| Answer: Answer: Suicide bombing cannot be objected to
provided the following conditions are fulfilled.
1. It is carried out by a state against an
enemy against which war has been openly declared.
2. It does not target civilians of the enemy
country.
Consequently, individuals and groups who
carry out this activity against innocent civilians, as seems to be the case
in Kashmir and Palestine, are doing something which is totally prohibited.
No individual or group has been given the right to take human life. Only a
state has this authority. And a state too has this authority over the
combatants of an enemy against which war has been openly declared.
Clandestine suicidal attacks against a country with which a pact has been
made amounts to a breach of law which is a severe crime in the eyes of
Islam. Similarly, civilians and innocent citizens must be protected at all
costs if a state has to undertake such an activity. Muslims who kill
innocent civilians must know that they are violating the directives of Islam
and committing a crime against humanity. The Qur’ān calls the killing of an
individual in this manner as tantamount to killing the whole mankind:
مَنْ قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي
الْأَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا وَمَنْ أَحْيَاهَا
فَكَأَنَّمَا أَحْيَا النَّاسَ جَمِيعًا وَلَقَدْ جَاءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُنَا
بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ ثُمَّ إِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِنْهُمْ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ فِي الْأَرْضِ
لَمُسْرِفُونَ (٣٢:٥)
He who killed a human being without the
latter being guilty of killing another or being guilty of spreading disorder
in the land should be looked upon as if he had killed all mankind. (5:32)
As far as the legitimacy of committing
suicide bombings if the above mentioned conditions are fulfilled is
concerned, let us first see why suicide is prohibited in Islam and whether
such bombings can be termed as suicide.
It must be appreciated that the basic reason
for which suicide is prohibited in Islam is that it amounts to rejecting the
scheme of the Almighty according to which He has created man to test him
through good and evil circumstances.
One should also remember that the Almighty has specifically mentioned in the
Qur’ān that He never burdens a person with a responsibility he cannot bear.
So, however tough be the circumstances, a person should boldly face them
knowing that they have been ordained for Him by the Almighty, and that he
has also been equipped with the required resilience by the Almighty to face
them.
If the above bases are true, then suicide
bombings cannot bear the label of prohibition since a person is not
committing suicide out of depression and desperation by rejecting the scheme
of the Almighty. He is actually sacrificing his life to root out oppression
and injustice on this earth – the only reason for which today a Muslim can
wage Jihād – which surely is a noble cause.
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