Comments on Shaalom 2 Salaam: A Muslimah's Journey Along the Way From Judaism to Islam: Chronic Pain, Suicide, Physician-Assisted Suicide,...

As Salaamu Alaikum Dear Shariq: JAK for posting d...

2010-02-14T08:11:50.442-05:00

As Salaamu Alaikum Dear Shariq:

JAK for posting daleel.

I was watching a DVD lately about death being a "reliever." Imam S. Wahaj, in 1995, gave a Friday khutbah and then prayed the Janaza prayer of his daughter. In his khutbah, he was reminding the people that EVERYTHING is from Allah swt and is for the believer. Therefore, the believer is happy with whatever befalls him, whether it be "good" or "bad." Because the believer knows that Allah swt would not give him ANYTHING that was not a benefit to him in one way or another. This is why the believer is encouraged to be patient when illness, death or something like that happens. There is always "some" good.

JAK for stopping by.

Dear sister, assalaamu alaikum. jazakAllahkhair to...

2010-02-14T02:49:05.167-05:00

Dear sister, assalaamu alaikum. jazakAllahkhair to both you and brother yusuf smith. this is a very interesting discussion. even more interesting and beneficial was your response to it. it was indeed very nice. may Allah continue to increase you and us in the understanding of the religion. aameen.

i just wanted to post some selected statements of ibn al qayyim and sufyaan ath thawree, which i picked up from the website called muslimmatters and was posted there by sister Amatullah. i believe these are very pertinent to this discussion and to the topic of having patience in general. i hope we can all benefit from them:

Imam ibn al Qayyim rahimahullah:

The divine decree related to the believer is always a bounty, even if it is in the form of withholding (something that is desired), and it is a blessing, even if it appears to be a trial, and an affliction that has befallen him is in reality a cure, even though it appears to be a disease!

Unfortunately, due to the ignorance of the worshipper, and his transgressions, he does not consider anything to be a gift or a blessing or a cure unless he can enjoy it immediately, and it is in accordance with his nature. If he were only given a little bit of understanding, then he would have counted being withheld from as a blessing, and the sickness as a mercy, and he would relish the trouble that befalls him more than he relishes his ease, and he would enjoy poverty more than he enjoys richness, and he would be more thankful when he is blessed with little than when he is blessed with a lot.
Madarij al-Salikeen 2/215-216

Sufyan ath Thawri rahimahullah:

Verily, when Allah withholds, He actually gives, because He did not withhold on account of miserliness or stinginess, but rather He looked at the benefit of the servant.
So the fact that He withheld is actually His choice for the servant and His excellent decision.”
Madarij as-Salikeen 2/215

Salaams AlabasterMuslim: Yes, did you see how the ...

2010-02-04T21:56:49.633-05:00

Salaams AlabasterMuslim: Yes, did you see how the man stuck his leg in that dry ice or whatever it was to freeze it off! Ya Rab ... I couldn't believe it! And you are so correct about the effects of suicide on those left behind. We had one at our prison, a very young Muslim girl. It was powerful to see almost 2,000 women in grief and pain.

Anonymous 1 - your welcome. Muslims often struggle with depression because the pious critics make the depressed people think that the only problem is weak deen :(

Anonymous 1 - thanks! keep coming back!

As salamalaikum Sister, I have just stumbled acro...

2010-02-04T21:00:10.073-05:00

As salamalaikum Sister,

I have just stumbled across your blog and I am having a great reading it. I would like to congratulate you on an AWESOME blog.... I am just catching up on all the posts ...

Keep up the Great Work Inshallah!!!

-A

thankyou for your advise about depresion.

2010-02-03T23:58:35.213-05:00

thankyou for your advise about depresion.

Salaamu Alaikum sister, I saw the show you are sp...

2010-02-03T20:28:23.933-05:00

Salaamu Alaikum sister,
I saw the show you are speaking of (about the man who hated his own leg) yesterday and today. I cannot understand how someone could hate a piece of their own body for no reason. But I try to not make judgment because I believe something like that is related to a psychological problem.
Alhamdullilah, its good to hear that you try to be patient. And you really made me think about your leg. You never know, on the day of judgment your leg might speak for you, saying it has caused you pain and you tried to deal with the pain patiently, inshallah. Maybe your leg is what will put you in jennah, inshallah. At the same time, I hope your pain does lessen!
As for suicide - assisted or not- I am very against. I have first hand experience with family members committing suicide and it is a very sad and selfish mistake to make.

As-Salaamu 'alaikum, Also, I have heard of Ja...

2010-02-03T19:24:05.195-05:00

As-Salaamu 'alaikum,

Also, I have heard of Jack Kevorkian, but nobody like him exists over here.

Our politics is rather different as well. Being a smaller country, our regions have much less autonomy than with US states. An assisted dying law can get passed in Oregon but would have a whole lot of difficulty in Kansas.

It's significant that the Daily Mail, a very middle-class, right-wing paper, printed pages of highly sympathetic coverage about the Gilderdales last week. To them, it was a perfect "human interest" story involving a respectable, white, middle-class, southern English family. They would normally oppose legalising such behaviour but they know they can't get people out to actively oppose them, or abortion, or any similar life issue. There just isn't the heat over them here that there is in the USA.

As-Salaamu 'alaikum, Thanks for replying in t...

2010-02-03T19:01:55.093-05:00

As-Salaamu 'alaikum,

Thanks for replying in this way. It is natural that Islam would influence the thinking of any Muslim, even someone with a severe or progressive disability. I felt so much pain for Lynn G, wondering what could have been done to alleviate her condition, if she couldn't have been gradually exposed to light or sat up more, etc., rather than just letting her lie in bed for seventeen years (it's common for disabled people to develop hypotension, which causes them to pass out when sat up). The family had developed an intense distrust of doctors because of everything from misguided treatment to outright abuse, including sexual abuse, early on in her illness. It is painful to think that she went through so much suffering and ended it all herself, having been of such help to others yet eventually giving up hope for herself. Of course, it is too late to change anything now.

Normally, I'm very harsh on the matter of assisted suicide, particularly the lobby in the UK which doesn't even reserve it for terminal illnesses, but approved of it when a young man with a spinal cord injury at C6, caused by rugby, went "the Swiss route" in late 2008. When I later made the acquaintance of Kim Robbins, who has a similar injury from transverse myelitis, the contrast between her attitude (explained in this post, written at my request) and his was startling and sometimes distressing. He didn't need to die any more than she did; people indulged his death wish because they didn't place any value on patience in extreme circumstances. This is the case with a lot of people in this country, particularly the more liberal elements; the whole idea of the "stiff upper lip" as well as the concept of human life as sacred are both seen as old-fashioned and, in the latter case, tyrannical dogma.

A while ago the lady who writes another blog I read, entitled The Site that Breathes, asked readers how they would deal with the situation of being told that, in a few months time, they would be a vent-dependent quadriplegic. (The author already is, from a car accident in 2002, when she was 16.) The post is here and my response is second in the comments, but the key point was, "personally I'd rather be alive than dead, but to people who don't believe in an afterlife, it's difficult to persuade them of that". And this is a big problem: a lot of people either don't believe in an afterlife or have some kind of wishful view of it (as is evident from some of the tribute postings on some of Lynn G's old friends' blogs and Facebook pages). It's sad but not too distressing to hear of some arrogant old atheist taking this course of action and worsening his situation; it's more so when the person who presents that possibility is someone young and fragile.

Anyway, I am grateful to you for bringing an Islamic perspective from someone who's "there"; coming from me, it would be dismissed by many people as just some guy spouting religious dogma. I feel a lot of compassion for the Gilderdales and am glad the mother was not sent to jail, but it doesn't mean I approve and I'd like to think I wouldn't do the same, insha Allah. (I am more fearful of how I would deal with imprisonment than with disability, personally.)