Q. It is well known that suicide is strictly forbidden in Islam; but nowadays we see much support for people who undertake operations that are certain to end in their own death, as in the case of suicide bombing. Please comment on the legality of such operations from an Islamic point of view.
K. Malik
A. When a person kills himself out of despair, feeling that his life has been a continuous chain of misery and that no hope is looming, then this is suicide, which is clearly forbidden in Islam. Indeed the prohibition is very strict because such an action betrays lack of faith in God and absence of trust in His mercy.
However, the situation you are referring to is completely different. It is called ‘suicide bombing’ by Western media, because of the very strong emphasis laid on this worldly life in Western culture. In fact, the concepts of sacrifice and martyrdom are unknown in modern Western society, except when a country goes to war and calls on its youth to die for their country.
When Palestinians blow themselves up to kill Israelis, this is an operation seeking martyrdom. It is not much different from a situation where a company of Muslim soldiers, say 15 or 20, find themselves in a tight situation, where they are certain of being captured or killed by the enemy, unless one of them takes a step that ends in his own death but saves the rest of the company. If one of them does that, he is not committing suicide; he is earning martyrdom. His action is to be praised if it is undertaken only for God’s sake.
In the Palestinian case, the people are practically surrounded, with no escape, other than trying to gain their own freedom in their own land. They have little or no arms to fight a very heavily armed force that resorts to brutal tactics, such as mass killing, blowing up houses, unending curfews, cutting water and electricity supplies, etc. They must fight back, and one of the very few means of fighting back left to them is to sacrifice themselves for their cause. This is what they are doing. When one of them undertakes such an operation for God’s sake and dies as a result, he or she is, God willing, a martyr.
Test-tube babies
Q. Is it permissible to use the technique known as test-tube babies in order to have children?
M. Shingati
A. Most of the modern techniques of fertilization in order to ensure pregnancy are permissible if, and only if, they involve a man and his wife, with no third party. Thus, if we are talking about taking a man’s sperm and his wife’s egg and ensuring fertilization in a laboratory, then implanting the fertilized egg back into the woman’s uterus, then this is permissible. On the other hand, if a third party is involved, as in the case of using a sperm bank, then this is not allowed. Similarly, using the practice of surrogate mothers, where a woman is hired to bear the child of a couple who are unable to have a child of their own, is also forbidden.