A Thought On the Founder of Islam's Suicide Attempts

"But after a few days Waraqa died and the Divine Inspiration was also paused for a while and the Prophet (ﷺ) became so sad as we have heard that he intended several times to throw himself from the tops of high mountains and every time he went up the top of a mountain in order to throw himself down, Gabriel would appear before him and say, "O Muhammad! You are indeed Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) in truth" whereupon his heart would become quiet and he would calm down and would return home. And whenever the period of the coming of the inspiration used to become long, he would do as before, but when he used to reach the top of a mountain, Gabriel would appear before him and say to him what he had said before."

https://sunnah.com/bukhari/91/1

There are Muslims who will deny that there was any suicide attempt, citing 'as we have heard'. Well, isn't all hadith something that was heard? And the Muslims who raise this objection will most likely not object to the absurd cave story that precedes it.

I can accept that there was one genuine suicide attempt, following which his subconscious conjured up 'Jibril' which dissuaded him from carrying out his plan. But we may see in his subsequent 'attempts' an attempt to have another experience in which 'Jibril' races to the rescue.

Further reading:

Muhammad's Suicide Attempts