Category Archives: Middle Ages

by | May 21, 2015 · 9:06 pm

ABU HAMID MUHAMMAD AL-GHAZALI
(1056-1111)

from Revival of the Religious Sciences

 

A native of Khorasan, of Persian origin, the Muslim theologian, sufi mystic, and philosopher Abu-Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali is one of the great figures of Islamic religious thought, as well as a critical figure in the debates over the preservation of classical Greek and Roman thought during the Dark Ages in the Christian West. Al-Ghazali taught at in Baghdad between 1091 and 1095, but, allegedly suffering from a nervous illness that made it physically impossible for him to lecture (“God put a lock unto my tongue,” he wrote in his autobiography), he gave up his teaching position in order to live a life of mystical asceticism. He describes his spiritual crisis:

One day I would determine to leave Baghdad and these circumstances, and the next day change my mind. . . . The desires of this world pulled at me and entreated me to remain, while the voice of faith cried out “Go! Go! Only a little of your life remains, yet before you there lies a lengthy voyage. All the knowledge and works that are yours today are but eye service and deceit. If you do not prepare now for the Afterlife, then when shall you do so?”

Al-Ghazali embarked on a two-year period of wandering, teaching, and writing. He traveled to  Damascus on the pretext of making a pilgrimage, then to Jerusalem, finally making the hajj or Pilgrimage in 1096 as he pursued the Sufi path of self-purification and a quest for direct knowledge of God.

Al-Ghazali’s extensive writings include The Just Mean in Belief, written before his wanderings, and The Revival of the Religious Sciences, written during them. The latter shows a distrust of scholastic theology and intellectualism. In The Precious Pearl, a reworking of Book 40, al-Ghazali describes the four categories of persons who will be questioned in the grave by interrogating angels and affected by personifications of their good and bad deeds: the most learned and pious, the ulama, who are allowed into the Garden after questioning; those who did good works but were not fully spiritually advanced are made to gaze upon Hell before being released into the Garden; those who have succumbed to temptations at death, waywardness, or doubt are punished through the intermediate time they spend in grave; and finally the profligates, those unable to answer even the first of the angels’ questions, “Who is your Lord?”—their punishment in the grave is the most severe. The first selection here, a short passage from Book 26 of the Revival of the Religious Sciences, affirms Islam’s rejection of suicide and describes two forms of suicide or para-suicidal activity that are unacceptable: suicide motivated by a desire to avoid suffering and to reach heaven, and the delayed or “slow suicide” that results from extreme asceticism and self-mortification. The second selection, from Book 40 of the Revival, “The Remembrance of Death,” describes the Angel of Death asking Muhammad if he may enter Muhammad’s house and thus take him; the Angel gives Muhammad the choice of whether to die now.Muhammad replies that he is ready to go, that is, that he is willing to die. Book 40 also describes “the most perfect of delights” that is the reward of martyrdom in the afterlife; martyrs are rewarded with entrance to the Garden immediately after death. It portrays a man already in Heaven weeping, because he can only be slain for God’s sake once, but wishes he could be martyred many more times than this.

Sources

Al-Ghazali, The Revival of the Religious Sciences. Book 26 from Al-Ghazali, Al-Ghazali’s Ihya’ulum al-Din (Revitalization of the Sciences of Religion), abridged by Abd el Salam Haroun, rev. and tr. Dr. Ahmad A. Zidan, Vol. 1, Cairo: Islamic Inc. Publishing and Distribution, 1997, pp. 394-397. Book 40 from Ai-Ghazali, The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife. Kitab dhikr al-mawt wa-ma ba’dahu, Book XL of The Revival of the Religious Sciences, Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din. tr. T. J. Winter, Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Texts Society, 1989, pp. 65-67, 128-129; quotation in biographical note, p. xvii. See also Jane Idleman Smith and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981, pp. 43-45.  Comments from Salman Bashier.

from THE REVIVAL OF THE RELIGIOUS SCIENCES

He who is aware in what respect these means and occupations are needed and what is truly intended from them, let him not engage himself in an occupation, profession, or labor until he is fully knowledgeable of their meaning, what part he takes in them, and what falls to his lot from them.  Let him know that the ultimate purpose for engaging in these matters is attending his body with nutrition and clothing so that it does not perish.  For if he follows in this affair the course of moderation, his occupations will be driven away, his heart will be cleared and overcome by the remembrance of the abode of the hereafter, and his concentration will be turned to the preparation for it.  But if he exceeds the limits of necessity, his occupations will multiply, leading him from one occupation to another, and the affair will be endless.  Then his worries shall branch out, and one whose worries have branched out in the valleys of this world even God will be careless in which one of these valleys he shall perish.  Such is the situation of those who are absorbed in the occupations of this world.

Some people had noticed this and turned away from the world altogether.  Satan envied these people and did not leave them to themselves and misled them even in their shunning the world.  Then they divided into groups.  One group imagined that the world is an abode of affliction and hardship and that the hereafter is the abode of delight for whosoever comes to arrive at it, regardless of whether they perform the service of God or not.  Hence they thought it was appropriate for them to kill themselves for the sake of fleeing from the ordeal of life.  To this conclusion reached some sects from among the inhabitants ofIndia, who hurl into the fire and kill themselves while thinking that this would be deliverance for them from the afflictions of life.  Another group believed that killing the body alone does not deliver and that there is a need first for annihilating the human qualities and severing them from the soul altogether, since they thought that happiness consists in oppressing desire and anger.  Thus they embarked upon fighting the self and overburdened themselves so much so that some of them perished out of immoderation in exercising the toil.  Some damaged their minds or became insane or sick so that the path of worshiping was blocked in their faces.  Some failed to suppress their instincts completely and thought that what the Law had prescribed was untenable and that the Law was a baseless fraud, and consequently they became heretics….

And behind all this lie many erroneous doctrines and enormous falsehoods the mention of which may take long and their number amounts to seventy and some sects.  From among all these sects only one will be saved and this is the one sect which follows the path which was followed by the Prophet (God bless him and grant him salvation) and his Companions.  To follow this path means that one should not desert the world altogether and suppress his desires entirely.  One should take from the world whatever provides him with provisions and suppress whatever desires distract him from obeying the Law and the reason.  One should not pursue all desires nor abstain from all desires.  But one should observe the correct measure and not forsake everything of the world and not seek everything of the world and know for what purpose things in the world were created and observe each thing according to the purpose for the sake of which it was created.

The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife. On the Death of the Emissary of God (may God bless him and grant him peace), and of the Rightly-guided Caliphs after Him

…And ‘A’isha said (may God be pleased with her), ‘When the day of the Emissary of God’s death came (may God bless him and grant him peace), the people saw an improvement in him at the day’s beginning, and the men went apart from him to their homes and tasks rejoicing, leaving him with the women. While we were there we were in a state of hope and joyfulness the likes of which we had never known. And then the Prophet of God said, “Go out, away from me; this Angel seeks leave to enter.” At this, everyone but myself left the house. His head had been in my lap, but now he sat up and I retired to one side of the room. He communed with the Angel at length, and then summoned me and returned his head to my lap, bidding the women enter. “I did not sense that that was Gabriel, upon him be peace,” I said. “Indeed, ‘A’isha,” he replied. “That was the Angel of Death, who came to me and said, ‘I am sent by God (Great and Glorious is He!), Who has commanded me not to enter your house without your consent. So if you should withhold it from me I shall go back, but should you give it me, then shall I enter. And He has enjoined me not to take your spirit until you so instruct me; what, then, might your instructions be?’ ‘Hold back from me’, I said, ‘until Gabriel has come to me, for this is his hour’.”

And ‘A’isha [continued, and] said, (may God be pleased with her), ‘So we came into the presence of a matter for which we had neither answer nor opinion. We were downcast; it was as if we had been struck by a calamity about which we could do nothing. Not one of the people of the Household spoke because of their awe in the face of this affair and because of a fear which filled our depths. At his hour, Gabriel came (I felt his presence) and gave his greeting. The people of the Household left, and he entered, saying, “God (Great and Glorious is He!) gives you His greetings, and asks how you are, although He knows better than you your condition; yet He desires to increase you in dignity and honour, and to render your dignity and honour greater than that of all creatures, that this may be a precedent [sunna] for your nation.” “I am in pain,” he said. And the Angel replied, “Be glad, for God (Exalted is He!) has willed to bring you to that which He has made ready for you.” “O Gabriel,” he said. “The Angel of Death asked for permission to enter!” and he told him of what had transpired. And Gabriel said, “O Muhammad! Your Lord longs for you! Has He not given you to know His purpose for you? Nay, by God, never has the Angel of Death sought permission of anyone, no more than is his permission to be sought at any time. It is only that your Lord is making perfect your honour while He longs for you.” “Then do not leave until he comes,” he said.

…Then he allowed the women to enter, and said, “Fatima, draw near.” She leaned over him and he whispered in her ear. When she raised her head again she was weeping, and could not bear to speak. Then he said again, “Bring your head close,” and she leaned over him while he whispered something to her. Then she raised her head, and was smiling, unable to speak. What we saw in her was something most astonishing. Afterwards we questioned her about what had happened, and she said, “He told me, ‘Today I shall die,’ so I wept; then he said, ‘I have prayed to God to let you be the first of my family to join me, and to set you with me,’ so I smiled.”

‘Then she brought her two sons close by him. He drew in their fragrance. Then the Angel of Death came, greeted him, and asked leave to enter. He granted it to him, and the Angel said, “What are your instructions, O Muhammad?” “Take me now to my Lord,” he said. “Yes indeed,” he responded, “on this day of yours. Truly your Lord longs for you. He has not paused over any man as He has paused over you, nor has He ever forbidden me to enter without permission upon anyone else. But now, your hour is come.” And he went out. Then came Gabriel, who said, “Peace be upon you, O Emissary of God! This is the final time I shall ever descend to the earth. Revelation is folded up, the world is folded up, and I had on the earth no business save with you. Upon it now I have no purpose save being present with you, after which I shall remain in my place. No! By He Who sent Muhammad with the Truth, there is no-one in the house able to change one word of what I have said. He will never be sent again despite the greatness of the discourse concerning him which shall be heard, and despite our affection and sympathy.”

…I would say to him when he came round, “May my father and mother be your ransom, and myself and all my family! How your forehead perspires!” And he said, “O ‘A’isha, the soul of the believer departs with his sweat, while that of the unbeliever departs through his jaws like that of the donkey.” At this, we were afraid and sent for our families.

‘The first man to come not having seen him was my brother, whom my father had sent. But the Emissary of God (may God bless him and grant him peace) died before the arrival of anyone…

 

On the True Nature of Death, and what the Dead Man Undergoes in the Grave Prior to the Blast on the Trump

 Said Ya’la ibn al-Walid, ‘I was walking one day with Abu’l-Darda’, and asked him, “What do you like to happen to those you like?” “Death,” he replied. “But if one has not died yet?” I asked, and he answered, “That his progeny and wealth should be scanty. I feel a liking for death because it is liked only by the believer, whom it releases from his imprisonment. And I like one’s progeny and wealth to be scanty because these things are a trial, and can occasion familiarity with the world, and familiarity with that which must one day be left behind is the very extremity of sorrow. All that is other than God, His remembrance, and familiarity with Him must needs be abandoned upon one’s death”.’

For this reason ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr said, ‘When his soul, or spirit, emerges, the believer is as a man who was in a prison, from which he was released and travelled about and took pleasure in the world.’

This [Narrative just] mentioned refers to the state of the man who withdrew from the world, being wearied of it and finding no pleasure in it save that which is the remembrance of God (Exalted is He!), and who was kept by the distractions of the world from his Beloved, and who was hurt by the vicissitudes of his desires. In death he found a release from every harmful thing, and won unrestricted solitude with his Beloved, who was ever his source of consolation. How right it is that this should be the pinnacle of bliss and beatitude!

The most perfect of delights is that which is the lot of the Martyrs who are slain in the way of God. For when they advance into battle they cut themselves off from any concern with the attachments of the world in their yearning to meet God, happy to be killed for the sake of obtaining His pleasure. Should such a man think upon the world he would know that he has sold it willingly for the Afterlife, and the seller’s heart never inclines to that which has been sold. And when he thinks upon the Afterlife, he knows that he had longed for it, and has now purchased it. How great, then, is his rejoicing at that which he has bought when he comes to behold it, and how paltry his interest in what he has sold when from it he takes his leave!

. . .Said Ka’b, ‘In Heaven there is a weeping man who, when asked, “Why do you weep, although you are in Heaven?” replies, “I weep because I was slain for God’s sake no more than once; I yearn to go back that I might be slain many times’.”

Comments Off on ABU HAMID MUHAMMAD AL-GHAZALI
(1056-1111)

from Revival of the Religious Sciences

Filed under al-Ghazali, Abu-Hamid Muhammad, Islam, Middle Ages, Middle East, Selections

by | · 9:04 pm

JETSUN MILAREPA
(c. 1052-c. 1135)

from Songs of Milarepa

 

Milarepa was a major figure in Tibetan Buddhism and one of Tibet’s most famous yogis and poets. His writings, often referred to as the Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, are canonical Mahayana Buddhist texts. Milarepa was born Mila Thöpaga to a prosperous family, but when his father died and his uncle and aunt took the family’s wealth, Milarepa left home to study sorcery; he engaged in a series of revenge actions against his thieving relatives. Repenting of his violent deeds, he sought guidance under the Lama Marpa. Milarepa is said to have been the first man to achieve Vajradhara (complete enlightenment) within one lifetime.

This brief selection, spoken in the voice of Milarepa (then still known as Thöpaga), refers to his misdeeds and his suicidal regret for them, as well as Marpa’s angry discipline. It captures the assertion by another Lama present at the time, Ngogpa, of the basis for Buddhism’s rejection of suicide.

Source

W. Y. Evans-Wentz, ed., Tibet’s Great Yogi Milarepa. A Biography from the Tibetan, Part II, Ch. 5. London: Oxford University Press, 1928, pp. 126-128.

from SONGS OF MILAREPA

‘One day during a feast given to some of his disciples from the most distant parts and to the members of his own family, Lāma Marpa sat, with a long staff by his side, looking with fierce eyes at Lāma Ngogpa, who was one of those present.  After a time, pointing at him with his finger, he said, “Ngogdun Chudor, what explanation hast thou to give in the matter of thy having conferred Initiation and the Truths upon this wicked person, Thöpaga?%E

Comments Off on JETSUN MILAREPA
(c. 1052-c. 1135)

from Songs of Milarepa

Filed under Asia, Buddhism, Middle Ages, Milarepa, Jetsun, Selections

by | · 8:58 pm

ABU HAYYAN AL-TAWHIDI
(c. 923-1023)

from Borrowed Lights: On Suicide

 

Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, probably of Persian origin, was born in or around Baghdad sometime between 922 and 932. He was a man of letters and a scholar, influenced by Sufism and the neo-Platonic philosopher Abu Sulayman. Although said to be a difficult personality, he was considered a master of Arabic style and one of the major thinkers at the conclusion of the formation of Islamic thought.

Abu Hayyan’s most famous work, compiled late in his life, was al-Muqabasat, “Borrowed Lights,” a collection of 106 philosophical conversations providing a glimpse into the intellectual milieu of 10th-century Baghdad. The Muqabasat includes a lengthy discussion of the suicide of an impoverished and socially ostracized Muslim, articulating arguments both for and against it. According to Franz Rosenthal, despite the strong prohibition of self-killing in Islamic thought, this passage in al-Tawhidi’s work shows that the idea of suicide was justified to some thinkers in 10th-century Arabia. It is the only such detailed discussion of suicide that has been preserved in the extant Arabic literature.

Source

Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, from al-Muqabasah, quoted in Franz Rosenthal, “On Suicide in Islam,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 66(1946):239-259, text from pp. 249-250, citing as source, ed. Hasan as-Sandubi, Cairo, 1928-29.

 

from BORROWED LIGHTS: ON SUICIDE

Recently we saw what happened to a learned Šayḫ. This Šayḫ had come to live in very reduced circumstances. Therefore, people began to avoid him more and more, and his acquaintances no longer wanted to have anything to do with him.  This went on for a while until one day he entered his home, tied a rope to the roof of his room, and hanged himself, thus ending his life.

When we learned about the affair, we were shocked and grieved.  We discussed his story back and forth, and one of those present said: What an excellent fellow!  He acted like a man!  What a splendid thing he did of his own free will!  His action indicates magnanimity and a great staunchness of mind.  He freed himself from a long drawn-out misery and from circumstances which were unbearable, on account of which nobody wanted to have anything to do with him, and which brought him great privations and a steady reduction of his means.  Everybody to whom he addressed himself turned away from him.  Whenever he knocked at a door, it was closed before him.  Every friend whom he asked for something excused himself.

While that person thus defended the action of the suicide, someone else replied: If that Šayḫ escaped from the dreadful situation which you have just described, without getting himself into another situation which might be considerably more frightful and of a much longer duration than that which he had been in, it would indeed be correct to say that he did a splendid thing.  What noble fellow, one might then say, he was, considering the fact that he found strength and the means to commit such a deed!  One would have to admit that every intelligent person should feel compelled to do the same thing, to imitate him and to arrive at the same decision of his own free will.

However, if he had learned from the religious law—no matter whether the ancient or the new one*—that such and similar actions are forbidden, it would be necessary to say that he did something for which God has ordained quick punishment and disgrace in the painful fire of Hell.  My God!  He could surely have learned from any intelligent and judicious, learned and educated person, from anybody who has some intelligence and knows the elements of ethics—let alone him who knows what to say and to do and to choose always the best procedure of and occasion for doing things—that such actions are forbidden and that even the commission of much lesser deeds is prohibited.  Why did he not suspect himself and scrutinize his motives and consult someone who might have given him good advice?  And all this happened on account of a situation which was such that if he had extricated himself from it, he would thereafter have encountered many things so much worse that they would have made him forget his former hardships.

He ought to have known that it is necessary to avoid any connection with such an action, which is detested by the intellect, considered sinful by tradition and shunned with horror by nature; for the generally known injunctions of the religious laws and the consensus of all in each generation and region show that suicide is forbidden and that nothing should be done which might lead to it.  The reason for the prohibition of suicide is that suicide might be committed under the influence of ideas and hallucinations which would not have been supported by a clear mind and would not have occurred to a person in the full possession of his mental faculties.  Later on, in the other world, the person who committed suicide under such circumstances would realize the baseness of his action and the great mistake he made; then, he cannot repair, correct, or retract what he did.

Even if compliance with the demands of the intellect, or information derived from both intellect and revelation would have required him to commit such a deed, he should not have handed himself over to destruction.  He should not have of his own free will done something which is despised by persons who are discerning and ingenious, religious and noble.  He should not have broken established customs, opposed entrenched opinions, and usurped the rights of nature.  But all the more so should he have refrained from his deed since intellect and speculation have decided, without leaving the slightest doubt, that man must not separate those parts and limbs that have been joined together (to form his body); for it is not he who has put them together, and it is not he who is their real owner.  He is merely a tenant in this temple for Him Who made him dwell therein and stipulated that in lieu of the payment of rent for his dwelling he take care of its upkeep and preservation, its cleaning, repair and use, in a manner which would help him in his search after happiness in both this world and the next world.

If and individual’s aspirations are limited to gathering provisions for his journey to the abode of righteousness, he can be certain to reach his goal and to stay there.  There he will find, all at the same time, plenty of good things, continuous rest, permanent beatitude, and ever-present joy; there will be no indigence or need, no damage or loss, no sadness, or grief, no failure or difficulties.  This will be the reward of an acceptable way of life and of a long practice of sublime human qualities, as well as a belief in the truth, propagation of righteousness, and kindness toward all creatures.  If an individual lives in a manner contrary to this, the permanent misery which he will have to endure and from which he will not be able to escape will be correspondingly great.

We ask God in Whose hands rests the power over everything that He may guide us toward that way of life which is preferable for this world and which will lead to greater happiness in the world to come.  For if we were left without His kind care and customary benevolence, we would be lost and forsaken.  We would have to expect a very sad fate at the resurrection in the other world, and long suffering and great grief would be our lot.

O God!  Have mercy with our weakness and cover us with Your kindness and helpfulness, so that we may turn to You wholeheartedly, entrust our affairs to Your guidance willingly, place our confidence in You in repentance, and enter into Your protection with a sincere heart, O Lord of the worlds!

   *  I.e., the laws of the ancient philosophers and of the Muslim religion.

Comments Off on ABU HAYYAN AL-TAWHIDI
(c. 923-1023)

from Borrowed Lights: On Suicide

Filed under al-Tawhidi, Abu Hayyan, Islam, Middle Ages, Middle East, Selections

by | · 8:55 pm

YA’QUB AL-QIRQISANI
(c. 890-c. 960)

from The Book of Lighthouses and Watchtowers

 

Ya’qub al-Qirqisani was a biblical scholar and a recorder of religious and secular law, writing during a period in which Jewish life had been heavily influenced by the rise of Islam and the centralization of Muslim rule in the caliphate at Baghdad. Al-Qirqisani was a member of the Karaite sect, a Jewish group living in what is now Iran. The Karaites (“karah” comes from the same  root as “scripture”) differed from most Jewish communities by refusing to acknowledge the postbiblical tradition of canonical inclusions into the Talmud based on oral sources, the tradition known as that of the “Two Torahs.” Instead, in the view of Anan, the sect’s founder, oral law merely reflected the interpretations of various rabbis, not divine word. By not recognizing the oral law as one of the Two Torahs, the Karaites also challenged the Talmud, and some commentators have compared them to Protestant Christian reformers inasmuch as Anan and his disciples held, respectively, both that they had the right to confront the text directly and that they could interpret it themselves.

Al-Qirqisani was the most significant chronicler of the code of Karaite law, and in a chapter of his work Kitab al-Anwar wa’l-Maraqib (The Book of Lighthouses and Watchtowers), he approaches the issue of suicide not from a moral point of view, but exclusively from the point of view of legality according to Old Testament law. Based on the scriptural evidence that he cites in his argument, al-Qirqisani concludes that a person “may not commit suicide under any circumstances.”

Source

Ya’qub al-Qirqisani, “On Suicide” from The Book of Lighthouses and Watchtowers, ed. and tr. Leon Nemoy, The Journal of Biblical Literature,  Philadelphia: vol. 57, no. 4, December 1938, pp. 414-420.

from THE BOOK OF LIGHTHOUSES AND WATCHTOWERS

On Suicide

This is an outlandish subject, and scarcely any writer has anything to say about it.  The reason I am mentioning it is that I have seen that some people who pretend to be adherents of pure reason maintain that suicide is permissible and that he who kills himself will incur no punishment [in future life], inasmuch as he has caused harm to no one [else], but has merely injured his own self, which is his [own] property [to do with as he pleases].

I say, therefore, that there is no difference between him who kills himself and him who kills someone else.  Should someone ask, why do I say this, I would answer, because the Scripture says [Ex 20:13] “thou shalt not kill,” in a general way, without specifying one object [of killing] to the exclusion of another.  In the same manner the Lord has said to Noah [Gen 9:6] “He that sheddeth the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed.” The command [to kill the shedder of blood] and the prohibition [of killing] having thus been given in a general way, we have no right to apply them to specific instances [only], or to make any exceptions, saving what God himself has excepted, either in the very place where He has prohibited [killing], or in another place.

But—the inquirer might continue—thou canst not deny that the expression “Thou shalt not kill” was intended to mean “Thou shalt not kill anyone else,” and that one’s own self is not included in this prohibition, just as the prohibition of destroying someone else’s property does not imply that one may not [lawfully] waste away one’s own possessions, since one is surely allowed to give away as much as he wishes of his own wealth, while at the same time one may not give away property belonging to someone else.  Similarily, one may seize a diham[‘s] or a dinar[‘s worth] of one’s own property, or more, and throw it away [if one is so minded], not withstanding that one may not waste as much as [the worth of] a grain of silver of someone else’s wealth.

There is also—the inquirer might continue—another way [of looking at the problem], to wit, the fact that the Scripture invariably speaks of things that customarily take place [in actual life].  Now it is not common for men to kill themselves, rather it is men’s custom to kill others, out of covetousness, fear, or [a desire for] relief [from oppression].  The prohibition of killing must, therefore, have been issued in this direction; and as for a man killing himself, this is not embraced by the prohibition, since it is an uncommon occurrence and is outside of the [three] varieties of [contributory causes for] killing mentioned above.  Moreover, the Scriptural dicta “He that sheddeth the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed,” and [Lev 24:21] “He that striketh a man [to death], let him be put to death,” are [evidently] explanatory to “Thou shalt not kill,” meaning that it is forbidden to kill him whose murder can possibly be avenged by putting the killer to death [in retaliation] for the victim.  Whereas, when a man kills himself, no one else can possibly be held to account for it, nor can the suicide’s blood be required, or retaliation demanded, of anyone; this, therefore, does not enter into the prohibition.  A further proof of this assertion is the verse [Num 35:33] “And the earth shall not be cleansed of the blood that hath been spilled upon it, save by the blood of him who had spilled it,” which shows that the [kind of] killing which is forbidden and of which the earth cannot be cleansed is that of spilling [another man’s blood], whereas it is within the realm of possibility to spill the blood of the spiller.  Consequently, inasmuch as when a man kills himself it is impossible to spill another blood in retaliation for the spilling of his blood, the earth remains free of blame for his blood, and [it follows that] the [kind of] killing which is forbidden is that which renders it possible to spill the blood of the murderer.

The answer to this is as follows: Granting that all these dicta were uttered with reference to him who kills someone else, [the fact remains that] since the command “Thou shalt not kill” is a general one, I have no right to turn it into a specific one, unless I have proof which makes it specific and shows clearly that suicide is permissible.  Now inasmuch as I find nothing of the kind, and perceive no proof of the permissibility of suicide, the prohibition must remain in the state of generality, rendering suicide unlawful and making no distinction between it and murder of someone else.  Moreover, I see that the Scripture says [Ez 33:4] “If the listener should hear the sound of the trumpet and take no precaution, and the sword should come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his [own] head,” meaning that if one is warned of the sword, but uses no caution and is consequently killed, his blood is upon his own head.  Now the latter expression is the same as the one used in the verse [Jos 2:19] “And it shall be that whosoever shall issue from the doors of thine house into the outside, his blood [shall be] responsible for his own blood, which proves that a man may be held accountable for his own blood, but since retribution cannot possibly be visited upon him in this world, the intention must be that he shall be called to account for it in the next.  It is evident, therefore, that suicide is unlawful, and that the suicide is no different from the murderer.

Nevertheless—the inquirer might continue—all my foregoing arguments have shown that the Scriptural command “Thou shalt not kill” is a specific one, and does not cover suicide.  However, I shall [disregard it for the moment and shall] add another argument, to wit: the Scripture says [Lev 25:17] “Do ye not cheat one another,” forbidding fraud; and further [Deut 22:3] “And thus shalt thou do with what thy brother hath lost;” and also [ibid. 22:4] “thou mayest not ingnore,” all these making it unlawful for a man to ignore [his brother’s property] that has gone astray and has been lost.  Nevertheless, I cannot deduce therefrom that it is unlawful for a man to defraud himself for the benefit of someone else by accepting from him a small amount [of merchandise] than that which he had bought, or a lesser prices than that for which he ought to sell, just because it is unlawful for him to defraud someone else in his dealings with him.  In a similar fashion, it is not unlawful for a man to ignore that of his own property which he has dropped or has [otherwise] lost, and refrain from searching for it; by the same token, he ought not to be forbidden to take his own life, just because it is unlawful for him to take the life of someone else.  As for the injunctions “His blood [shall be] upon his [own] head” and “His blood shall be upon his [own] head,” they do not signify that he shall be held accountable for his own blood, but rather that inasmuch as he had not guarded his own life, notwithstanding the sentry’s warning, no one else shall be held responsible for his death, and his blood shall remain unavenged, since he himself was the cause of his own perdition.  And in fact, after the phrase “His blood [shall be] upon his [own] head” the Scripture goes on to say “And we shall be free of guilt,” explaining thereby that whosoever of them shall issue from the gate shall be [regarded as] one who has taken his own life, they being clear of all responsibility for his blood.

Furthermore, we see that [king] Saul has indeed committed suicide, without drawing upon himself the Scripture’s condemnation for it, which manifestly proves the truth of what we have said.

The answer to all this is as follows: As for the Scripture’s failure to condemn Saul for taking his own life, that is not proof whatsoever, for Saul had committed other sins without being condemned by the Scripture for them. Rather did the Scripture ascribe his peridition to [only] two of his [many] transgressions, to wity, [I Chr 10:13] “For the Lord’s command which he hath not observed,” referring to the affair of the Amalekites, and [loc. Cit.] “As well as inquiring of the soothsayer and seeking [guidance from him].” It mentions [in this connection] neither his assassination of the Gibeonites, nor his killing of the priests, nor his seeking the life of David, so that even if it were certain that he is free of sin in the matter of his suicide, this would not prove that all suicides are free of guilt. For, as a matter of fact, Saul killed himself because he knew that he was doomed to die anyway, but fearing that his enemies might torture him he chose to take his own life before his enemies would [be able to] take it, or inflict upon him that which is worse than death, and that is the [true] reason for his suicide having been held free of blame.

As for the verse “Do ye not cheat one another” and the passage concerning lost property, both of these have been bound up with specific things, to wit: “Do ye not cheat one” is followed by [the specifying word] “another,” so as not to make the command a general one; likewise, the injunction regarding lost property has not been left in an indefinite form, but has been made specific by means of the expression “thy brother”; as a result, both regulations forbid the [respective] actions [only] as applied to someone other than thyself.  In the matter of killing, however, the case is different, for the injunction there is a broad and general one, and has not been restricted to those other than thyself, as has been done in the preceding examples.  The prohibition “Thou shalt not kill” covers everyone, thyself as well as others than thyself.

As for the passage “His blood [shall be] upon his [own] head,” it is followed by “But whosoever shall be with thee within thine house, his blood [shall be] upon us,” stating [clearly] that should anyone be killed within [Rahab’s] house, they [the Israelite spies] would accept responsibility for it, in accordance with their oath.  We are to conclude therefrom that the foregoing “Whosoever shall issue from the doors of thine house, his blood shall be upon his [own] head” implies that such a person having been killed, is to be held accountable for his own blood.

Another proof—to continue our reply—that suicide is forbidden is that fact, discussed in a foregoing chapter of our work, that if a man seeks the life of another man, the pursued is permitted to kill the pursuer [as a matter of self-defense].  Were the killing of another man [the only kind of killing that is] forbidden, while suicide were permitted, it would have been unlawful for me to save him whose killing is permissible [meaning myself] by assassinating him whose killing is [otherwise] forbidden [meaning my pursuer].  Therefore, since the Scripture has permitted me to kill another man in order to preserve my [own] life [against his murderous designs], it is evident that the duty to save my [own] life and keep it from being lost is greater than the duty to refrain from killing someone else.

Another proof are the Scriptural statements regarding people who in times of famine took to eating their [own] children, e.g. [Thr (Lamentations) 4:10] “The hands of merciful women have cooked [the flesh of] their [own] children.”  Should someone retort that this took place only after the children had died of starvation, he will have to be confronted with the story of the two women, one of whom accused the other before [king] Jehoram, saying [II Kings 6:29] “And she had concealed her son.”  The [primary] source of these [accounts] is the Scriptural curse [Deut 28:53] “Thou shalt eat the fruit of thine [own] belly,” and if anyone should claim that this does not imply that it is permitted, but is rather a statement of the same nature as [Deut 4:28] “And you shall worship there gods fashioned by human hands,” his claim would be void, because the latter is a [simple] statement of their actions and their deliberate choice of evil [deeds], whereas “Thou shalt eat the fruit of thine [own] belly” is a forecast of the trials which are to fall upon them and the dire necessity which is to force them to [do] such [awful things].  For it is said [Deut 28:56] “Even the tender and delicate woman amongst thee,” and the rest of the story, to the effect that there shall befall them such calamity, [such] want and destitution, that [even] tender and delicate women will be driven to eat their [own] afterbirths and their [own] newly-born children, yea, even while the children are yet alive.

Another proof is that we find that some of the saintly Patriarchs, e.g. Job, Elijah and Jonah, have, on particular occasions, wished for death and have besought God, in time of [great] affliction, to grant it to them. Had they been permitted to take their own lives, they would have proceeded quickly to do so, and would have had no need to ask [God] for death.  Yet Job says [Job 3:21] “Those who wait for death, and yet it cometh not; who would dig for it more [eagerly] than for hidden treasures,” and further [ibid. 3:22] “They that rejoice at finding a grave.” This is an [especially] strong [piece of] evidence, showing that a man may not kill himself, any more than he may kill someone else, there being no difference between the two [cases].

At this point one may ask: If it is unlawful for a man to take his own life, on the ground of the verse “Thou shalt not kill,” suppose he had committed a crime calling for capital punishment, is he permitted in such a case to commit suicide for that [particular] reason?  For the Scripture, in saying [Ex 23:7] “Kill not the innocent and righteous,” forbids only the assassination of those free of crime or wrongdoing, and you [yourself] have said that he who kills a man who deserves killing is free of responsibility for it, even if this had happened without a judge[‘s authorization] and in the absence of witnesses [as required for a legal execution, but had taken place privately in the way of self-defense].  Moreover, the Scripture itself requires the execution of the murderer, the adulterer and the profaner of the Sabbath; therefore, if a man has committed one of these [capital] crimes, admit then that he may lawfully take his own life.

Our answer to this is as follows: If the one who kills himself for the sake of his [grave] sin and his disobedience [to God’s commands] does so solely in order to seek God[‘s forgiveness] and to undo that which he has wrought, there is [at his disposal] that which is more efficacious than suicide and which might undo many [capital] sins, to wit, repentance, for his suicide merely wipes out one of his sins, whereas repentance would undo all of them.  This being so, it is many degrees better for him to preserve his life in order to repent and come back to God, rather than take his own life, for by remaining alive it is within his power to perform various good deeds, such as would make his repentance doubly beneficial.  Suicide, on the other had, can perform nothing of the sort.  It is [clear], therefore, that he may not commit suicide under any circumstances.

Comments Off on YA’QUB AL-QIRQISANI
(c. 890-c. 960)

from The Book of Lighthouses and Watchtowers

Filed under al-Qirqisani, Ya'qub, Ancient History, Judaism, Middle Ages, Selections

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HADITH: THE SAYINGS OF MUHAMMAD
(7th-9th centuries)

 

The hadith, speech or tradition, record the Sunnah (“practice”), the Prophet Muhammad’s sayings and actions, which Muslims believe were memorized and recorded by his companions and handed down from generation to generation. Many hadith are found in the biography (sira) of Muhammad. The historical tradition of hadith literature (sing. hadith, pl. hadith [collective sense]  or hadiths, Arabic ahadith) includes procedures for comparative assessment among various reporters intended to identify lines of transmission and to differentiate genuine hadith from weak or fabricated ones. While the legal content of the Quran [q.v.] is very limited, the hadith establish precedents for regulating nearly every aspect of life. Unlike the Quran, which is believed to be the word of Allah revealed to Muhammad during his prophetic life, the hadith are not considered infallible; however, followers of Islam consider them to be genuine records of Muhammad’s sayings and actions, and regard them as indispensable and as a source almost as fundamental as the Quran. Sunni and Shi’a Muslims recognize different hadith canon collections, for which authentication is based on differing methodologies of evaluation and analysis of the chains of transmission. Western scholarship beginning in the 19th century tended to argue that many of the hadith accounts are not always actual reports of Muhammad’s sayings but instead represent opinions of the early generations of Muslim thinkers, subsequently attributed to the Prophet during the long period of oral transmission spanning some 200 years following Muhammad’s death, but the compilers did place great stress on the reliability of the chain of transmission. The hadith were finally collected, selected, and published in six standard editions between the 9th and 11th centuries.

The six compilers of hadith include Muhammad ibn Isma`il al-Bukhari (810–870) and Muslim al-Hajjaj (817/821–875). Both Bukhari and Muslim were traditionists, and both were the sons of traditionists, themselves collectors and memorizers of sayings of the Prophet. Bukhari is said to have begun to study traditions at the age of ten and to have spent 40 years traveling the Muslim world collecting hadith from every learned man; he claimed to have “heard traditions from over 1,000 shaykhs.” Muslim inherited a large fortune from his father and travelled widely in order to learn hadith. Of the hadith  presented here, some are voiced by Bukhari, some by Muslim, and some agreed on by both. Hadith narrated by Ad-Dahhak, Abu Huraira, and Sahl As-Sa`idi are also included. Bukhari is said to be the most reliable of all the compilers; it is said that he selected 7,397, or 2,762 without repetitions, out of 600,000 traditions and memorized 220,000 of them; he recorded each after ablution and prayer, and carefully scrutinized them for consistency with other narrators. Later in life, Bukhari was expelled by the governor of the region for refusing to give the governor’s children preferential treatment by educating them at home; in the wake of this hostility, Bukhari is said to have been overheard praying one night that God might take him, and he died within the month.

The Quran itself does not contain an explicit, incontrovertible prohibition of suicide. The hadith, however, do; both Bukhari and Muslim make fully explicit the unlawfulness of suicide. As Franz Rosenthal pointed out, by the time of Muhammad, both Judaism and Christianity  had developed negative attitudes toward suicide, and it is likely that Muhammad would have shared these. Bukhari reports a saying of Muhammad’s that the person who commits suicide is punished eternally by a perpetual, forced repetition of the act of self-killing. Suicide is equated in severity with the sin of murder. Muslim gives an account of self-mutilation resulting in death. No distinction is made between suicide associated with what would now be recognized as mental illness  and suicide associated with principle, religious zeal, military self-sacrifice, jihad, or the like.  These hadith are the clearest canonical sources for the Islamic belief that suicide is a violation of divine law.

Sources

Hadith, Al-Bukhari, Vol. 2, Book 23, nos. 445, 446; Vol. 4, Book 52, no. 297; Vol. 5, Book 59, nos. 514, 515, 518; Vol. 8, Book 73, nos. 73, 126; Book 76, no. 500; Book 77, nos. 603, 604; Book 78, no. 647; see e.g. Sunnah.com. Muslim, from Mishkat-ul-masabih, Vol. II, ch. 25, section 6, paragraph 1178, tr. al-Haj Maulana Fazlul Karim, Lahore, Pakistan: Law Publishing Company, 1938, material in bibliographic note, pp. 18–19. Some modifications in translation. See also Franz Rosenthal, “On Suicide in Islam,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 66 (1946): 239–259, p. 240.

 

from HADITH: THE SAYINGS OF MUHAMMAD

Suicide

The Holy Prophet said: Whoso kills himself with a thing will be punished on the Resurrection day therewith—24:5. From this as well from the traditions of this section, it appears that the sin of suicide is not less than that of murder. He will permanently reside in Hell, as he killed a soul which remembered Allah, or which, if alive, would have remembered Him. Suicide is the result of pangs and overwhelming anxieties which are in turn so many boons for leading a man to Paradise.

Abu Hurairah reported that the Messenger of Allah said: Whoso hurls himself down from a mountain and thus kills himself will be in Hell hurling himself down therein, abiding therein and being accommodated therein for ever; whoso takes poison and thus kills himself, his poison will be in his hand; he will be tasting it in Hell, always abiding therein, and being accommodated therein forever; and whoso kills himself with gun [lit., “piece of iron”], his gun will be in his hand; he will be shooting himself therewith against his belly in Hell, abiding therein and being accommodated therein forever.

—Agreed

Same reported that the Messenger of Allah said: Whoso strangles himself to death, will strangle it in Hell; and whoso shoots it, will shoot it in Hell.

—Bukhari

Jundub-b-Abdullah reported that the Messenger of Allah said: There was a man among those who were before you who received an wound. It became unbearable. Then he took a knife and cut off his hand therewith. Whereupon blood began to ooze out, so much so that he died. The Almighty Allah said: My servant hastened himself to Me and so I made Paradise unlawful for him.

—Agreed

Jaber reported that Tofail-b-Amer and al-Dausi migrated to the Messenger of Allah when he had migrated to Medina. A man of his tribe also migrated with him. Then he fell ill and became exasperated. He took a scissor of his and cut off therewith his hand-joints. His hands bled till he died. Tofail-b-Amer saw him in his dream. He was handsome in appearance, but he found him with his hands covered. He asked him: What did your Lord do with you? He said: He has forgiven me owing to my migration to His Prophet. He asked: What is with me that I see your hands covered? He said: It was said to me: What you yourself destroyed will not be cured for you. Tofail narrated it to the Messenger of Allah who said: O Allah, forgive his two hands.

—Muslim

Funerals

Volume 2, Book 23, Number 445:

Narrated Thabit bin Ad-Dahhak:
The Prophet said, “Whoever intentionally swears falsely by a religion other than Islam, then he is what he has said, (e.g. if he says, ‘If such thing is not true then I am a Jew,’ he is really a Jew). And whoever commits suicide with piece of iron will be punished with the same piece of iron in the Hell Fire.” Narrated Jundab the Prophet said, “A man was inflicted with wounds and he committed suicide, and so Allah said: My slave has caused death on himself hurriedly, so I forbid Paradise for him.”

Volume 2, Book 23, Number 446:

Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet said, “He who commits suicide by throttling shall keep on throttling himself in the Hell Fire (forever) and he who commits suicide by stabbing himself shall keep on stabbing himself in the Hell-Fire.”

Fighting for the Cause of Allah

Volume 4, Book 52, Number 297:

Narrated Abu Huraira:
We were in the company of Allah’s Apostle in a Ghazwa, and he remarked about a man who claimed to be a Muslim, saying, “This (man) is from the people of the (Hell) Fire.” When the battle started, the man fought violently till he got wounded. Somebody said, “O Allah’s Apostle! The man whom you described as being from the people of the (Hell) Fire fought violently today and died.” The Prophet said, “He will go to the (Hell) Fire.” Some people were on the point of doubting (the truth of what the Prophet had said) while they were in this state, suddenly someone said that he was still alive but severely wounded. When night fell, he lost patience and committed suicide. The Prophet was informed of that, and he said, “Allah is Greater! I testify that I am Allah’s Slave and His Apostle.” Then he ordered Bilal to announce amongst the people: ‘None will enter Paradise but a Muslim, and Allah may support this religion (i.e. Islam) even with a disobedient man.’

Military Expeditions Led By The Prophet

Volume 5, Book 59, Number 514:

Narrated Sahl bin Sad As Saidi:
Allah’s Apostle (and his army) encountered the pagans and the two armies fought and then Allah’s Apostle returned to his army camps and the others (i.e. the enemy) returned to their army camps. Amongst the companions of the Prophet there was a man who could not help pursuing any single isolated pagan to strike him with his sword. Somebody said, “None has benefited the Muslims today more than so-and-so.” On that Allah’s Apostle said, “He is from the people of the Hell-Fire certainly.” A man amongst the people (i.e. Muslims) said, “I will accompany him (to know the fact).” So he went along with him, and whenever he stopped he stopped with him, and whenever he hastened, he hastened with him. The (brave) man then got wounded severely, and seeking to die at once, he planted his sword into the ground and put its point against his chest in between his breasts, and then threw himself on it and committed suicide. On that the person (who was accompanying the deceased all the time) came to Allah’s Apostle and said, “I testify that you are the Apostle of Allah.” The Prophet said, “Why is that (what makes you say so)?” He said “It is concerning the man whom you have already mentioned as one of the dwellers of the Hell-Fire. The people were surprised by your statement, and I said to them, “I will try to find out the truth about him for you.” So I went out after him and he was then inflicted with a severe wound and because of that, he hurried to bring death upon himself by planting the handle of his sword into the ground and directing its tip towards his chest between his breasts, and then he threw himself over it and committed suicide.” Allah’s Apostle then said, “A man may do what seem to the people as the deeds of the dwellers of Paradise but he is from the dwellers of the Hell-Fire and another may do what seem to the people as the deeds of the dwellers of the Hell-Fire, but he is from the dwellers of Paradise.”

Volume 5, Book 59, Number 515:

Narrated Abu Huraira:
We witnessed (the battle of) Khaibar. Allah’s Apostle said about one of those who were with him and who claimed to be a Muslim, “This (man) is from the dwellers of the Hell-Fire.” When the battle started, that fellow fought so violently and bravely that he received plenty of wounds. Some of the people were about to doubt (the Prophet’s statement), but the man, feeling the pain of his wounds, put his hand into his quiver and took out of it, some arrows with which he slaughtered himself (i.e. committed suicide). Then some men amongst the Muslims came hurriedly and said, “O Allah’s Apostle! Allah has made your statement true so-and-so has committed suicide.” The Prophet said, “O so-and-so! Get up and make an announcement that none but a believer will enter Paradise and that Allah may support the religion with an unchaste (evil) wicked man.”

Volume 5, Book 59, Number 518:

Narrated Sahl:
During one of his Ghazawat, the Prophet encountered the pagans, and the two armies fought, and then each of them returned to their army camps. Amongst the (army of the) Muslims there was a man who would follow every pagan separated from the army and strike him with his sword. It was said, “O Allah’s Apostle! None has fought so satisfactorily as so-and-so (namely, that brave Muslim).” The Prophet said, “He is from the dwellers of the Hell-Fire.” The people said, “Who amongst us will be of the dwellers of Paradise if this (man) is from the dwellers of the Hell-Fire?” Then a man from amongst the people said, “I will follow him and accompany him in his fast and slow movements.” The (brave) man got wounded, and wanting to die at once, he put the handle of his sword on the ground and its tip in between his breasts, and then threw himself over it, committing suicide. Then the man (who had watched the deceased) returned to the Prophet and said, “I testify that you are Apostle of Allah.” The Prophet said, “What is this?” The man told him the whole story. The Prophet said, “A man may do what may seem to the people as the deeds of the dwellers of Paradise, but he is of the dwellers of the Hell-Fire and a man may do what may seem to the people as the deeds of the dwellers of the Hell-Fire, but he is from the dwellers of Paradise.”

 

Good Manners and Form

Volume 8, Book 73, Number 73:

Narrated Thabit bin Ad-Dahhak:
(who was one of the companions who gave the pledge of allegiance to the Prophet underneath the tree (Al-Hudaibiya)) Allah’s Apostle said, “Whoever swears by a religion other than Islam (i.e. if somebody swears by saying that he is a non-Muslim e.g., a Jew or a Christian, etc.) in case he is telling a lie, he is really so if his oath is false, and a person is not bound to fulfill a vow about a thing which he does not possess. And if somebody commits suicide with anything in this world, he will be tortured with that very thing on the Day of Resurrection; and if somebody curses a believer, then his sin will be as if he murdered him; And whoever accuses a believer of Kufr (disbelief), then it is as if he killed him.”

Volume 8, Book 73, Number 126:

Narrated Thabit bin Ad-Dahhak:
The Prophet said, “Whoever swears by a religion other than Islam (i.e. if he swears by saying that he is a non-Muslim in case he is telling a lie), then he is as he says if his oath is false and whoever commits suicide with something, will be punished with the same thing in the (Hell) fire, and cursing a believer is like murdering him, and whoever accuses a believer of disbelief, then it is as if he had killed him.”

 

To Make the Heart Tender

Volume 8, Book 76, Number 500:

Narrated Sa’d bin Sahl As-Sa’idi:

The Prophet looked at a man fighting against the pagans and he was one of the most competent persons fighting on behalf of the Muslims. The Prophet said, “Let him who wants to look at a man from the dwellers of the (Hell) Fire, look at this (man).” Another man followed him and kept on following him till he (the fighter) was injured and, seeking to die quickly, he placed the blade tip of his sword between his breasts and leaned over it till it passed through his shoulders (i.e., committed suicide). The Prophet added, “A person may do deeds that seem to the people as the deeds of the people of Paradise while in fact, he is from the dwellers of the (Hell) Fire: and similarly a person may do deeds that seem to the people as the deeds of the people of the (Hell) Fire while in fact, he is from the dwellers of Paradise. Verily, the (results of) deeds done, depend upon the last actions.”

Volume 8, Book 77, Number 603:

Narrated Abu Huraira:
We witnessed along with Allah’s Apostle the Khaibar (campaign). Allah’s Apostle told his companions about a man who claimed to be a Muslim, “This man is from the people of the Fire.” When the battle started, the man fought very bravely and received a great number of wounds and got crippled. On that, a man from among the companions of the Prophet came and said, “O Allah’s Apostle! Do you know what the man you described as of the people of the Fire has done? He has fought very bravely for Allah’s Cause and he has received many wounds.” The Prophet said, “But he is indeed one of the people of the Fire.” Some of the Muslims were about to have some doubt about that statement. So while the man was in that state, the pain caused by the wounds troubled him so much that he put his hand into his quiver and took out an arrow and committed suicide with it. Off went some men from among the Muslims to Allah’s Apostle and said, “O Allah’s Apostle! Allah has made your statement true. So-and-so has committed suicide.” Allah’s Apostle said, “O Bilal! Get up and announce in public: None will enter Paradise but a believer, and Allah may support this religion (Islam) with a wicked man.”

 

Divine Will

Volume 8, Book 77, Number 604:

Narrated Sahl bin Sa’d:
There was a man who fought most bravely of all the Muslims on behalf of the Muslims in a battle (Ghazwa) in the company of the Prophet. The Prophet looked at him and said, “If anyone would like to see a man from the people of the Fire, let him look at this (brave man).” On that, a man from the People (Muslims) followed him, and he was in that state i.e., fighting fiercely against the pagans till he was wounded, and then he hastened to end his life by placing his sword between his breasts (and pressed it with great force) till it came out between his shoulders. Then the man (who was watching that person) went quickly to the Prophet and said, “I testify that you are Allah’s Apostle!” The Prophet asked him, “Why do you say that?” He said, “You said about so-and-so, ‘If anyone would like to see a man from the people of the Fire, he should look at him.’ He fought most bravely of all of us on behalf of the Muslims and I knew that he would not die as a Muslim (Martyr). So when he got wounded, he hastened to die and committed suicide.” There-upon the Prophet said, “A man may do the deeds of the people of the Fire while in fact he is one of the people of Paradise, and he may do the deeds of the people of Paradise while in fact he belongs to the people of Fire, and verily, (the rewards of) the deeds are decided by the last actions (deeds).”

 

Oaths and Vows

Volume 8, Book 78, Number 647:

Narrated Thabit bin Ad-Dahhak:
The Prophet said, “Whoever swears by a religion other than Islam, is, as he says; and whoever commits suicide with something, will be punished with the same thing in the (Hell) Fire; and cursing a believer is like murdering him; and whoever accuses a believer of disbelief, then it is as if he had killed him.”

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(7th-9th centuries)

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THE QURAN
(traditional date c. 632-c. 650)

Surahs 2.54, 2.154, 2.195, 2.207, 3.145, 3.169-70, 4.29-30, 4.66, 4.74-80, 9.111, 18.6

 

The Quran (meaning “recital” in Arabic) is the sacred scripture of Islam, and Muslims believe that it is the direct word of God given through the archangel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad over a period of about 23 years, from 610 until 632. 

The traditional biographies (the sira literature) of Muhammad’s (c. 570–632) life holds that he was born in Mecca to a poor but respected clan, Hashim, within the powerful and influential tribe of Quraish, and that he was orphaned by the age of six and raised by his uncle. Muhammad is said to have displayed an acute moral sensitivity at an early age. He later impressed a rich widow, Khadija, with his honesty and ability in managing her caravan business, and so she offered him marriage, which he accepted at the age of 25. They had six children, of whom only one daughter survived. Muhammad is said to have experienced his first revelation in about 610 while on retreat in a cave on Mount Hira outside Mecca. Hostilities were raised against him because of his preaching against the polytheism of the Meccans, and in 622, he led his people on the flight known as the hijra from Mecca to Medina. His armies attacked Mecca and repulsed a retaliatory siege; he eliminated his internal enemies, including all of the men in one of three Jewish clans in Medina, and forced the Meccans to surrender. According to tradition, Muhammad eventually became the most powerful leader in western Arabia and enforced the principles of Islam, giving unbelievers the choice between the sword and the Quran. He granted Jews and Christians comparative autonomy as “peoples of the Book,” whose revelations and prophets—Abraham, Moses, and Jesus Christ—he saw as anticipating himself. Muhammad’s social teachings emphasized economic justice and improving the situation of women, slaves, orphans, and the poor.

The traditional accounts of Muhammad’s life are largely gleaned from the Prophet biographies, the sira, and the “sayings” of Muhammad or hadith [q.v.]. Muhammad preached what can be called an Abrahamic monotheism at the time of the Roman-Persian wars (603–630), a monotheism that Christians and Jews, among others, had interpreted according to their respective apocalyptic traditions. The developed tradition of Islam as it is known today is the work of religious scholars attempting to establish a viable, standardized form of written Arabic, living in the sophisticated, cosmopolitan Iraq of the 800s and 900s—a period during which wine poetry, Greek philosophy, and the Sassanian royal cult were freely celebrated, and in which foreigners had arrived from lands subject to the Conquest—projecting, in the view of some scholars, a utopian religious community back into the earlier deserts of Arabia.

The Quran consists of 114 surahs or chapters of unequal length. According to tradition, secretaries and early followers of Muhammad began to collect his revelations before his death in 632, writing verses on palm leaves, bark, pieces of wood, parchment or leather, flat stones, and the shoulder blades of camels. Several hundred companions are said to have memorized the Quran by heart. Also according to modern research, the Quran was arranged and given diacritical marks definitively sometime in the mid 700s by Arabic scholars, and the final text was completed in the early 800s. The dates cited here for the Quran’s composition, c. 632–c. 650, are the traditional ones. The Quran, together with the hadith, contains the central theological and political doctrines of Islam. These texts differ in that the Quran, in its original Arabic form, is believed to be the direct word of God; first-person expressions such as “We” or “Our” refer to the voice of God, and Muslims accept the Quran as divinely authoritative and beyond fallibility or criticism. In Muslim belief, the Quran was revealed by God to Muhammad in the Arabic language; translations thus introduce interpretation and the possibility of error. In distinction from the Quran, the traditions or hadith are a collection of Muhammad’s sayings and actions. The hadith are understood as foundational, but they are not held to be divine revelation.

The main tenets of Islam established in the Quran hold that there is only one true God, Allah, and one true religion, Islam; that all human beings were created by Allah and belong to him; that all persons must make an accounting of their lives at a final judgment and will be rewarded with eternal happiness in a paradise among gardens and fountains, or punishment by fire in hell, predicated on their actions in this life; and that Allah sends prophets—the most important being Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad—to lead all people to moral truth. The ideal of human endeavor is to “reform the earth” by leading people beyond their petty, self-interested, self-deceptive characters to altruism that involves concern for the poor, dedication to the benefit of humanity, and loyalty to the cause of Allah. In the Quranic view, resurrection and judgment are central. Death is the transition to a new life; it is willed by God, who has appointed a time for each individual to die. Repentance for sin is possible, but only immediately after the evil has been committed; deathbed repentance after a life of sin does not prevent punishment in the afterlife.

The Quran is taken to be the source of a divine proscription against self-killing, a prohibition that is not questioned or debated by most followers of Islam. Suicide is clearly forbidden in shari`ah, Islamic law. However, there is no fully explicit text in the Quran (understood as Muhammad’s recitation of the word of God), which states this prohibition unambiguously, though the prohibition is fully clear in Muhammad’s own sayings preserved in the hadith. Sunni or majority Islam has no central dogmatic authority; hence, the passages from the Quran presented here are those variously taken by different teachers, commentators, and scholars to pertain to the question of suicide. Several of the surahs (e.g., 2.154, 3.169–70, 2.07, 4.74, and 9.111) appear to distinguish martyrdom from suicide, although martyrs have knowingly and voluntarily sacrificed their lives; some hold that martyrs go directly to Paradise after death.

Surah 2.54 describes a rebuke from Moses to the people of Israel in which he commands them to seek forgiveness from the Creator and, in some translations, “kill yourselves” (Mawdudi), or in others, “slay the culprits among you” (Dawood). This passage is usually interpreted as an order to righteous Israelites to put to death those of their own number who, engaging in the cult of cow-worship absorbed from the Canaanites, had made a calf (the “Golden Calf”) and actually worshipped it. Some scholars read it as an exhortation to commit a form of spiritual destruction of the self by conquering the inner passions or lusts, appropriately translated “let each one of you slay the evil propensities of his mind” (Khan). Still others see the passage as referring to a different kind of “spiritual suicide,” a death through severe grief or self-condemnation.

Surah 2.195, “make not your own hands contribute to (your) destruction,” forms part of a mandate requiring charitable spending to help the poor. According to one interpreter, the direct meaning of the verse is that to fail to give alms to the poor will eventually mean self-destruction of the community; according to another, it holds that self-interest rather than charity in spending will lead to one’s ruin both in this world and in the next: “do not push yourselves into ruin with your own hands” (Khan).

Surah 3.145, translated as “It is not given to any soul to die except with the leave of Allah, and at an appointed time” (Mawdudi), “No one can die except by Allah’s leave, that is a decree with a fixed term” (Khan), or “No one dies unless God permit. The term of every life is fixed” (Dawood), is cited by some contemporary commentators as grounds for the prohibition of suicide. However, it is not universally so cited; the passage is also understood to hold that it is not possible to hasten or escape death so that it occurs at a time earlier or later than that preordained for it by God.

Surah 4.29 is the passage most often cited as the authoritative proscription against self-killing in Islamic scripture, “do not kill yourselves (anfusakum)” or “do not destroy yourselves,” yet its direct meaning appears to refer to mutual killing (anfus- is understood as reciprocal), that is, “do not kill each other,” a reading that is supported by the context. This, according to a contemporary source, is taken to assume that “a Muslim’s killing another Muslim is tantamount to killing himself or herself.” Surah 4.30, “If any do that . . .” can be read as either complementary to 4.29 or independent; if the former, it means that to consume one’s own wealth in vanity (or to consume the property of others wrongfully) is to court one’s own destruction, since this corrupts society; if the latter, it can mean either that one should not kill others or that one should not kill oneself.

Surahs 4.66 and 4.74 may seem to condone suicide if it is committed with a worthy objective. Surah 4.66 concerns the possibility that followers of Islam might be required to “slay yourselves” (Mawdudi) or “kill yourselves in striving for the cause of Allah” (Khan) or “lay down your lives” (Dawood), though most Quranic commentators interpret the passage as a commandment to Muslims in general to be prepared to sacrifice their lives or seek death in jihad, “struggle in the cause of God” or holy war, and not as an appeal to individual suicide. Similarly, surah 4.74, about “those . . . who sell the life of this world for the hereafter,” appears to raise the issue of voluntary death sought in order to reach the afterlife—a matter that had also been an issue for early Christians. Some Quranic commentators understand this passage as concerning jihad [q.v., under Mutahhari], not suicide. Jihad is the only way a Muslim can—and is expected to—take and give life.

The third interpretation of surah 2.54, above, is related by some scholars to the final surah, 18.6, “Thou wouldst only, perchance, fret thyself to death, following after them, in grief, if they believe not in this Message,” which some scholars believe hints that Muhammad might torment himself to death through grief over disbelief among his people: “Wilt thou grieve thyself to death for sorrow over them, if they believe not in this Discourse?” (Khan). These scholars have held that on several occasions during the prolonged period without revelation (the “Fatra,” lasting some 2½ to 3 years) that followed his early divine inspirations, Muhammad—in desperation—ascended the highest hill near Mecca, intending to hurl himself from the top. Most scholars concur, however, that the passage was never intended to show that Muhammad would choose any form of suicide.

Regardless of these differences in translation and interpretation of the various surahs, however, a belief in the divine unlawfulness of suicide became a part of Islamic theology early in its history, and the Quran is most often cited as the original source of this doctrine.

Sources

Quran, tr. Yusuf Ali, online at http://www.quran.com See also http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/quran/index.htm. The Yusuf Ali English text is based on the 1934 book, The Holy Quran, Text, Translation and Commentary (published in Lahore, Cairo, and Riyadh), a version widely used because it is a clear, modern, and eloquent translation by a well-respected Muslim scholar. The English text was revised in 2009-10 to more closely match the source book. Explanatory material and/or alternative translations in the bibliographical note from N. J. Dawood, tr., The Koran. London: Penguin Books, 5th rev. ed., 1990; Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi, Towards Understanding the Qur’an, tr. and ed. Zafar Ishaq Ansari.  Leicester, UK: The Islamic Foundation, vols. I-III, 1988, 1989, 1990;  Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, tr., The Quran, London and Dublin: Curzon Press,  1972, 2nd ed., rev., 1975;  and from Fazlur Rahman, Health and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition: Change and Identity, New York: Crossroad, 1987. References concerning surah 18.6 from Franz Rosenthal, “On Suicide in Islam,” Journal of the American Oriental Society  66 (1946): 239-259, p. 240, and Theodor Nöldeke, Geschichte des Qorans, Part I.  Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1961, pp. 84-85.  Material also supplied by Peter von Sivers and Lois A. Giffen.

 

SURAHS

 

2.54

And remember Moses said to his people: “O my people! Ye have indeed wronged yourselves by your worship of the calf: So turn (in repentance) to your Maker, and slay yourselves (the wrong-doers); that will be better for you in the sight of your Maker.” Then He turned towards you (in forgiveness): For He is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful.

 

2.154

And say not of those who are slain in the way of Allah: “They are dead.” Nay, they are living, though ye perceive (it) not.

 

2.195

And spend of your substance in the cause of Allah, and make not your own hands contribute to (your) destruction; but do good; for Allah loveth those who do good.

 

2.207

And there is the type of man who gives his life to earn the pleasure of Allah: And Allah is full of kindness to (His) devotees.

 

3.145

Nor can a soul die except by Allah’s leave, the term being fixed as by writing. If any do desire a reward in this life, We shall give it to him; and if any do desire a reward in the Hereafter, We shall give it to him. And swiftly shall We reward those that (serve us with) gratitude.

 

3.169

Think not of those who are slain in Allah’s way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord;

 

3.170

They rejoice in the bounty provided by Allah: And with regard to those left behind, who have not yet joined them (in their bliss), the (Martyrs) glory in the fact that on them is no fear, nor have they (cause to) grieve.

 

4.29

O ye who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves in vanities: But let there be amongst you traffic and trade by mutual good-will: Nor kill (or destroy) yourselves: for verily Allah hath been to you Most Merciful!

 

4.30

If any do that in rancour and injustice, soon shall We cast them into the Fire: And easy it is for Allah.

 

4.66

If We had ordered them to sacrifice their lives or to leave their homes, very few of them would have done it: But if they had done what they were (actually) told, it would have been best for them, and would have gone farthest to strengthen their (faith);

 

4.74

Let those fight in the cause of Allah Who sell the life of this world for the hereafter. To him who fighteth in the cause of Allah – whether he is slain or gets victory – Soon shall We give him a reward of great (value).

 

4.75

And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)? Men, women, and children, whose cry is: “Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will protect; and raise for us from thee one who will help!”

 

4.76

Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah, and those who reject Faith fight in the cause of Evil: So fight ye against the friends of Satan: feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan.

 

4.77

Hast thou not turned Thy vision to those who were told to hold back their hands (from fight) but establish regular prayers and spend in regular charity? When (at length) the order for fighting was issued to them, behold! a section of them feared men as – or even more than – they should have feared Allah: They said: “Our Lord! Why hast Thou ordered us to fight? Wouldst Thou not Grant us respite to our (natural) term, near (enough)?” Say: “Short is the enjoyment of this world: the Hereafter is the best for those who do right: Never will ye be dealt with unjustly in the very least!

 

4.78

“Wherever ye are, death will find you out, even if ye are in towers built up strong and high!” If some good befalls them, they say, “This is from Allah”; but if evil, they say, “This is from thee” (O Prophet). Say: “All things are from Allah.” But what hath come to these people, that they fail to understand a single fact?

 

4.79

Whatever good, (O man!) happens to thee, is from Allah; but whatever evil happens to thee, is from thy (own) soul, and We have sent thee as a messenger to (instruct) mankind. And enough is Allah for a witness.

 

4.80

He who obeys the Messenger, obeys Allah: But if any turn away, We have not sent thee to watch over their (evil deeds).

 

9.111

Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the Qur’an: and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? then rejoice in the bargain which ye have concluded: that is the achievement supreme.

 

18.6

Thou wouldst only, perchance, fret thyself to death, following after them, in grief, if they believe not in this Message.

Comments Off on THE QURAN
(traditional date c. 632-c. 650)

Surahs 2.54, 2.154, 2.195, 2.207, 3.145, 3.169-70, 4.29-30, 4.66, 4.74-80, 9.111, 18.6

Filed under Islam, Middle Ages, Middle East, Quran, Selections, Sin

by | · 8:49 pm

BANA
(c. 595-c. 655)

from Harsha-Carita, The Death of the    Great King: On Sati
from Kadambari

 

Bana, also known as Banabhatta, a Sanskrit author and poet, was born in the latter part of the 6th century in Brahmanadhivasa, or Pritikuta, northern India, into a Brahmin family. Bana’s mother died when he was a child, and his father died when Bana was 14; afterward, he led a nomadic life for many years. He maintained his ancestral fortune, but traveled because of an innate curiosity and desire to explore; according to his own account, he became a figure of derision among his people because of his unorthodox wanderings. When he returned to his native Pritikuta, he was summoned by the emperor Harsha to appear at the royal court. “Emperor Harsha’s ears have been poisoned against you by some wicked people,” warned a message conveyed to him on his return. In spite of his fears about the hostile reception that might be awaiting him, Bana found favor with the emperor and was asked to write a history of Harsha’s life—which, according to his own account, he began the next morning.

The resulting work, the Harsha-Carita (Deeds of Harsha), written in the lofty kavya style of Sanskrit, chronicles the history of this emperor, the famous Harshavardhana (c. 590–647). Harsha gained territory in a brilliant career of conquest and eventually ruled the whole of northern India; his reign lasted from about 606 to 647. Harsha was the last Hindu emperor of northern India; a Chinese Buddhist traveler, Hiuen Tsang, who resided at Harsha’s court from about 630 to 644, says that toward the end of his career, Harsha became a devout Buddhist and held a great assembly every five years in which he emptied his treasury to give all away in charity. Bana’s commissioned portrayal of Harsha is best described as a historical romance, in which he takes his own sovereign as his hero and weaves the story out of the events of Harsha’s reign. Bana’s other works include lyric poetry, prose, drama, romances, and a poetic novel that is the history of his own family, the unfinished Kadambari, later completed by his son. The second selection here is from this latter work. Bana’s works earned him a reputation as one of the most talented Sanskrit poets in Indian history.

The selection from the Harsha-Carita is a complex portrayal of the Hindu practice of sati (literally, “virtuous woman”), or anumarana (from the Sanskrit verb anu-mri, “to follow in death”). In sati, or widow-burning, a wife who has just been widowed immolates herself on her husband’s funeral pyre as he is being cremated. The custom of concremation had been described in northern India before the Gupta Empire; it may have developed from funeral practices involving the voluntary deaths of retainers and others loyal to the deceased, or evolved from Vedic and sutra-period expectations that the widow lead an ascetic life and marry her dead husband’s younger brother or other kinsman. Sati developed particularly in the higher castes in northern India from the 5th through the 10th centuries, and became the subject of considerable controversy in the 19th century in Bengal [q.v., under Rammohun Roy and under Hindu Widow]. Although often infrequent and, it is claimed, for the most part (though not always) voluntary, sati was practiced throughout India until it was banned by the Bengal Presidency in 1828 and the ban upheld by the British Privy Council in 1832.

By the time of Bana, in the 7th century A.D., sati had come to be regarded as an act of the greatest spiritual merit: The woman who died on her husband’s funeral pyre was known as a sati, a “virtuous woman,” a term also applied to the act itself. In Bana’s account in the Harsha-Carita, a queen explains to her son why she is resolved to follow the custom of sati—atypically, even though her husband, the emperor, is not yet dead, and even though her son begs her not to kill herself. It also describes the suicides of other queens and the emperor’s retainers, once he has died. The passage is important for the insight it gives into Hinduism’s conceptualization of sati and related practices, and the sense in which these practices, though socially expected, were also understood as both voluntary and caused by overwhelming grief. Bana himself, however, was perhaps the first opponent of the practice of sati and an extremely strong one. The second very brief selection, from his novel Kadambari, gives his reasons for his opposition. He denounces the practice as “stumbling through stupidity.”

SOURCES
The Harsa-Carita of Bana, ch. V, trs. E. B. Cowell and F. W. Thomas [1897], Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1961, pp. 151-155.  Quotations in introductory passage, p. xi, xlviii. Available online from the Project South Asia; Bana, Kadambari, ed. Kashinath Pandurang Parab, Nirnaysagar Press, 1890, purva-bhag, pp. 339.

from HARSHA-CARITA, THE DEATH OF THE GREAT KING: ON SATI

Thus:–first the earth, heaving in all her circle of great hills, moved as though she would go with her lord. Next the oceans, as though remembering Dhanvantari, rolled with waves noisily plashing upon each other. High in the heavenly spaces, apprehensive of the king’s removal, appeared comets like braided locks with awful curls of far-extended flame. Beneath a sky thus lowering with comets the world seemed grey, as with the smoke of a Long Life sacrifice commenced by the sky regents. In the sun’s circle, now shorn of its radiance and lurid as a bowl of heated iron, some power, studious of the king’s life, had presented a human offering in the guise of a horrid headless trunk.  The lord of white effulgence, gleaming ‘mid the round rim of his flaming

Comments Off on BANA
(c. 595-c. 655)

from Harsha-Carita, The Death of the    Great King: On Sati
from Kadambari

Filed under Asia, Bana, Hinduism, Middle Ages, Selections

by | · 8:41 pm

THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD
(3rd-6th century)

Bava Kamma 91b
Avodah Zarah 18a
Gittin 57b
Semahot 2:1-2

 

The Babylonian Talmud, the most comprehensive body of rabbinic literature and a central text of Jewish civil and religious law, dates from the 2nd century b.c. to its final redaction during the 5th and 6th centuries A.D.. Talmudic literature, including the Mishnah, the Babylonian and Palestinian (Jerusalem) Talmuds, and the various midrashic commentaries on the Hebrew Bible [q.v.] including Genesis Rabbah [q.v.], provides the classical, canonical statement of rabbinic Judaism.

The Mishnah, the oldest text of the talmudic literature, is a codification of laws derived from an oral tradition. These legal and folkloric teachings, normative statements, and anecdotes relating to rabbinic practice and instruction developed over a period that began several centuries before the Christian era. In the 3rd century a.d., Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi compiled the existing traditions and gave them the fixed form now known as the Mishnah. The word “mishnah” is a noun formed from the verb “shannah,” which means “to repeat” or “to learn,” specifically indicating an education derived orally through continual recitation. The Mishnah is the foundation of both Talmuds.

The Palestinian Talmud, also called the Jerusalem Talmud, contains both the Mishnah and a commentary on the Mishnah called the Gemara. This Talmud was collected and written by Palestinian scholars from the 3rd century A.D. to the 5th century A.D.. The Babylonian Talmud includes both the Mishnah and its own Gemara written mostly in Aramaic, different from the commentaries found in the Palestinian Talmud. The contents of the Babylonian Talmud were collected and composed by scholars in the 3rd century A.D. through the 6th century. While the two Gemaras partially overlap, the Babylonian Talmud is generally more extensive and its discussions are more fully developed; within the later Jewish tradition, it is considered the authoritative Talmud.

Several selections from the Babylonian Talmud are included in this volume. The first is from Bava Kamma (“First Gate”), a treatise of the order Nezikin (“Injuries”) on compensation for damages it cites disagreement among the Tanaim, scholars of the period of the Mishna (sing. Tana). This text again cites the same midrash regarding suicide, though in somewhat different form, that had been earlier “creatively” developed in Genesis Rabbah. It confirms the prohibition of suicide midrashically derived from Genesis 9:5, and explores both sides of the issue of whether a person is allowed to harm himself or herself. Clearly, some early sources in the Jewish tradition appear to allow self-harm (see the selections from the Hebrew Bible [q.v.]); the Talmud here seems to labor to find a clear source for a more restrictive view. As is common in talmudic discussions, this remains an unresolved issue.

The second inclusion from the Babylonian Talmud is found in Avodah Zarah (“Idolatrous Worship”), also of the order Nezikin, a treatise on the laws regulating the conduct of the Jews toward other forms of worship and practices regarded as idolatry. In this selection, Chanina ben Tradyon, a rabbi and teacher, is condemned to die by the Romans for continuing to teach Jewish law. Initially, when his students suggest hastening his death, R. Chanina refuses their offer and affirms the general prohibition of suicide by appealing to the idea that God alone has sovereign power over all life. Then, in a seeming contradiction, he agrees to have the executioner bring about his death quickly and promises the executioner—a pagan—eternal life in exchange for helping him. The executioner increases the flame, precipitating R. Chanina’s death, and then promptly leaps into the fire himself. A heavenly voice approves of the actions of both men, saying, “R. Chanina b. Tradyon and his executioner are invited to the world to come.”

The third and fourth selections from the Babylonian Talmud come from the treatise Gittin (“Documents”) of the order Nashim (“Women”). Both excerpts offer examples of suicide during times of persecution, in one case to escape sexual slavery, and in the other as a response to severe grief. The first example, from the aftermath of the failed Jewish rebellion against Rome, describes the suicides of 400 boys and girls who were intended for use as prostitutes. Responding to a question by one of the girls, the eldest boy cites a verse from Psalms to show that they would be brought into the world to come if they jumped into the sea. Each group then throws themselves into the water. This selection raises several important questions about the relationship between suicide and martyrdom, including whether actively committing suicide to escape an evil like forced prostitution is morally distinct from allowing oneself to be killed, as in the biblical account of Chananyah, Mishael, and Azaryah, or Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, and why the suicide of the boys and girls is acceptable when it was inappropriate, at least initially, for R. Chanina to hasten his death to escape the torture of immolation.

The Gittin also depicts the suicide of a woman whose children allowed themselves to be martyred to avoid the sin of idolatry. The woman, who was not a martyr like her children, is nevertheless represented as an example of an appropriate an appropriate example of suicide: she throws herself from a roof and then “rejoices with her sons” in the afterlife. No explanation is given for the licitness of the woman’s death, although it is possible that her suicide was excusable in her unique circumstances because of extreme grief.

The final inclusion from the Babylonian Talmud is in Semahot (“Joys,” a circumlocution for mourning), a later treatise that is placed after the order Nezikin in more recent editions of the Talmud; it deals with mourning for the dead. Semahot is a post-talmudic composition that arrived at its present form in the 8th century a.d.; it is included here because it undoubtedly contains earlier material. The selection describes what is to be done in terms of rites and mourning for a person who has committed suicide. However, the passage ensures that few deaths will be classified as suicide by holding that one may be treated as a suicide only if witnesses can testify that the deceased expressed clear intent and acted immediately following the expression of intent. (This requirement presumably incorporates the usual rules requiring two reliable witnesses who are independently cross-examined and excluding circumstantial evidence.) This attempt at defining suicide opened a subsequent debate within Judaism spanning several centuries and comprising an enormous body of rabbinic literature.

Source

Babylonian Talmud: Bava Kamma 91b, Abodah Zarah 18a, Gittin 57b, Semahot 2:1-2, tr. Baruch Brody.  Comment in introduction from Noam Zohar.

from THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD

Bava Kamma 91b

There is a disagreement among the Tanaim, for some say that a person is not allowed to harm himself while others say that he is. Which Tana says that a man is not allowed to harm himself?

Is it the Tana who taught: “But your blood from yourself I will seek punishment [Genesis 9:5]”? R. Elazar says, from you yourself I will seek punishment for your blood.Perhaps self-killing is different…

It is the Tana who taught: R. Elazar Hakfar said, what do we learn from the verse [about the Nazirite] which says, “it will redeem him from the sin that he sinned in himself?” What is his sin? He denied himself wine. We can argue afortiori. If this person who just denied himself wine is considered a sinner, then the person who more fully harmed himself is certainly considered a sinner.

 

Abodah Zarah 18a

They took him [Chanina b. Traydon], wrapped a Scroll of the Law around him, and placed bundles of branches around him, which they set on fire. They brought wool soaked in water and placed it on his heart so that he could not die quickly…His students said to him, “Open your mouth and let the flame enter [so that you will die].” He said to them, “It is better that [life] should be taken by He who gave it and a person should not harm himself.” The executioner said to him, “Rabbi, if I increase the fire and take the wool from your heart, will you bring me to the world to come?” He said, “Yes.” “Swear that to me.” He did. Immediately he [the executioner] increased the flame and took the wool from his heart, and he died. He [the executioner] jumped into the fire. A Heavenly Voice said, “R. Chanina b. Traydon and his executioner are invited to the world to come.”

 

Gittin 57b

It happened that 400 boys and girls had been taken captive to be used as prostitutes. They realized for what they were wanted. They asked, “If we drown in the sea, will we enter the world to come?” The eldest taught, ”I will bring from the depths of the sea (Ps. 68:22); these are those who drown in the sea.” When the girls heard this, they all jumped into the sea. The boys argued a fortiori about themselves. “If these for whom it [the intended sexual act] is natural did this, we, for whom it [the intended sexual act] is not natural should certainly do so.” They also jumped into the sea…

The mother [of the seven martyrs] said to them, “Give him to me so that I may kiss him a little.” She said to him, “My son, go and say to Abraham your father, you sacrificed on one altar and I sacrificed on seven altars.” She went up to the roof and fell and died. A Heavenly Voice came and said, “The mother of the sons rejoices.”

 

Semahot 2:1-2

If someone commits suicide, we do not perform any rites over him. R. Yishmael says, “We say over him, Woe! He has taken his life.” R. Akiva says, “Leave him in silence. Neither honor him nor curse him. We do not rend any garments over him, not take off any shoes, do not eulogize him. But we do line up for the mourners, and we do bless them because this honors the living. The rule is: we do whatever honors the living…”

Who is someone who has killed himself? It is not the person who has gone up to the top of the tree and fallen or the person who has gone up to the top of the roof and fallen. It is the person who says, “I will go to the top of the roof or the top of the tree and throw myself down and kill myself” and we see him do just that. This is the person about whom we presume he has committed suicide.

Comments Off on THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD
(3rd-6th century)

Bava Kamma 91b
Avodah Zarah 18a
Gittin 57b
Semahot 2:1-2

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