If Allah does not test anyone with something beyond their capabilities, then why do some people commit suicide?

- Those who commit suicide after being raped, those who commit suicide due to psychological distress...
- If these people cannot bear the burden of this trial, why are they tested with it?

Dear Brother / Sister,

It will be helpful to explain this topic in a few points:

a) This issue is clearly stated in the following verse: “On no soul doth Allah Place a burden greater than it can bear.” (al-Baqara, 2/286). Since all of Allah’s words are true, this is also true. Therefore, as a matter of principle, it is essential for us to believe that this divine principle applies even to matters that seem contrary to us.

- In Islam, the principle that “necessity renders prohibited things permissible” indicates that no one is obligated to anything beyond their capacity. For example, if someone is extremely hungry and is obliged to eat something forbidden, it is not considered a sin because they might die of hunger without this permission. Similarly, if someone has something stuck in their throat and cannot find water, they may drink alcohol to remove it.

b) Accordingly, it is a requirement of belief to have no doubt that the reason for suicide is not due to a trial beyond one’s capacity. We do not know the true nature of thousands of events; similarly, we do not know the true wisdom behind the reasons why suicides occur. To blame Allah for something we do not know is completely contrary to the meaning of the verse above.

c) Two people suffer from the same illness, and one cries, wails, and struggles while the other remains calm; this shows that they do not use their patience and resilience in the same way. The first person, having scattered their patience in all directions, has lost their resilience and inevitably begun to cry and wail. The second person, however, has not scattered their patience but has used it against the illness at that moment, calmly awaiting Allah’s healing.

An original example given by Badiuzzaman Said Nursi regarding the issue can be summarized as follows:

Regardless of the severity of the misfortune or illness, a person is given the strength of patience, which provides them with the ability to resist it proportionally. This patience suffices for the moment of the misfortune or illness. However, if a person scatters this strength of patience, which is sufficient for this hour, in all directions, it is divided into three parts. If they send one part to the month before the illness begins, and another part to the future—because they are apprehensive that the illness will continue—two-thirds of their strength of patience will be lost; and the remaining one-third will be insufficient for the current hardship.

We can liken this person’s situation to that of an incompetent commander: He expects reinforcement on his right wing by an enemy force deserting to join him from his left, and then begins to disperse his forces in the center to the left and the right, before the enemy has joined him on the right. The enemy then destroys his center, left weak, with a minimal force. (See Lem’alar, ikinci Lem’a, p. 11)

- Likewise, Allah has given the person who commits suicide a strength of patience that enables them to endure the severity of the suffering or calamity they face. For example, if they consider that they will receive a great reward from Allah for these hardships, that the hardships are temporary, that an event that humiliates them in the eyes of people elevates them to a high status in the eyes of Allah, and that it is something that is desired very much, and if they also consider that the punishment deserved by the cruel oppressors will be a thousand times greater than the suffering they inflicted upon them, they will not commit suicide.

d) Similarly, the fact that some of those who were raped did not commit suicide, but decided to endure with patience, shows that such hardships are not a sign of an obligatory direction, as suggested in the question.

e) We should not forget that the world is a testing ground. For the test to be fair, everyone must be allowed to act according to their free will because it is essential that there are both winners and losers in a test.

In that case, for example, the rapist of a girl who has been raped also undergoes a test. By committing such a rape, he fails the test. If Allah were to restrain the thief, the rapist, the murderer, the corruptor, the oppressor, the killer from committing the crime, no one would fail, and this test would cease to be a test.

When we reflect on those subtleties, which are the very essence of truth, we can easily see how untrue and unjust it is to blame Allah for the injustices committed by people, no matter who they are.

f) There is one more point: Whether the victim contributed to the incident is also an important criterion of justice. Indeed, in Islam, a person who steals property from a secure location is punished for theft while a person who takes the same property from an unprotected, public place is not punished for theft. This is because the second person – even though not actually a thief – may have been unable to resist the temptation of that item, which was lying out in the open.

- As it is known, in modern law as well, provocation by the other party is one of the reasons for mitigating the offender’s punishment. As Nursi puts it,

“If a person were to take the form of a snake, or a saint were to disguise himself as a bandit, or if a constitutional monarchy were to transform into despotism, what would be the punishment for those who attack it? Perhaps they themselves are truly snakes, bandits, and despots.” (See Divan-ı Harb-i Örfi, s. 41, p. 41)

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