Is ‘Islamic’ Text Consistent with Diversity or Exclusion? Insights into Sunni and Shi’Ite Exegeses of the Qur’an with Reference to (physician assisted) Suicide

Diversity is becoming an essential characteristic of a globalised, so-called ‘post-modern’ world, where increasing collectivities of ‘religion’ and ‘non-religion’ emerge and rightly claim the right to life in various arenas. One of the consequences of this is the materialisation of different views of the value of life itself. Some people tend to deny a value of any sort to life, while others may be deeply disturbed by the idea that life is of no value or that it is meaningless. Against this background, there are also some people who ‘grit their teeth and continue with their day-to-day existence’ whilst holding to the thought that the value of life is something of concern to only the individuals themselves, and differs from person to person depending on their conditions and circumstances – its value is personal, local and frequently temporal. For instance, a person may find no value in their own life and commit suicide; but another who suffers from progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) may look to a physician to assist them in committing suicide. A different person in the same conditions may enjoy and value their life and, therefore, refuse to commit suicide. Informed by the philosophical notions of instrumental, intrinsic and personal value as well as a social constructionist approach to ‘Islam’ and referring to eight arguably major exegeses, this paper addresses the case of (physician assisted) suicide and will examine the question: ‘How far do Qur’anic exegeses address the diverse understanding of the end of life issues in tackling the view that life can be “valuable to” or “not valuable to” a person?’