Question:
If it’s my life, why shouldn’t I end it when I want?
Answer: The Bahá’í position on
suicide is clear: It is forbidden. Shoghi Effendi Rabbani (1897-1957),
the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, and its authorized interpreter, wrote
the following to an individual: “Suicide is forbidden in the Cause. God
Who is the Author of all life can alone take it away, and dispose of it
in the way He deems best. Whoever commits suicide endangers his soul,
and will suffer spiritually as a result in the other Worlds Beyond”
(letter of August 25, 1939).
Yet God’s mercy is so great that compassion and forgiveness may be
granted to those who take their own lives. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (1844-1921),
the son of Bahá’u’lláh, and grandfather of Shoghi Effendi, wrote a
compassionate message to a woman whose husband had committed suicide:
“Thou hast written of the severe calamity that has befallen thee — the
death of thy respected husband. That honourable personage has been so
much subjected to the stress and pain of this world that his highest
wish became deliverance from it … Thus it is seen that some, under
extreme pressure of anguish, have committed suicide … As to thy
husband, rest assured. He will be immersed in the ocean of pardon and
forgiveness and will become the recipient of bounty and favour”
(Selections, p. 200).
The suicide of the young is especially tragic — “the permanent solution
to a temporary problem.” They are so consumed by their pain that they
do not realize that in time their pain will pass, nor do they
understand the lifelong legacy of sorrow that they bequeath to their
families. If our pampered youth are protected from every hardship, how
will they ever develop the moral fibre to endure it? Shoghi Effendi
wrote: “ … Trials and tribulations should arise in us added vigour and
greater determination and not dampen our zeal and kill our spirit”
(letter of March 12, 1933). - Jack
McLean
