FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Islam has commanded human beings to protect life and promote the welfare of human body. Islam binds every member of the society to protect life at all costs, and to make it beneficial to oneself as well as to society at large. Noted Islamic scholar and acclaimed commentator of the Quran, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. AD 1210) writes under these verses: The verse addresses those who kill someone wrongfully and those who commit suicide. This verse is proof that people are commanded to refrain from committing suicide. The corpus of Hadith (record of sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad) contains many examples where the Prophet of God unambiguously instructed the people to refrain from committing suicide: 'Your body has a right over you and your eyes too have a right over you'. This saying quite clearly directs people to protect their body, life and all organs of the body, and it also exhorts one to fulfill their rights, namely to take care of them. Reading such directives, how could it be possible that Islam would make allowance for committing violent acts such as bomb blasts and suicide attacks? How could Islam, the religion of peace and universal brotherhood, sanction taking the precious lives of citizens through heinous acts of violence? Quite the contrary, the Prophet of Islam says about those who commit suicide that they will enter the raging fire of Hell and abide there forever. Thus, they would incur unrelenting and unending painful punishment. Many Hadith narrations are cited here to bring home this point: “If a person jumps from a mountain so as to kill himself, he will enter Hell and abide there forever, and he will keep tumbling down in it. If a person consumes poison to kill himself, Hell will be his eternal abode, and the poison he consumed will be constantly with him which he will consume. If a person kills himself with a metal weapon, he will be given the same weapon in Hell with which he will keep stabbing himself in the stomach, and he will abide there forever.” A Companion of the Prophet, Abu Hurairah, reports that the Prophet of Islam said, “If a person chews something in order to kill himself, he shall be forced in Hell to keep chewing the same substance. Similarly,