ON THE RISING SUICIDE IN A VERY RELIGIOUS COUNTRY!
ON THE RISING SUICIDE IN A VERY RELIGIOUS COUNTRY!
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
26th March, 2017.
nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com.
nurudeendauda24@gmail.com
nurudeendauda.blogspot.com
Emile Durkheim a French Sociologist and 18th century Scholar always comes to my mind when the issue of "Suicide " is mentioned. Nigeria has been described as very religious, but ungodly country. Emile Durkheim observed that there were 4 types of Suicides commonly committed in the French society as far back as the 18th and or 19th century as follows:
The first type is the Egoistic suicide. This type of suicide occurs when the degree of social integration is low. When a person commits this type of suicide they are not well supported in a social group. They feel like they are an outsider or loner and the only people they have in this world are themselves. They often feel very isolated and helpless during times in their lives when they are under stress.
The second type is Altuistic suicide. This type of suicide occurs when the degree of social integration is too high. When a person commits this type of suicide they are greatly involved in a group. All that they care about are that groups norms and goals and they completely neglect their own needs and goals. They take their lives for a cause. A good example of this would be a suicide bomber.
Durkheim’s third type of suicide is Anomic Suicide. This kind of suicide is related to too low of a degree of regulation. This type of suicide is committed during times of great stress or change. Without regulation, a person cannot set reachable goals and in turn people get extremely frustrated. Life is too much for them to handle and it becomes meaningless to them. An example of this is when the market crashes or spikes.
The final type of suicide is Fatalistic suicide. People commit this suicide when their lives are kept under tight regulation. They often live their lives under extreme rules and high expectations. These types of people are left feeling like they’ve lost their sense of self.
In recent times we have had of a Suicide by a Medical Doctor in Lagos. Few days later we have had of attempted Suicide by two women who attempted to jump into Lagoon in the same Lagos.
Islamic view on Suicide: Allah, praise to Him, strongly prohibited the killing of oneself (suicide), or anybody else, or children for fear of poverty, as stated in verses 6: 151, 17: 33, 2: 195, and 4: 29 because the killing of one innocent soul is for God equal to the crime of killing all people, as stated in 5: 32.
O you who have believed, do not consume one another's wealth unjustly but only [in lawful] business by mutual consent. And do not kill yourselves (or one another). Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful (Al-Baqara, 2: 29). And spend in the way of Allah and do not throw [yourselves] with your [own] hands into destruction. And do good; indeed, Allah loves the doers of good (Al-Baqara, 2: 195).
Early Christian theologians of the Catholic Church considered suicide as murder and thus a mortal sin in the absence of circumstances that could mitigate the sinfulness of the act.
In the fifth century, St. Augustine wrote the book The City of God in it making Christianity's first overall condemnation of suicide. His biblical justification for this was the interpretation of the commandment, "thou shalt not kill ", as he sees the omission of "thy neighbor", which is included in " thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor ", to mean that the killing of oneself is not allowed either.
In the sixth century AD, suicide became a secular crime and began to be viewed as sinful. In 1533, those who committed suicide while accused of a crime were denied a Christian Burial . In 1562, all suicides were punished in this way. In 1693, even attempted suicide became an ecclesiastical crime, which could be punished by excommunication with civil consequences following. In the 13th century,
Thomas Aquinas denounced suicide as an act against God and as a sin for which one could not repent. Civil and criminal laws were enacted to discourage suicide, and as well as degrading the body rather than permitting a normal burial, property and possessions of the suicides and their families were confiscated.
May God Bless Nigeria!