Suicide, The Lifespace continuum and Kufr
Talking about suicide is always a touchy subject, because there are some people out there who are very very serious about suicide. First I will let you know that I have thought about suicide as much as the next healthy well adjusted person. It is a human thought and it crosses one's mind in proportion to the depression that they may have. It is seen by some as the ultimate answer for a problem that seems insurmountable. When everything is dark and there is nowhere to turn ending it all for an ignorant person seems like a logical way of shelving all problems in life. This however can be nothing further from the truth or even reality. The real reality is Allah, and His Will is inescapable. Suicide is an attempt to buck a system that is un-buckable.
The first problem with suicide besides the obvious is that it doesn't change anything. The person is looking for an escape or a relief from oppression whether emotional, financial, physical or otherwise. However for those left behind it only transforms the problem from one thing to another. Then the seed of suicide is left for those dealing with the problem and anyone who references that person's death when legitimizing their own has added to the originator's tally of sins. Then there is the disruption of the Lifespace continuum (I will explain later). As disrupted the incidence of disruption is put on repeat over and over again until the Day of Judgement. Even if you committed suicide by overdosing on Bon Bons doing that over and over again ad infinitum would get seriously old after the 455 millionth time. So when I get thoughts of suicide that cross my mind after the appropriate A' oothu Billah. I look at the longterm afterlife effects of such a decision. There is a verse that specifically addresses this feeling. 78:40 (Y. Ali) Verily, We have warned you of a Penalty near, the Day when man will see (the deeds) which his hands have sent forth, and the Unbeliever will say, "Woe unto me! Would that I were (metre) dust!" Also Maryam's call in childbirth 19:23 (Y. Ali) And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: She cried (in her anguish): "Ah! would that I had died before this! would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!"
Now before I start quoting verses and reaching for meaning I want to lay something down on the line before I get a bunch of tunnel vision people telling me what is and what is not viable as scholarly quotations. All that I am saying here is that these quoted verses are points of reflection and are in no way meant to be interpreted as any kind of tafsir or scholarly rhetoric at all. That being said the next step into analyzing the suicidal mentality comes the true understanding of the lifespace continuum. The fact of the matter is that you were created LONG before you got here and you will exist LONG after you leave this place. That being said you must know when you were created as Allah states: 7:172 (Y. Ali) When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): "Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?"- They said: "Yea! We do testify!" (This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgment: "Of this we were never mindful". When Adam was created all of his children (you and I) were created as well and we were asked as to who our Lord was to which we all replied in the affirmative that Allah was indeed our Lord. This is the seal, the inescapable yoke of what is actually reality. We are the servants of Allah willingly or unwillingly just like gravity it is a fact that will never change.
Now let's get into the meat of this Reflection. Suicide is not an answer because it doesn't address the condition in the first place. It only addresses the symptom or put blankly the vessel that houses existence. In the verses quoted by Mary (AS) and the sinner faced with the eternal punishment both of them at the instance address the solution. The solution is not death however NON Existence. Non Existence is the only way to escape the reality of and responsibility of existence. Through death the matter of existence is not addressed for we die daily. The issue is there is no disruption in consciousness. In Islam there is an understanding that when we go to sleep that Allah takes our souls unto Himself and then determines whether or not to give them back to us as He so sees fit. My point is consciousness doesn't break sync with existence. Whether you are dead to the world asleep or you are clinically dead for 5 or so minutes consciousness does not stop. What I am saying is that consciousness extends beyond the 5 minutes it extends on into infinity and suicide or murder or natural death don't stop it. Now this is where the skeptics can jump in however it is a historical fact that those who have been declared dead for some period of time and then are revived or revive themselves all admit that they never lost consciousness. There is no need for me to list the volumes of examples just google afterlife/ near death experiences and you will have your fill. The speech is consistent that all of them never lost consciousness. They were disconnected from their vessels and still conscience. Consciousness never ends.
Non-Existence however is NOT an option. You can't just pack it all up and exit stage left. It would be great, but impossible. WHY!! In short you said you could hack it. That is right, you looked at life and said that is a piece of cake bring it on and watch me shine, I can take whatever you have to throw at me after all how bad can it be? You did this possibly hundreds of years ago. Why would you do something so stupid (depending on how you look at it) well if you look at it on the scale of infinity how long are you actually down here? If a day in the life is equal to 1000 earth years how much is 66 - 100 years going to hurt? Honestly? Even if you were tortured each and every day of your whole human life and you bore it with the understanding that this is only going to last for a second or two then would you do it? Now look at this If you are in the heavenly knowledge of what you get on the other side it is kind of like truth or dare. Maybe that other reality show where people do all kinds of crazy things for the grand prize. Like eat scorpions and what not. So it is kind of like this you were in a place that wasn't this life and you were offered all of the riches your heart could desire and the amount of riches was directly proportional to the kind of tripe you had to go through on earth what exactly would you do? If I promised you a Million Dollars if you stubbed your toe would you do it type of thing. So in summary we all saw the glory or possible glory and said I'm all in and so that is why we are here. There is no exiting the race we are here and that is that.
Now comes Kufr (disbelief in the oneness of God). This is the point as some instance of life where denying the obvious seems like a viable solution. I just fell off of Mount Everest the ground does not exist phenomena. As if disbelief in smashing to the ground at 150mph is going to solve anything. Kufr is the belief that disbelief somehow buys an out of an inevitable situation. That it somehow unlocks the restraints of the deal we brokered with the Almighty. WRONG!!! and very very stupid. It is what Shaytan did when faced with the fact that he wasn't Allah's golden child. He knew that there was no way out of it, There was no changing Allah's mind, He and his kind had missed the boat to greatness and he would be playing second fiddle. So he tried cleverness and asked for respite until the Day of Resurrection, because he couldn't ask for Non-Existence. Then he foolishly divulged his onslaught against humanity. Now imagine if you are looking down from pre-human existence you can see blatantly that Shaytan's scheme is juvenile and faulty however down here without faith they seem very thought out and thorough. That and we have faults like anger, resentment and malice that makes us maleable to foolishness. However if we hold on to faith we can see that resistance is futile and Allah is irresistible.
The fact is you will smash into the ground unless you look to Allah to save you, regardless of whether or not your vessel makes it or not. Your vessel smashing into the ground from Mount Everest is the LEAST of your problems. It will not KILL you specifically YOUR EXISTENCE. YOur vessel may pass on, but you have a whole eternity before you and now the time to pay the piper will have begun.
So in closing I want to recap. Suicide will not put an end to it all and is dumb, and throwing tantrums and saying that you aren't falling towards certain doom isn't going to help either. What is the solution? Worship Allah Subhannahu Wa Tala with all of your might for HE alone can save your consciousness or punish it. The Quran eliminates every possible human excuse for not attaining excellence period. If you read it cover to cover you will find that you are left with no excuses for failure of any kind. Personal, Marital, Professional, spiritual it literally leaves the human being no excuses to justify failure. So live your life and know that your life is what you asked for because you saw the treasures on the other side. The Deen is easy, sin obscures vision, stop the sin and reconnect to the Almighty and attain the true success.
I pray for all of you.
The first problem with suicide besides the obvious is that it doesn't change anything. The person is looking for an escape or a relief from oppression whether emotional, financial, physical or otherwise. However for those left behind it only transforms the problem from one thing to another. Then the seed of suicide is left for those dealing with the problem and anyone who references that person's death when legitimizing their own has added to the originator's tally of sins. Then there is the disruption of the Lifespace continuum (I will explain later). As disrupted the incidence of disruption is put on repeat over and over again until the Day of Judgement. Even if you committed suicide by overdosing on Bon Bons doing that over and over again ad infinitum would get seriously old after the 455 millionth time. So when I get thoughts of suicide that cross my mind after the appropriate A' oothu Billah. I look at the longterm afterlife effects of such a decision. There is a verse that specifically addresses this feeling. 78:40 (Y. Ali) Verily, We have warned you of a Penalty near, the Day when man will see (the deeds) which his hands have sent forth, and the Unbeliever will say, "Woe unto me! Would that I were (metre) dust!" Also Maryam's call in childbirth 19:23 (Y. Ali) And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree: She cried (in her anguish): "Ah! would that I had died before this! would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!"
Now before I start quoting verses and reaching for meaning I want to lay something down on the line before I get a bunch of tunnel vision people telling me what is and what is not viable as scholarly quotations. All that I am saying here is that these quoted verses are points of reflection and are in no way meant to be interpreted as any kind of tafsir or scholarly rhetoric at all. That being said the next step into analyzing the suicidal mentality comes the true understanding of the lifespace continuum. The fact of the matter is that you were created LONG before you got here and you will exist LONG after you leave this place. That being said you must know when you were created as Allah states: 7:172 (Y. Ali) When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): "Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?"- They said: "Yea! We do testify!" (This), lest ye should say on the Day of Judgment: "Of this we were never mindful". When Adam was created all of his children (you and I) were created as well and we were asked as to who our Lord was to which we all replied in the affirmative that Allah was indeed our Lord. This is the seal, the inescapable yoke of what is actually reality. We are the servants of Allah willingly or unwillingly just like gravity it is a fact that will never change.
Now let's get into the meat of this Reflection. Suicide is not an answer because it doesn't address the condition in the first place. It only addresses the symptom or put blankly the vessel that houses existence. In the verses quoted by Mary (AS) and the sinner faced with the eternal punishment both of them at the instance address the solution. The solution is not death however NON Existence. Non Existence is the only way to escape the reality of and responsibility of existence. Through death the matter of existence is not addressed for we die daily. The issue is there is no disruption in consciousness. In Islam there is an understanding that when we go to sleep that Allah takes our souls unto Himself and then determines whether or not to give them back to us as He so sees fit. My point is consciousness doesn't break sync with existence. Whether you are dead to the world asleep or you are clinically dead for 5 or so minutes consciousness does not stop. What I am saying is that consciousness extends beyond the 5 minutes it extends on into infinity and suicide or murder or natural death don't stop it. Now this is where the skeptics can jump in however it is a historical fact that those who have been declared dead for some period of time and then are revived or revive themselves all admit that they never lost consciousness. There is no need for me to list the volumes of examples just google afterlife/ near death experiences and you will have your fill. The speech is consistent that all of them never lost consciousness. They were disconnected from their vessels and still conscience. Consciousness never ends.
Non-Existence however is NOT an option. You can't just pack it all up and exit stage left. It would be great, but impossible. WHY!! In short you said you could hack it. That is right, you looked at life and said that is a piece of cake bring it on and watch me shine, I can take whatever you have to throw at me after all how bad can it be? You did this possibly hundreds of years ago. Why would you do something so stupid (depending on how you look at it) well if you look at it on the scale of infinity how long are you actually down here? If a day in the life is equal to 1000 earth years how much is 66 - 100 years going to hurt? Honestly? Even if you were tortured each and every day of your whole human life and you bore it with the understanding that this is only going to last for a second or two then would you do it? Now look at this If you are in the heavenly knowledge of what you get on the other side it is kind of like truth or dare. Maybe that other reality show where people do all kinds of crazy things for the grand prize. Like eat scorpions and what not. So it is kind of like this you were in a place that wasn't this life and you were offered all of the riches your heart could desire and the amount of riches was directly proportional to the kind of tripe you had to go through on earth what exactly would you do? If I promised you a Million Dollars if you stubbed your toe would you do it type of thing. So in summary we all saw the glory or possible glory and said I'm all in and so that is why we are here. There is no exiting the race we are here and that is that.
Now comes Kufr (disbelief in the oneness of God). This is the point as some instance of life where denying the obvious seems like a viable solution. I just fell off of Mount Everest the ground does not exist phenomena. As if disbelief in smashing to the ground at 150mph is going to solve anything. Kufr is the belief that disbelief somehow buys an out of an inevitable situation. That it somehow unlocks the restraints of the deal we brokered with the Almighty. WRONG!!! and very very stupid. It is what Shaytan did when faced with the fact that he wasn't Allah's golden child. He knew that there was no way out of it, There was no changing Allah's mind, He and his kind had missed the boat to greatness and he would be playing second fiddle. So he tried cleverness and asked for respite until the Day of Resurrection, because he couldn't ask for Non-Existence. Then he foolishly divulged his onslaught against humanity. Now imagine if you are looking down from pre-human existence you can see blatantly that Shaytan's scheme is juvenile and faulty however down here without faith they seem very thought out and thorough. That and we have faults like anger, resentment and malice that makes us maleable to foolishness. However if we hold on to faith we can see that resistance is futile and Allah is irresistible.
The fact is you will smash into the ground unless you look to Allah to save you, regardless of whether or not your vessel makes it or not. Your vessel smashing into the ground from Mount Everest is the LEAST of your problems. It will not KILL you specifically YOUR EXISTENCE. YOur vessel may pass on, but you have a whole eternity before you and now the time to pay the piper will have begun.
So in closing I want to recap. Suicide will not put an end to it all and is dumb, and throwing tantrums and saying that you aren't falling towards certain doom isn't going to help either. What is the solution? Worship Allah Subhannahu Wa Tala with all of your might for HE alone can save your consciousness or punish it. The Quran eliminates every possible human excuse for not attaining excellence period. If you read it cover to cover you will find that you are left with no excuses for failure of any kind. Personal, Marital, Professional, spiritual it literally leaves the human being no excuses to justify failure. So live your life and know that your life is what you asked for because you saw the treasures on the other side. The Deen is easy, sin obscures vision, stop the sin and reconnect to the Almighty and attain the true success.
I pray for all of you.
Grr reading it now seems kind of high and mighty. I wish I had more time to write this last post. I will take more time on the next one. Off to my ex's for x-mas day dinner. My Mom didn't want me to go and thinking about it does make me kind of angry, but I said I would go. Maybe it is because I am such an observer and I just want to see what kind of non-sense is going to come out of this whole thing.
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