: , to the extent that some scholars understood that the one who commits suicide dies in a state of disbelief, because he does not do so except out of resentment toward his Lord (Mighty and Majestic) for the calamities He inflicted upon him, which he did not have patience for. A Muslim, without a doubt, does not reach the point of thinking about suicide, let alone carrying out the idea of suicide. This is because the Muslim, and here is an example related to the previous topic: knowledge must be accompanied by action. And if there is no correct knowledge, there is no correct action. When the Muslim knows and is raised on what came in the Book and the Sunnah, the fruits of his movements in this worldly life differ, and his deeds in it differ from the deeds of others. I do not say: they did not believe in Allah and His Messenger. No, they believed in Allah and His Messenger, but they did not know what Allah and His Messenger said. Among what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said on the tongue of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is: . So if a person is afflicted with a chronic illness, or with extreme poverty, and he is a believer, it does not affect him, whether his constitution is sound or weak, whether his wealth is abundant or scarce, it does not affect him. Because, as they say in some common proverbs: “He is like a saw,” whether going up or down, he is rewarded. If good times befall him, he thanks Allah (Mighty and Majestic), so he is rewarded with good. And if hardship befalls him, he has patience, so it is better for him. So who, then, commits suicide? This is usually not a believer. But we can imagine that a Muslim might be struck by a fit of distorted thinking that leads him to commit suicide. This is possible due to this possibility. Therefore, we do not say with certainty that this person is not a believer. This is like the one who abandons prayer while denying its legitimacy: if a Muslim named Ahmad ibn Muhammad or Muhammad ibn Zayd or the like dies, but it is known that he denied prayer and denied the legislations of Islam, then if he dies, he is not buried in the Muslim cemeteries. Similarly, regarding the one who commits suicide and it is known that he committed suicide out of resentment toward Allah (Mighty and Majestic) for the calamities He inflicted upon him. But if we say that he might be struck by a fit of nervous or mental disturbance and commit suicide, for this possibility, we do not say that everyone who commits suicide is a disbeliever and is not buried in the Muslim cemeteries.