Casablanca- According to a Fatwa (a legal pronouncement in Islam) recently issued by the Emirati Commission for Fatwa and Islamic Affairs, going to Mars with the intention to spend the rest of one’s life there is forbidden in Islam.
The Emirati Commission for Fatwa and Islamic Affairs recently issued a Fatwa that has stirred a controversy in the Islamic World. According to this Fatwa, going to Mars is analogous to suicide, which is an act strictly forbidden in Islam.
“Going to Mars without return seriously puts one’s life at risk,” news website Kahleejitimes.com quoted the Emirati Commission as saying.
“There, you are more vulnerable and are more likely to die at any given moment,” the Commission added.
According to the Commission, those who have opted for such a “dangerous” experience are willing to die for a religiously “immoral” reason, and “will thus endure the same punishment in the afterlife as those who commit suicide.”
However, this Fatwa was not the first of its kind in the Islamic World. In November 2013, the Saudi Cheikh Ali El Hekmi told Al Hayat newspaper that “an expedition to the red planet transgresses the limits of human beings, whose life must not be wasted.”
The expedition El Hekmi was referring to was Mars One, a revolutionary space project that aims to establish a human settlement in Mars by 2023.
Mars One had invited volunteers to take on the challenge of an interplanetary trip and set out to live on the red planet. Many volunteers from all corners of the world have answered the call and the shortlist has already been made.
Karim El Tahiri, one of two Moroccans who applied to Mars One was selected among 202.586 candidates who had also applied via application videos on the project’s official website.