Suicide Killings - The Path to Spiritual Heavenly Bliss or Road to Eternal Damnation ? (Part 2)

As I drive this morning, thinking and trying to understand this phenomenon of suicide bombing in exchange of martyrdom, I was struck by a sufic story. The story goes like this.

Once in a village, there lived a peaceful group of people. They were God-fearing men and women among them. Then one day the village was struck by a mysterious infectious disease. Those who were struck by this disease suffered great pain. The disease was so severe and debilitating that some infected villagers would eventually die from it.

To add to the villagers' misery, they were unable to get access to modern health services to treat them. Therefore, they had to rely on traditional medicine and naturally look to the village's medicine man for help. The medicine man, who has some knowledge on the use of herbs to treat sickness, could not find a remedy to cure this disease. As days past by, more and more villagers were struck by the disease and some fatally succumbed to it.

Then one day one of the villagers heard that a similar disease had struck another village. In that village, what eventually happened was that one of the villagers had decided to eat a posionous herb thinking that it could relieve, if not cure him, of the disease. It appeared that the poisonous herb managed to aleviate the pain and suffering but the man later died because of the poison. Upon his death, one of the village folk then hailed the man as someone who had sacrifice himself and done a "great deed for the village". This is because besides relieving his pain and suffering from the disease, he also prevented further spread of the disease to others by killing himself.

After hearing this story, the man told some of his village people. A debate occured among some of them. There were those who questioned whether they were allowed to carry out such self-sacrifice act just to end the suffering. Others decided that circumstances left them with no other choice. Finally, to resolve the matter, they decide to seek the opinion of the medicine man.

The medicine man said,"The question is why do we seek to ape the actions of others even if it provide temporary relief from our suffering but brings certain death to us and others. Are we not to seek patience with God for all trials and tribulations ? Yes, we must continue to struggle to seek a cure for this sickness for all diseases has a remedy. But should we, in our haste, look for one that will cause destruction to ourselves or others ?."