The problem of evil

Express Tribune

4 days ago

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If God is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent, how does He allow the existence of 'evil', such as suffering, natural disaster, sin or immorality. This question has challenged theologians and philosophers through the ages.
A classic example is of a baby deer burning in a forest fire, and the question why God did not save it. This is like putting God in man's shoes. The question is, are the life and working of a creator-engineer and the washing machine he creates same? Can a constructed robot designed to follow a code of conduct demand the same code from the scientists who made it.
Certainly, God is capable of creating many worlds free from all evil, corruption, hurt; His own abode and the Heavens He has promised the good-doers are such worlds. But this present world, of the Earthly life and the Universe that bounds it, is specially designed as a 'test' for humanity.
Though it may seem to be boundless in time and space, it is really a speck in God creative space. And it is evident that this design has elements of construction and destruction, of life and death, of systems within systems within systems. And inevitably it has elements of good and evil so that humans may choose between them with their freewill.
The Quran says, "We will surely test you with things of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient" Al-Baqarah (2:155). So, for those who have goodness in their hearts, hardships, pain and loss will push them towards the better choices like of patience, perseverance, sacrifice, altruism, and trust in the greater good.
Therefore, man is not in a position to question the morality of God, because He is in a fundamentally different and unknowable matrix: "Vision perceives Him not, but He perceives the visions; and He is the Intricate-Knower" Al-Anaam (6:106). Therefore, regarding the baby deer burning in a forest fire, only Allah knows what matter belies between Him and the fawn and how He saves it from undue pain; we are not in a position to ask.
On the other hand, whatever immorality is committed by humans resonates in his/her own life, in his/her community and their generations. Every human act has repercussions. So, the Quran says, "Whatever affliction befalls you is because of what your own hands have committed. And He pardons much" Ash-Shura (42:30). An-Nisa (4:79) further clarifies this by saying, "Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself." Human perception is finite and prone to misjudgment in the face of Divine Wisdom, Who does not deny justice but has deferred ultimate justice for the final day of judgment.
In Asrar-e-Khudi, poem 5, titled 'Dar Biyan Aynke Asal Nizam-e-Alam Az Khudi Ast', Iqbal elaborates that God is the beholder of the ultimate and absolute khudi (ego), and the material world is the remains of the secret doings of the ultimate khudi. Khudi creates the 'other' or 'evil', to realise itself and its goodness.
Evil emerges from His creative power only so that He can crush it down. As in Al-Anfal (8:8), "that He may make-true Truth and falsify Falsehood, distasteful though it be to the criminals." Iqbal says that the design of the universe is extravagant and so much goes through the stages of destruction for the creation of new beginnings and new meanings. And only with the duality of opposing realities is created the copious mural of being and becoming; of self-realisation and self-actualisation; of challenge, agency and action.
The Quran also gives a hint of evil as being part of the grand design of God's creative power, when it talks of the Tree of Zaqqum, "For We have truly made it a trial for the wrong-doers. Lo! it is a tree that springs in the heart of hell" As-Saaffat (37:63, 64). And is it possible that it is the same tree that was given an opening in the garden where Adam and Eve were stationed and of which God had ordained Adam not to come close to nor taste of it, yet if Adam would not have tasted from the evil tree, the story of mankind would not have begun.
The purpose of life on Earth would not have commenced, there would be no test, no trial, no tribulation. And mankind would not have been shifted through the sieve that would separate the vain from the humble; the self-loving desirous from the oft-giving altruist; the gluttonous genocide-approvers from the planet-friendly saviors of humanity; the lovers of corruption and malice from the lovers of goodness and piety. Nor would humanity be able to actualise its love or hate for the Creator and source of all goodness, God!
Therefore, instead of judging God, upon the seemingly present physical evil, for which there may be justification hidden to us for reasons, humanity should concentrate upon moral evil of which it may itself be guilty of. And if humanity would indeed believe truly upon God and tread the good path He has identified for us, perhaps then He would defer the present 'evil' and ordain for the present world only copious growth and prosperity, like He promised the people through Noah and said, "I ask you to seek forgiveness from your Lord, He is the oft-forgiving. He will send rain to you in abundance. And will aid you with wealth and sons, and will make for you gardens and make for you rivers" Noah (71;12). And even though Noah remained among his people for 'a thousand less fifty years' Al-Ankabut (29: 14) before the flood came, they ridiculed him, scolded him and plotted against him, and in place of the love of God, they said " forsake not Wadd, nor Suwa', nor Yaghuth and Ya'uq and Nasr" (71:23).
So, evil is not in the heart of God, it is in the heart of hell; only the hearts of humanity do not shudder of its very thought, rather humanity embraces it in its hearts, in place of the love of God.
"He will not be questioned as to that which He doeth, but they will be questioned" Al-Anbiya (21:23).