‘My son has mental health issues’, says mother of man who set himself on fire at the Kaaba

The mother of a man who sparked global outrage as he tried to set himself on fire near the Kaaba in the Islamic holy city of Makkah over a week ago spoke to the media for the first time, addressing his struggle with mental health.“My son’s mental health deteriorated after his father died,” Umm Mohammed told the Jeddah-based Al-Madinah newspaper. According to her, Mohammed was “robbed” of his “rightful inheritance” after the death of his father, piling on more stress. The fact that he did not have a stable job at that time because he worked with his father loaded onto his responsibilities and harsh circumstances, Umm Mohammed lamented.

Read more: Man tries to set himself alight in Makkah Grand Mosque

“[Mohammed’s] relatives released a deed declaring that the inheritance will pass onto them instead of my son. This was done without his consent or consultation. I was concerned about my son and I feared he would seek revenge and harm his relatives,” she added.

She then said that she had to making a difficult decision of getting her own son jailed to prevent him from harming himself or others.

Mohammed’s history with suicide attempts

“Two years ago, my son tried to burn himself alive at the General Court as a form of protest against the court’s decision to give the properties to his relatives and not him,” Umm Mohammed explained.The situation for Mohammed and his family was especially traumatic due to the family’s already tough financial circumstances. “We live on social insurance and financial aid from charity organisations”.

For Mohammed, the inheritance was a crucial part of his survival after the trauma of losing his father and having no job.She also added that Mohammed’s record of mental illness is known, as he has an established medical history for mental health issues at Shihar Psychiatric Hospital in Taif near Makkah.After Mohammed’s attempt to set himself alight, the Makkahn Grand Mosque’s police service said that his actions suggested mental illness. However, this did not stop angry comments coming from the local, and even global, Muslim community after the news went viral.