What if you accidentally.............?

Question

1) Killed someone

2) Caused an injury to someone and they left with a life threatening condition/ serious illness i.e. brain damage.

How would you live with yourself, what would you do? From a religious perspective, what does your religion say about this?

For everyone assuming that it happened to me, it hasn't thankfully, im just asking to find out!

Answer 1

As salaamu 'alaikym, my friend.
Insha'Allah, the answer would depend upon the circumstances and one's intention involved in the activity that lead to the accidental death of another.
Insha'Allah, if it were truly an accident, with no intention to harm another and all necessary precautions had been taken so as to attempt to prevent such, one would be without sin. However, one might still be morally obligated to ensure that the indivudal was buried in the proper manner according to the deceased individual's personal religious practices. etc. One would want, insha'Allah, to help the deceased's family especially if the deceased was the main provider for the family.
The same, insha'Allah, would seem to apply to someone who was serioiusly injured. Was the harm caused deliberately or was it an accident? If done deliberately, then restitution to the family would be involved according to the teachings and revelations of the Holy Qur'an and the teachings of the Prophet, peace be upon him. Even if done by accident, one might feel and be morally obligated as was previously mentioned to assist the indivudal and his/her family.
Insha'Allah, one would also make dua for the injured peson and his/her family (or the deceased person...) petitioning Allah Subhanna wa Ta'ala for His Mercy and Compassion for both the injured/deceased and for one's self.
It is similar to the concepts taught in Buddhism (which is a moral philosophy and not a religion, and whose ethics and principles are easily applied to all persons in a metaphysical manner). Buddhism teaches that there are no accidents. When one practices counscious awareness, one chooses to do what one does and one must accept the consequences of said actions (karma). This would also apply to the individual who was injured. Knowingly or unknowingly, he/she placed his/herself in the position to be injured. Also in Buddhism, the one injured would not be "other" but, as we are all created from the same second generation star material and the individual does not exist, in the "being/non-being" understanding, the one injured is one's self. As one would take care of one's self, so one would take care of the "other self" who was injured or the family of the deceased.
Again, how one would live with one's self after such events would vary due to the circumstances and one's religious perspective.
Insha'Allah, we are taught by the Holy Qur'an and by the Prophet, peace be upon him, that to kill a single person deliberately is to kill all of humanity, with the exception being killing another in self defense or in the defense of another. Such would be a heavy burden, emotionaly, psychologically, morally, ethically and spiritualy to carry. Allah Subhanna wa Ta'ala alone would know why such was His Will. As a Muslim, one could only submit to His Will and seek to live as a righteous individual, humbly serving Allah Subhanna wa Ta'ala.
As a Buddhist, such would be seeds for growth and contemplation that, one might think, would be carried out through the remainder of one's life (i.e., this life time for a Buddhist as the belief in "reincarnation" is a generally accepted principle, which can take on many forms and meanings. Such is another discussion, however.) It would also be one's karma, effecting this life and any lives that were to come. One would necessarily have to "live out" the consequences.
As a Christian and as a Jew, attonement would be called far as well as seeking the mercy and forgiveness of YHWH, or the Trintiy through the Prophet known to Christians as the Messiah, Jesus Christ, or Essa, peace be upon him.)
Zorasters and Janes would have a similar out look as that of the Muslims, Jews and Christians. HIndus would have a view similar to that of the Buddhist, as would Shinto and Cionfusians and Taoist.
I hope that I have helped to provide you with an answer that is at least informational and which will help you discern you own responses with an understanding of the same. Anything that I may have said which is proven to be true and worthwhile comes from Allah Subhanna wa Ta'ala. All the mistakes I may have made are my own and I pray that Allah Subhanna wa Ta'ala will forgive me.
Ma'a salaam.

Answer 2

My religion promises forgiveness even of intentional evils. However, I think I would have a seriously hard time forgiving myself even though I know God forgives.
For example, when I was a child, a kid jumped out from behind a bush and jumped in front of our car. My Dad slammed on the brakes but we hit him anyway. It was so awful for our whole family, although there was no way we could have avoided the accident, it was the boy's fault and we were going the speed limit. Thank God the boy ended up being okay, but I could not get out of bed after that for a long time I was so stressed and feeling so guilty...although not my fault or my Dad's fault at all.
It is a terrible emotional drain, I think counselling would be a good idea.

Answer 3

Ask God for forgiveness, then forgive yourself. Unless you are an assassin or evil, no one is going to purposefully hurt or injure another human being without thought of consequence. Wars are fought, people are killed everyday through struggle of territory or humanity, trying to save others. We, as a race of people that inhabit the world, can do some pretty awful things to each other, but all in all, if you have hurt another human being and feel remorse, you will be forgiven.

Answer 4

Prophet Mosa (Moses, pbuh) once while defending a man of his tribe accidentally hit the opponen and he instantly died. Moses asked Allah for forgiveness and Allah forgave him. But Pharoh took it as a murder and for this Moses had to leave Egypt for a long time.

Accidents shouldn't be happening. Suppose if it happens one is accountable. To forgive is what my religion teach, but still the one who got injury has the right to ask for his losses.

Suppose if something bad happens from my part, even if the other one forgive I will have long sleepless nights.
If the other person injures me, I may forget the injury; but if I injure someone I will always remember.
Thanks to Allah, nothing ever happened in my life of such a case.

Answer 5

.....I've never heard of a religion that condemned someone for an accident.

Bad things happen in life, but you can't let them ruin the rest of your life. Yes, you were responsible, but there was no intent. You have to accept responsibility and accountability, grieve the loss, learn from it, forgive yourself, resolve to live well going forward and move on. If you find you can't do this on your own, a counselor can help.

Answer 6

If it was an accident, I would pray for forgiveness and do whatever I could to help the family of the victim. I beleive that God is an all forgiving, loving God and if we ask for forgiveness for an accident, we will be forgiven and given the strength to go on. I think it would take a long, long time for me to be able to forgive myself though.

Answer 7

Hi Honey!
In islam as you already probably know, you are judged by your intentions so I don't think you would be punished for causing someone harm if you didn't mean to. Accidents happen all the time, humans are not perfect. (and Allah knows best).

Answer 8

Killing is killing only even if it is by mistake or not but it can be forgiven but still it will be a sin. For e.g. if ur enemy tries insulting you when ur drunk n u get too angry n go stab him n he dies eventhough it is accidently coz ur not in ur senses but still u killed him. but if it entirely by mistake then i guess it will be taken as a venial sin.

Answer 9

I would attempt to make it up to his family. I would ask forgiveness and try to divide my income so that a portion of it would go to them.

Answer 10

1) it wouldnt have been an accident. 2) prob feel guilty. im not religious just violent