Raising Awareness on Suicide in the Community taught by
By Navaid Aziz | 2026-01-16T17:13:02.79123+00:00 | Topic: Community
Raising Awareness on Suicide in the Community
Taught by Sh. Navaid Aziz
Opening Khutbah
بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا أَمَّا بَعْدُ
My dear brothers and sisters, (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh)
Introduction: Myths and Facts Activity
Before we begin, I want to start off today's discussion with a little bit of trivia. You're going to be given an option to choose one of two responses. You can either say myth or you can say fact. Those are your two options, myth or fact.
Question 1: Suicide notes are always left at the time of suicide.
• How many people believe this is a myth? Raise your hands. Fantastic.
• How many people believe this is a fact? Raise your hands. Okay, not too many.
Question 2: People who talk about suicide should not be taken seriously.
• How many people believe this is a myth? Raise your hands. Perfect.
• How many people believe this is a fact? Interesting, now we have more of a split on this one.
Question 3: Children do not die by suicide.
• How many people believe this is a myth? Raise your hands. Okay.
• How many people believe this is a fact? Raise your hands. Okay, not too many, that's fine as well.
InshaAllah I'll answer all of these myths and facts at the end of the session InshaAllah as a concluding remark.
My Interest in This Topic
Where did my interest for this actually come about? Earlier last year, there was a Netflix series that came out called 13 Reasons Why. A lot of you may have heard about it. I even wrote about it on my Facebook page. And it was a very disturbing experience.
For those of you that haven't watched it, just to give you a summary of what it's about: It's about a young girl who's in her teens who goes through a series of traumatic events but also goes through a series of bad decisions. Multiple times along the way, there are means for people to stop hurting her and stop her being abused and stop
her feeling abandoned. But time and time again, she feels that she is abandoned and she feels that she is left to be betrayed.
The final person to do that is the guidance counselor. When the guidance counselor - she's approaching the guidance counselor, she's like, look, I desperately need help. Do you have time for me? So the final person she speaks to is the guidance counselor. And then the guidance counselor doesn't really make time for her and doesn't take her seriously. And at that time she's literally begging and pleading that as she's leaving the guidance counselor's office, let him come after me and ask me, am I okay? That's all she's wanting is for the guidance counselor to come out after and ask her, is she okay? But the guidance counselor doesn't do that. And that was sort of like the straw that broke the camel's back. And she says, look, if the guidance counselor isn't going to help me, what hope do I have after? And then it's probably the most goriest scene I've ever seen in like, media, which shows and depicts her actually committing suicide.
Now, when I saw this, my interest was piqued in the series because my wife was watching it. She's a counselor at the school, so this is something she deals with on a regular basis. And I was just watching it with her, and that's how the interest came about.
But what became really more interesting is, I would say about two or three weeks after I finished watching the series, I actually went to the Islamic school and I was asked to give a small talk to some teenagers. And I said, you know what? Let's talk about this series. How many people are watching 13 Reasons Why? And it was astounding and astonishing. I would say out of the 18 kids that I spoke to, only one of them was not watching it. And that was because his parents didn't allow him to. If his parents allowed him to, he would have watched it anyways.
Then I asked those of you that are watching it, how many of you are watching it with your parents or with an elder? None of them were watching it with a parent or an elder. They were all watching it by themselves. How old was the youngest person in this group? Nine years old.
And I thought to myself, what is going on? Why is it that as a Muslim community, if we want to have awareness on suicide and discuss the issue of suicide, we have to go through such a graphic and gory process? So I said to myself, you know what? The first step of talking about something is increasing yourself in knowledge.
So I went online and I looked up suicide prevention. And it turns out that we actually have a center for prevention of suicide here in Calgary. So you go to their website and they actually have multiple certifications that you can do. So I went and I got one of the certifications in March on ASIST on how to assist people in preventing suicide, in intervening in suicide. So if someone is actually suicidal, how can you actively help them?
And since then I wanted to discuss this issue. And it was purely the Qadar of Allah that time and time again something would always come up that didn't allow me to do it. But two things happened:
One was a tweet by the Qadar of Allah that said, you know what? This is something that has to be done. And that was when someone that I know actually committed suicide last year. This person was a non-Muslim, but
they committed suicide. But some of her family members reached out. And it was a very traumatizing experience because we always think that it's not going to happen to someone that I know. It can't happen to someone that I've met. And it's a very traumatizing experience to think of: Is there anything I could have done differently to save them? Did they give me any clues, any signs that I missed that perhaps just completely slipped my mind? And you think about this till the natural human experience is that Alhamdulillah, we tend to forget and we tend to get busy with other things. So we're not constantly bogged down by this. But it's a very sad reality when you know someone that this happens to.
And then number two, for those of you that are really active on social media, there was a huge uproar this very past week about a person who was very insensitive. They were in Japan and there's this particular forest that is known as the suicide forest where people go to commit suicide. And this person was extremely insensitive towards it. And that became another uproar.
So Alhamdulillah it worked out that this was the time that Allah had decreed to talk about this.
Suicide Statistics in Alberta and Canada
Now what is the scope of our discussion? The scope of our discussion I want to start out by talking about statistics. That how big of an issue is this actually for people? And who are the people that are most affected by it?
Alberta Statistics (2014)
• Population of Alberta: 4,146,000
• Number of suicides: 547
• Percentage of suicides that go unreported: 5-25%
• People showing suicidal behavior: 40 to 100 times greater than the number of suicides (approximately 21,800 to 54,700 people)
• People with suicidal thoughts: 5% of population (approximately 207,300 people)
When I heard this statistic, the very first thing that came to my mind is if these people are committing suicide, how come we're not hearing about it? Like how many times on the news do you actually hear that such and such person committed suicide? It's not very often. And there's actually a big reason behind that that we'll be talking about later on.
Now I want you to imagine if in this Masalah right now, we are 100 people. Actually more than 100 people, let's just say 150 people. What does 5% of that look like? Roughly around 8 people. That means around 8 people in this Masalah potentially have had suicidal thoughts. What does that look like practically? In a group of 10, that's you know, a large number of like 1 person is thinking about it almost. So that's something to be very cautious of.
Alberta Statistics (2012-2016)
• Total suicides: 2,796
Canada-wide Statistics
• On average given year: Around 4,000 Canadians die by suicide
Age Demographics
• Most susceptible age range: 15 to 34 years old
• Second highest age range: 75 and older
• Children (ages 10-14) in Alberta from 2012-2016: 25 cases
Why Minorities and Marginalized Communities Are More Susceptible
Statistics are coming out now that those are actual minorities and those that face stigma and marginalization are actually more susceptible to dying by suicide. If you go to the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention website, they actually have a small paragraph that I wanted to share with you:
"Within the Canadian population, the unique conditions resulting from marginalization, institutionalized trauma, colonialism, structural violence, racism and prejudice are more likely to have higher rates of suicide-related behaviors."
And as we know, the Muslim community has been on the short end of the stick when it comes to those issues. So it's a very important issue to raise awareness of in the Muslim community.
Why Do People Choose Suicide?
There's no given statistic that can be shown that this is why people choose to die from suicide. Is it depression? In some cases yes. But statistics show the opposite as well. That 85-98% of people that are diagnosed with depression don't actually die from suicide. So depression is not always the case.
One of the bigger things that people have seen is:
• Lack of purpose - People no longer understand what their purpose in life is anymore. And that emptiness fills them inside, just completely takes over their lives.
• Overwhelming feelings of hopelessness and despair and helplessness
• Hopelessness: The situation that they're in, the difficulty that they're in, they don't see the light at the end of the tunnel
• Despair: They've completely given up, that no matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, there's nothing that is going to change my circumstance
• Helplessness: They can't help themselves, and likewise they don't feel that anyone else can help them either
How Does Islam Approach Suicide?
Now how does this tie in to Iman? Can we say that someone that has Iman will not think about suicide? I actually don't think that's a very fair assessment to make. I do not believe it's a fair assessment to make to tie this in to an issue of Iman. In fact, thinking and contemplating about suicide has very little to do with Iman. A person can have very good Tawheed, can have very high belief in Allah, but sometimes, we're all susceptible to the traps of Shaitaan. Shaitaan gets the best of us.
To make those accusations that hey, someone who dies of suicide has weak Iman, that's not for us to judge, and actually it creates a further stigma. This is not a statement that should be said.
The Islamic Ruling on Suicide
Ayah from the Quran: Allah says:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَغْفِرُ أَن يُشْرَكَ بِهِ وَيَغْفِرُ مَا دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ لِمَن يَشَاءُ
"Indeed Allah does not forgive that shirk should be committed with Him, but forgives anything else other than that"
Hadith 1: "Whoever throws himself down from a mountain and kills himself will be throwing himself down in the hellfire forever and ever. Whoever drinks poison and kills himself will be sipping it in the hellfire forever and ever. Whoever kills himself with a piece of iron will have that iron in his hand thrusting it into his belly in the fire of hell forever and ever." (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)
Hadith 2: "A man amongst those who came before you was wounded. He panicked and took a knife and cut his hand, and the bleeding did not stop until he died. Allah said: My slave hastened his death so I have forbidden paradise for him." (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)
How Do We Reconcile These?
What a lot of scholars have commented on this is that if a person died by suicide while having Iman in Allah and didn't have a belief that negated his belief in Allah, then this person has committed a major sin and still has hope for Jannah eventually. He is under the mashia (will) of Allah.
These hadith in particular that talk about paradise being forbidden or talk about being in the hellfire forever - this means that they had this belief, this point of aqeedah that was negated first. And then they committed the act of suicide.
So what would be like a point of aqeedah that would nullify their faith in Allah? So if they came to the conclusion that Allah can never forgive me, then that is a point of aqeedah that can nullify your faith. Or that Allah can never show mercy to me, I am too sinful - then that is a point of aqeedah that could nullify your faith.
Dealing with the Family
For dealing with a family of someone who died by suicide, you have to be very, very sensitive towards people. Before a person might be thinking about suicide, share these hadith. After the fact, with the family, inspire hope into those people.
At that time, it is a very, very bad decision to bring up these hadith to them. At that time you just mentioned the ayah to them that Allah has told us that He forgives everything except for shirk. And because we have no proof of anything other than that, Allah will forgive him. Continue to seek forgiveness for him.
Islamic Funeral Practices
Some fiqh opinions say that this person should not be buried with the Muslims and should not have their janazah prayed. Where are they coming from? They are coming from the perspective of this hadith. But from our experience, that because we have nothing to prove that their aqeedah changed, we remain upon the original foundation. Right? So what that means is that as long as we know them to be Muslim, we treat them like a Muslim. We treat them like a Muslim. The janazah should be prayed, the body should be washed. They should be buried amongst the Muslims.
Warning Signs and Intervention
What Do We Do If We Know Someone Is Suicidal?
This is perhaps one of the scariest things - that you know someone is suicidal and you have a fear that I don't want to get involved because what if I say something or do something that actually leads them to suicide? So there is that fear that people will have that hey if I get involved, this might actually make situations worse. So let me not get involved.
But this ties into - for those of you that watch basketball - Michael Jordan had that famous quote that you will miss 100% of the shots that you never take. You will miss 100% of the shots that you never take. So it is a bigger mistake to not get involved than it is to get involved and not to do anything about it.
Behavioral Signs to Look For
1. Direct statements - If someone actually says that hey I am thinking about suicide. That is the biggest flag right over there.
2. Someone completely distraught - If you are in the middle of a hallway at a building and they are just completely broken down crying their eyes out. Most human beings will just walk by and just ignore this person because we want to think, let me mind my own business. I don't want anyone interfering in my business, let me not interfere in theirs. But if you learn anything from this seminar is that you should go out
of your way. You see someone crying, stop your car if you have to on the side of the road to go and ask them if everything is okay. Because a lot of the times they just need to feel and see that someone cares about them.
3. Selling all their belongings - If all of a sudden someone says you know what, I am selling all of my stuff. Someone comes up to you, hey I have a large collection of lectures or a large collection of books or my furniture. I want to get rid of all of it. Do you know anyone that wants to buy it? Rather than you thinking hey this is an amazing deal, let me buy it for $100 or whatever they are selling it for, ask them why are you doing this? And if you get language like, oh I don't think I need all of this stuff anymore, pry even further. These are all telling signs that you need to get involved even further.
4. Subliminal messaging - "Oh I have lost all hope." This is something that we hear. This is a very telling sign that this person needs to talk, needs someone to talk to, needs some help.
The Pathway for Assisting Life
The Suicide Prevention Center in Calgary has this very nice pamphlet. They have a plan called Pathway for Assisting Life and they have broken down intervention into three main sections. And each of these three sections is divided into two further sections, meaning that there are six steps that you need to take at all times.
Part 1: Connecting with Suicide
Step 1: Look for Invitations Has this person given you any invitations to talk about suicide? So any of the things that I mentioned previously, those are considered invitations. You see any of those invitations, get involved right away. Start talking to them, start engaging them.
Step 2: Ask the Direct Question Now this leads us to step number two in part one which is asking them the straight forward question: "Are you thinking about suicide?" When we did this as a class activity in our training, this was perhaps the most difficult thing - looking someone in the eye and asking them are you suicidal? Are you thinking about suicide?
Because as human beings we don't like to accuse someone of something right? Because there is such a stigma of suicide, people are like why would I be thinking about suicide? Are you crazy, why are you accusing me of suicide? That's the way we perceive things, we don't want people to react towards that.
But it always goes back to the fundamental question that yes as awkward as it is, what is going to be the greater calamity, the fact that you are wrong or the fact that you did nothing about it? The greater calamity will always be the fact that you did nothing about it. Because you will think much later on as you find this out that perhaps this person died by suicide and you had an opportunity to intervene but you didn't. So you have to get over that shyness.
Part 2: Understanding Choices
Step 3: Understanding Their Story By this time you want to get to the phase of understanding their story.
Simple questions like: Hey why are things so tough for you? I'm here to listen to what you have to say. Simple questions like that. So you get them to talk.
And this is something that you have to understand - that people that have demonstrated suicidal behavior, they actually want to open up. That's what they're looking for. Someone to open up to. So use whatever technique you know best, whatever technique you know how to create conversation.
So that starts off by creating a comfortable space. So if you're in the middle of a very crowded place, tell them hey let's go for coffee and sit down, let me treat you to some coffee or to something to drink and let's sit and talk. And then you start telling them a little bit about yourself. Very little that my name is Navaid Aziz and I'm an imam in the community. Why don't you tell me who you are? People like to reciprocate information. They like to feel safe, they like to know who they're dealing with. And then you get into more difficult and more deeper questions.
One of the bigger mistakes that you'll make over here, particularly for those of us that are more talkative, is that you start talking about yourself more. You start talking about your own problems. Oh I had such a bad day today. My wife did this, my children did that. School was terrible. And this person is like I thought we were here to talk about me. And they'll feel even more betrayed at that time. So you have to make sure that that tendency that you have to share your own problems, you pull it back. Let them talk, give them an opportunity to share. Give them an opportunity to talk.
Step 4: Help Them Find a Turning Point So as they're sharing their story, start to understand why they're going through this difficult phase. What is it that is so difficult? And then help them find a turning point. So don't throw solutions at them. Don't tell them that hey this is what you should do and it will solve your problems. But rather when you're helping them find a solution, you're going to be asking questions. Hey do you think you could have done this? Do you think that this is a better possibility? Do you think that this is a better solution? Help them navigate through their problems. Help them navigate through their problems.
At this point you also want to inspire them with optimism. All the things that they have to live for. All the things that are absolutely amazing in their lives. And you'll notice that each and every person has something to be extremely grateful for. The fact that they have good health. The fact that they have good eyesight. The fact that they have family. The fact that they live in Canada. The fact that they have the ability to go to school. The fact that they have the ability to healthcare. These are all simple things that again as human beings we take for granted. But when you compare it to the rest of the world, when you compare it to the vast majority of people, you realize that we are truly ungrateful. So you have to inspire them with optimism and remind them of all the things that they have to be grateful for.
Part 3: Assisting Life
Step 5: Coming Up with a Safe Plan Hey for the next 24 hours, how are we going to make sure that you stay safe? How are we going to ensure that everything is going to be okay? Is there a family member that we can put
you in touch with that I can take you to? Is there a friend that I can connect you with that you feel comfortable confiding in and that will spend the next 24 hours with you?
Because the next 24 hours are in fact the most crucial. People that have no one will usually be institutionalized into the hospital. They will be under suicide watch at that time. But rather than taking them to the hospital and saying hey we want to put you under suicide watch, people don't want to be in that situation. So you make things easier that hey is there a family member that we can take you to? Is there a friend that I can connect you with?
Step 6: Long-term Solution And then once you've come out with a 24 hour plan, the next thing you need to do is okay what is the long term solution? And this is where that member that they connect you with, either a friend or a family member, then at that time you talk about okay is there a psychologist in the community that we can connect you to? Or can we take you to the distress center? Or can we take you to the suicide prevention center? You know where can we go? What is the long term solution?
And then once you've laid out that long term solution, let them figure it out and you can withdraw yourself from that situation. If they call you back that's great. If they don't then Alhamdulillah at least you know you've done the absolute minimum.
How Islam Promotes Good Mental Health
1. The Power of Dua
The benefit of dua comes down into two things:
Number one: You have someone to speak to. As Muslims we understand that not everyone that we speak to has to be in front of us, does not have to be a human being. We can speak directly to our Creator. That is what dua is all about.
Particularly when it comes to our difficulties, Allah tells us through the example of Yaqub (AS):
"I only complain of my suffering and my grief to Allah, and I know from Allah that which you do not know." (Quran 12:86)
Number two: How dua inspires optimism in people. The Prophet ﷺ was telling his companions that all of your duas are answered in one of three ways:
1. Either you get what you want when you want it
2. Or you get it at a time where it is delayed and it is better for you to receive it
3. Or what you're asking for is in fact not good for you, so instead Allah averts an equal amount of evil from your life and replaces it with much much more reward in the hereafter
The sahabah when they heard this they said if this is the case, we will increase in the dua that we make. And the Prophet concludes the hadith by saying that Allah has even more to give. The more you ask of Allah, the
more Allah will give you.
My dear brothers and sisters, look throughout the Quran. Look at the story of any Prophet and the difficulty that they went through. Do we ever have a time where Allah said you know what, let's just leave them alone? Let them be?
• Ibrahim (AS) thrown into the fire - Allah made the fire cool
• Yunus (AS) in the bottom of the ocean in the belly of a whale - No one can hear him other than Allah. Allah found a way to get him expelled from the whale
• Musa (AS) has Bani Israel with him, has the army of Firaun behind him, and has the water and sea in front of him - Allah split the sea
There's not a moment in history where a slave of Allah has called out to Allah in sincerity, in desperation, except that Allah always gave them greater than what they asked for.
2. The Sense of Community
You know one of the things that we don't take seriously enough in our day and age is praying in the masjid. Praying in the masjid, particularly in your given community. Why is that a huge issue? Because if you're consistently praying in the masjid, the one day that you don't show up, people will actually wonder. Hey where did this guy go? We see him for every salah but they're not there. Right? Or you show up to the masjid one day and you have tears in your eyes. Someone will ask you, is everything okay? Is there anything I can do to help?
This concept of the masjid being the central social point of the Muslim community cannot be emphasized enough. But what needs to exist at the same time is the mentality of the people that are attending the masjid. The mentality of the people that are attending the masjid has to be of one of a brother and a sister in Islam. That you treat everyone in the masjid better than the way you want to be treated. Not equal, treat them better.
So if you see someone distraught, ask them, is there something I can help you with? You see someone struggling with something, ask them, is there something that you need help with? Go out of your way to ask them, how is your day? Is everything okay? Just generally ask them. Give people an opportunity to speak and be genuine in that.
3. The Purpose Allah Has Defined for Us
And this concept of finding purpose is such a strong psychological attribute, because you'll notice not only does it prevent suicide but for those of you that have even looked into the issue of radicalization, people become radicalized because they stop finding purpose. One of the reasons behind that. So when you help someone find purpose, you're actually helping them and preventing them from becoming susceptible to a lot of vulnerabilities. And that's what we want to try to do.
As Muslims it is very very important to be grateful for this, the fact that Allah defined for us our purpose. He tells us:
| وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ "I have not created mankind and the jinn except to worship Me" (Quran 51:56(
So our purpose of creation has been defined for us. And you'll notice that those that are not Muslim will spend their whole entire lives trying to figure out what is my purpose? Why am I on this earth? And it's amazing that subhanAllah that even though Muslims know their purpose on earth, we tend to forget it. We tend to become deluded. We tend to become again, just trapped by Shaitan, caught up in the web of the dunya, not fulfilling it.
Those that don't have it are literally dying because they don't have it. And those that have it, take it for granted. And I think that is the human plight. That you know, whatever we have as human beings, we always take it for granted. And one of the things I'm hoping that we can leave with tonight is a feeling of gratitude that Allah made one of the most important questions of our lives - Why do I exist? so simply answered for us. That we were created to worship Allah.
4. The Salah
When you look at the way the Prophet ﷺ approached the salah - (أَرِحْنَا بِهَا يَا بِلال - arihna biha ya Bilal) "Give us comfort with it, O Bilal." The salah was a comfort to Allah's Messenger.
But why is it a comfort? Because the salah is there to remind you that you are a slave of Allah. And we already spoke about the generous nature of Allah and how caring Allah is. But the salah also reminds you that you're not just alive for this life. You're praying because you believe in a greater afterlife. You're praying because you believe in a jannah and a jahannam. And that you want to get to jannah. And jannah is this amazing place where people do not have stress. They do not have worries. They do not have anxiety. Everyone is happy. So things might not be good now but they definitely will be later on. And the salah reminds us of that.
The third thing the salah gives us an opportunity of is to completely disconnect from our problems. You completely disconnect from what is going on in your life to answer the call of Allah. And when you make Allah a priority in your life, when you make the akhira a priority in your life, the messenger of Allah tells us that Allah will rectify not only the affairs of their akhira but will rectify the affairs of their dunya as well.
Answers to Opening Questions
1. Do people always leave notes when they die by suicide?
• Statistics show that only 12-15% of people will actually leave notes before dying by suicide.
2. People who talk about suicide should not be taken seriously.
• This myth stems from the fact that people think that hey if they are going to commit suicide, they would have done it already. And the reality is, no that's not the case. People want to stay alive. People want to believe in life. But sometimes they lose perspective. So if someone is speaking about it, they've given you an amanah. They've given you a trust to hold them by the hand and bring them back to being hopeful. So not everyone that talks about suicide shouldn't be taken seriously. In fact, any hints you get, take them very seriously.
3. Children do not die by suicide.
• We clearly proved that wrong. 10 to 14 in Alberta alone, we had 25 cases from 2012 to 2016.
Why the Media Doesn't Report on Suicide
There's one question left unanswered that I want to address as well, which was: Why is it that the news does not talk about suicide? And why is it that they don't report that such and such person died by suicide?
Because what statistics actually show is that when you show people that have died by suicide, it actually enables people. So coming back to the show that I was talking about, 13 Reasons Why, that was one of the fears that psychologists had. That if you show a successful suicide - and there's no such thing as a successful suicide - if you show someone dying by suicide, then you're actually enabling people. And that's what actually happened. We had a young girl in Georgia that went out to Facebook Live and wanted to show her suicide to everyone. And then we had other people across the world trying to replicate this format of creating tapes and telling people why they're dying by suicide. And people wanted to be empowered and enabled.
So that is why celebrities that choose suicide, that usually isn't publicized. And that's because it empowers and enables people. So you take it away from the limelight. However, statistics also show that the more you educate people on suicide, the more you talk about suicide, the less likely they are to choose that as an option. And that is why this is a discussion that needs to take place in all schools, in all major workplaces, and even in families.
Important Contact Information
If you know someone contemplating suicide in Calgary:
• Call 2-1-1 - Takes them directly to the prevention hotline and the Center for Distress
Website for more information:
• Suicideinfo.ca - All literature is available for free download
Final Thoughts
We have to be people that are helpful, we have to be people that inspire hope in people, and we have to be people that help people find their purpose.
(سُبْحَانَكَ اللَّهُمَّ وَبِحَمْدِكَ أَشْهَدُ أَن لَّا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ أَسْتَغْفِرُكَ وَأَتُوبُ إِلَيْكَ - Subhanaka Allahumma wa bihamdika ash-hadu an la ilaha illa anta astaghfiruka wa atubu ilayk)