Suicide in Makka ( al haram)

After seeing the recent video of the brother who committed suicide in the Haram, subhan Allah I was disgusted to see the amount of judgemental comments including the ones that condemn him to hell. Yes suicide is haram in Islam and we know the punishment of Allah is severe but what we don’t know is the state of this brother and why he did such a thing.

Ramadan is a month of worship and obedience to Allah, a month the devils are chained and we battle our own self to strengthen our  faith and obey the One who created us and show gratitude.

The haram ( the kaba) is a symbol of Islam, but it is more then that, it is where the Prophets of the past including Abraham had worshiped Allah. It is a place of safety and security, worship and obedience where every muslim feels a sense of serenity and love in their heart.

If you consider for a moment without judgement and arrogance the mental state someone must be in to kill themselves it is a very low a self-absorbed depressed one. For someone to actually do that in the month of Ramadan in a place of worship in front of women and children into a sea of people praying and making dua is something no logical person would consider.

I’m not excusing what this brother did, nor am I saying if someone is depressed and commits suicide this makes it excusable. Only Allah knows who He will forgive or not due to mental illness or their own self short comings.

All that aside I would like to see these shuyookh who turn away women and men who talk about depression and sadness telling them they need to increase their Iman and read more Islamic text. We know in the sunnah of the prophet peace be upon him there is dua we can make to ask Allah to protect us from sadness and depression.

Subhan Allah, many times someone who is depressed isn’t able to find a way to help themselves and one of the hardest things to do is admit that and ask for help to then be told the problem is with your iman ( which that may play a role Allahu alem ) and you need to go and try harder because you just aren’t doing enough. This ignorance and arrogance is appalling.

Maybe this brother had gone there as a last resort to increase his Iman thinking that would solve his mental issues ( if he had some)

We know when women have babies their hormones fluctuate and can  be the cause of depression and anxiety not to mention the emotional and mental strain on her with a baby. Now imagine telling her,” oh your only depressed because basically you just suck at being a Muslima and your lazy you have to do more” Sometimes just a kind word of encouragement and some extra time from yourself since your imam is so strong will be enough to help her on her way.

With men, ok they don’t have baby’s and hormones like us women but they do have a lot of responsibilities that sits solely on their heads and when they can’t meet that they are faced with being a failure as a man. For some men, once that image of manhood is belittled or lost in the sight of himself or his family he Is looked down on and belittled even more. This is a crippling thing for any man to face.

We need these leaders in our societies to realise there is a thing as depression if the problem is sadness within our heart from suffering a loss or a chemical imbalance in our brain, while we should always encourage enriching the soul with what is good for it we must acknowledge that this isn’t always the only part of the solution.

Instead of being a judgmental bully who thinks they know everything about Islam and everyone except yourself is a sinful being who is going to hell, be a true follower of the sunnah of our beloved prophet peace be upon him and dont talk about that which you dont know, have compassion for one another and adhere to what pleases Allah in loving for your fellow muslim what you love for yourself. Who knows one day Allah may remove their burden and place it on your shoulders and give you the same ‘help’ you offered others.