Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- A Muslim should never desire death because he is plagued with some ills or disability.
2- You should make the best benefit of your leisure time and spend it in lawful and beneficial activities.
Elaborating on this subject, the prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh `Abdul-Bari Az-Zamzami, A Member of the Moroccan Scholar’s Association, states:
A Muslim should always feel happy because he has been bestowed with the blessing of Islam and iman (faith). Being deprived from some blessings or plagued with disability or defects should never be thought of as a form of punishment.
On the contrary, disability should be understood as a means to gain more reward and to get closer to Allah. The Prophet said:“Whatever befalls a believer of illness or fatigue, even if it was a thorn that sticks in his foot, Allah will make it a removal of his sins.” (Al-Bukhari)
A believer should have ceaseless hope and trust in Allah. A true believer is characterized by showing patience and satisfaction with what Allah has decreed for him or her.
Almighty Allah says:
{Lo! man was created anxious, fretful when evil befalls him. And, when good befalls him, grudging.} (Al-Ma`arij 70: 19-21)
Death Wish
A Muslim should never desire death because he is plagued with some ills or disability. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Let none of you desire death because of something bad that has befallen him. If he is really pressed to do so, let him say, ‘O Allah! Grant me life so long as life is good for me and take me in death if death is better for me.'” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
You are not the only one who is unable to marry. There are great numbers of people who exceed forty years and even approach fifty and are unable to marry. They are healthy enough to marry but many other hindrances make it nearly impossible.
You should make the best benefit of your leisure time and spend it in lawful and beneficial activities like reading and listening [to lectures] and gaining more knowledge, and be sure that Allah will reward you abundantly for every activity and will grant you more reward for being patient.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.