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Is a patient with chronic schizophrenia held accountable and liable, and how can they cope with their illness, and is it permissible for them to end their life due to the difficulty of the chronic illness?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Accountability is contingent upon the presence of intellect. Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that renders its sufferer akin to an insane person, and thus they are not considered accountable, based on the hadith: "The pen has been lifted from three," and it mentioned among them, "and from the insane person until he regains his sanity." Suicide is not permissible in Islamic law, and it is not permissible to assist someone in committing suicide. However, if a person afflicted with schizophrenia commits suicide while in a state of insanity, they will not be held accountable, due to the removal of accountability from them.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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