Suicide Footage(s)

Few days ago, my senior at the hospital sent a video in forensic pathology group. The video showed a guy, who sat at the edge of a highway and seemed distraught. Meanwhile, few online ojek drivers ran under the highway, waving their hands and some of them made cross sign with both arms. The man was trying to kill himself, while the ojek drivers along with the person who recorded the incidence  yelled at him. 

"Bro! Stop! Don't!!" 

"Istighfar!! (asked for Allah's forgivenes)" 

The guy ended up not jumping ... thank God for that. All the persuation of online ojek drivers worked wonders. Turned out, he was depressed because his girlfriend broke up with him. The police quickly helped him as soon as he decided not to jump. 

Despite the situation, I felt warmth in my heart seeing the people's reactions. They didn't know the guy and yet they still wanted to help him. It reminded me of an old man in Australia called Don Ritchie, who just passed away. People called him Australian Angel, because he often stopped people who wanted to jump off the cliff on The Gap by offering them a visit to his house for a cup of tea or beer. 

Every morning, he always scanned the cliff from his house windows. If he saw someone who seemed suspiciously stood too close to the edge, he rushed off to approach them. To think, what's in it for him? Some of his efforts nearly cost him his life. When he was stopping a woman from jumping, he almost fell with her as well. 

"You can't just sit there and watch them," says Ritchie. "You gotta try and save them. It's pretty simple." 

Those kind of people were such a contrast with another suicide footage video I saw the other day. It was a video from Lampung, where a guy who also broke up with his girlfriend stood at the edge of Trans Mart building. The one who recorded it said, "come on now ... jump! Jump!" as if it's a game. Then when he actually jumped, she screamed in fear. When the news were out, many judgemental and hurtful comments were typed on the comment coloumn. Comments such as "Good riddance.", and "Idiot." were some of the comments without hurtful swear words in it. 

Many people think suicide as selfish act, as if people who tried to do it were doing it just to hurt the others. They didn't realize how much pain those people had been through. They didn't want to die. They just wanted the pain to stop. Their minds couldn't think clearly because of the pain they felt. At that time, the 'fight or flee' part of the mind took control and because they were too tired to fight, they tried to flee. 

We cannot judge people who tried to kill themselves. I'm not an expert in psychology or psychiatry... but I agree with Mr. Don Ritchie in this. It's pretty simple. We cannot just sit there and watch people suffer. We got to try and save them. We didn't have to give them lengthy-motivator talks. Sometimes we just offer them something to drink and listen to their problems, that's what they need the most. After all, what is it for us if we mock or judge them? Or worse, encouraging them to take their own lives?

Being hateful and mean towards people who are in trouble would not take you anywhere. Sabotaging other people's life will not make it easier for you to enter Heaven - if you are a believer. I believe that The Kind and Merciful Allah - Whom I believe in - is not like the mean boss in the office who loved to see his employees fighting each other in order to get reward. He owns every single thing, both that could be seen and not. He did not need us to fight each other because we wanted to be the best in His eyes. Allah is too merciful for that. 

Him, The Creator, has kindness that no one would ever imagine. Small kindness would lead us closer to Him. He loved every single soul as His. Regarding His kindness (that is beyond human's mind), He wanted us to love one another. Thus, the humanity. Do kindness as our effort to love The Kind and Merciful Allah back, as well as for our brothers and sisters in this world. If you're not a believer, then do it for humanity. 

After all, the world is a temporary place for us. Despite believing in afterlife or not, why don't we make the best of it by being kind to each other?