1. Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims
  2. Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

41 Questions

I have been stuck in a cycle of suicidal thoughts and depression since I was 14. Three years later I'm still struggling and I can't hold myself together anymore. I have decided that I truly need to kill myself. How do I avoid punishment for it in hell?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

First of all, we need to agree on the standards which rule our life and existence.

1. If you believe in Allah (SWT) then you should never think about killing or harming yourself no matter how much difficulties you feel that you have. You need to  listen to Allah (SWT) and see that He is The Most Merciful. No problem can be bigger than His Mercy. His Mercy has included every thing. In Quran, Allah says (And My Mercy has included every thing) (7:156).

If you do not believe in Allah (SWT), God Forbid, you can not deny believing in Reason and intellect. You should never think about killing or harming yourself because because it goes against reason and intellect.

The way out of suicidal thoughts is to remember Allah (SWT) and His countless bounties if you are believer in Allah (SWT) or to remember your intellect and reason to see that suicidal thoughts are completely wrong and will never bring any relief of termination to your problems.

We are not allowed to kill or harm an animal, so, how can you think about killing or harming yourself?

Keep on repeating (YA ARHAM ARRAHIMEEN) (O THE MOST MERCIFUL).

Wassalam.
I have been stuck in a cycle of suicidal thoughts and depression since I was 14. Three years later I'm still struggling and I can't hold myself together anymore. I have decided that I truly need to kill myself. How do I avoid punishment for it in hell?
Zoheir Ali Esmail

Bismillah

Thank you for your question and for reaching out. From what the scholars have understood,  a person doesn't have the right to decide whether to continue living or not no matter how extreme the difficulty. For a Muslim there is only one way out of depression and that is to keep searching for a solution until something works. I know it may seem like the only solution is to end it and sometimes it may seem like an attractive option, but the guidance that all Islamic scholars will give to not take that way. In the modern world depression is more and more common, but at the same time there is a growing community of people that have found their way out of bleak depression, and others that have a relationship with depression, sometimes being ok and sometimes falling back into it. Seek out help from these communities and people who are going through the same kinds of things you are, and with Allah's help, maybe you will start to see things differently.

May you always be successful 
Is it true that people who died as disbelievers, having never heard about Islam in their lifetime, will not go to hell?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

No one will go to hell if he did not deny and insisted on denying Islam, after knowing about the True Faith.

Those who died before knowing the True Faith will be given full chance in the Day of Judgement  to know about the True Faith, then they will be tested whether they accept it or not.

Wassalam.
How is it justice that God will punish the disbelievers and enemies of God in hellfire forever when their crime was committed in their limited lifespan in this world?
Zoheir Ali Esmail

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. The dilemma in this question is caused by the way it is framed as it assumes that punishment is in accordance with specific crimes. One direct answer to this question as it stands is to hypothesize that some crimes would have far enough reaching consequences to deserve eternal punishment. Especially, when those crimes include others and have far-reaching implications into their futures and the people surrounding them.

However, another way to answer the question is to re-frame it and examine life as an opportunity in which people choose how to fashion their own afterlife. In this case, it is not God that enforces an external punishment that would be just or unjust, but rather, the solidification of disbelief in the heart, from which there is no coming back as there is no repentance, manifests as an eternal punishment from which there is no hope of salvation.

May you always be successful.