Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Carl W. Ernst, Shambhala Guide to 

Sufism (Boston: Shambhala, 1997); Carl W. Ernst, ed., 

Teachings of Sufism (Boston: Shambhala, 1999); Ahmet 

Karamustafa,  God’s Unruly Friends: Dervish Groups in 

the Islamic Later Middle Period (Oxford: Oneworld, 

2006); Javad Nurbakhsh, Sufi Women, 2d ed. (New 

York: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi, 1990); John Renard, 

Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and 

Servanthood (Berkeley: University of California Press, 

2008); Annemarie Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of 

Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 

1975); Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami, Early Sufi Women

(Dhikr al-niswa al-mutabbidat al-sufiyyat). Translated by 

Rkia E. Cornell (Louisville, Ky.: Fons Vitae, 1999); J. 

Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders of Islam (Oxford: 

Oxford University Press, 1971); John O. Voll, Islam: 

Continuity and Change in the Modem World (Boulder, 

Colo.: Westview Press, 1982).

suicide

A nearly universal aspect of human existence 

addressed by religion is that of 

death

 and its mean-

ing. In Islam, the most widely accepted view is 

that death is a matter that lies in God’s hands—he 

determines all things and is the giver of both life 

and death. Suicide, the willful taking of one’s own 

life is therefore often considered to be morally 

wrong and an offense against God in Islam. In 

Arabic, it is called intihar and qati nafs. Muslims 

believe that suicide victims will be punished in the 

aFterliFe

. They base this view partly on the Quran, 

but mainly in the 

hadith

 and the consensus of 

Muslim jurists and theologians. Religious tradi-

tion aside, suicide is a phenomenon that occurs 

for a variety of different reasons—psychologi-

cal, sociological, and political. Since the 1980s it 

has become an urgent matter in many countries 

because of the marked increase in the number 

of incidents in which Muslims have conducted 

deadly attacks on military and civilian targets that 

also involved the loss of the attacker’s life. In many 

cases explosives are strapped to the attacker’s body 

or placed in a vehicle driven by him (or her). They 

have therefore been called by their proponents and 

opponents “suicide bombings,” “suicide attacks,” 

and more recently “martyrdom operations.” a

l

-

q

aida

’s assaults on the World Trade Center and 

the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, are the 

most infamous suicide attacks executed in recent 

years, involving the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. 

Although religious ideology has been involved in 

these attacks, the degree to which it has been a 

decisive factor is highly disputed.

Suicide was not a significant issue in the Quran 

and hadith, and only became so among Muslims 

relatively recently. Nevertheless, the issue was 

addressed in Islamic tradition. The most relevant 

verses in the Quran are Q 4:29–30 and 2:195. 

These verses are ambiguous in their meaning, 

however. The former, dated to the Medinan period, 

includes the command, “Do not kill yourselves. . . . 

Whoever does that in enmity and wrongfully, we 

will roast him in the F

ire

.” Traditional commenta-

tors have said that this can be either an injunction 

against suicide, or against Muslims killing each 

other. The second passage occurs in a section of 

Q 2 (also dated to the Medinan period) concern-

ing warfare; it states, “Spend [of your wealth?] on 

God’s behalf and do not throw [yourselves] into 

danger.” Commentators disagree about what this