Soaring rate of suicide in Sri Lanka: an islamic perspective

Abstract

Suicide is a serious public health issue in Sri Lanka and the rate of it is soaring unprecedentedly. Many people sans age differences are committing suicide to evade the failures in life, the mental illness, the high depression, the mounting of debt, the frustration life, etc. Of the victims, the youngsters and adults are most vulnerable. Several efforts taken in the past to control the proportion of suicide has not paid dividend as envisaged. In this situation, the active role of religion is, therefore, warranted in mitigating the rate of suicide in Sri Lanka. In this backdrop, this paper attempts to discourse the perspective of Islam in dealing with the spiraling rate of suicide in Sri Lanka. It also analyses how Islam contributes to the effort of diminishing the rate of suicide and its perspectives of the victims of suicides.From the analysis of the paper, it is revealed that Islam has banned any form of suicide on any occasion and provides solace and confidence to the vulnerable and those subject to suicidal efforts to face the challenges of the world effectively.