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Symposium 16
Introduction to Divine Justice
Anwar:Salam ‘Alaykom, Akhi Hasan!
Hasan:‘Alaykom As-Salam!
Anwar:We are done discussing the qualities of the Glorious Allah, and it is time to talk about divine justice, isn’t it?
Hasan:Talking about the qualities of the Glorious Allah and monotheism can take ages to cover, but I tried to give you some simplified information so you have certain ideological knowledge. You can have further studies in this regard if you like.
Anwar:Yes, I feel I can manage the subject and interact with it easier.
Hasan:This allows us continue on our simplified ideological discussion.
Anwar:So, can we move on with the divine justice?
Hasan:Before we start with the details of justice, we need to give it a proper definition.
Justice:is to give everyone their due; this is the first definition.
Justice:is to describe the Most Exalted God with good and graceful deeds and to deem Him far above injustice and repulsiveness.“The Almighty Allah neither persecutes nor oppresses any of His creatures; He rewards dutiful people as He can punish the sinners. He neither demand His creatures to do what they cannot bear, nor does He punish them more than what they deserve”, says Sheikh Al-Muzaffar([2]) in this regard.
Anwar:Can we call “putting everything in its place” justice?
Hasan:This is closer in meaning to wisdom than justice. Putting things in their right place is what a wise person does and it is different from justice.
[2]Sheikh Al-Muzaffar (1916 – 1964 AD) was an Iraqi great Shiite scholar in Najaf, Iraq.
Anwar:I have a question regarding justice, now. Why doesn’t God persecute or oppress His creatures. Isn’t it part of His right as their Creator to do whatever He wants with them?
Hasan:It is far above the Most Exalted Allah to do any form injustice and repulsiveness. Those who do so fall into one of these categories:
They are ignorant about it, thus they do not know it's repulsive.
They are aware of it, but they have to do it as they are unable to refrain from it.
They are aware of it and they do not have to do it, but they need to do it.
They are aware of it and they neither have to do it nor do they need to do it, which implies that they do it for no reason and only for fun. All of these manners are impossible to the Glorious Allah, because He is the absolute Omniscient, the absolute Omnipotent, the absolute Wise and the absolute Rich, so He cannot be ignorant, impotent, needy or frivolous. Moreover, we have already proved that the Most Exalted Allah is the absolute perfection and so far above all these flaws.
Consequently, He cannot be unjust nor do repulsive acts.
Anwar:Well said! But I still have questions if you don’t mind.
Hasan:Of course, ask whatever you want.
Anwar:You said, ‘justice is to give everyone their due’; does that mean that we are entitled to claim certain rights from the Most Exalted Allah?
Hassan: This is an excellent scientific question, and I am pleased that you asked. The reward for the good deeds is no one's due; this is out of His mercy, because we are His creatures as we are not entitled to claim anything. However, the Glorious Allah, out of mercy and kindness, gave us this right to be in charge of our deeds and considered certain rewards for that as He put it in these Verses:
(Say: Unto whom belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and the earth? Say: Unto Allah. He hath prescribed for Himself mercy…)6;12.
(Your Lord hath prescribed for Himself…)6;54.
So, the Glorious Allah Himself bestowed this right unto us, then it became a commitment as He never renege on a promise. This is clarified in the following Verse:(Allah hath bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because the Garden will be theirs…)9;111.
Although we are not the owners of lives or our wealth, the Almighty Allah gave us this right to have them, then He bought our lives and wealth and bestowed the Paradise in return. This is a right He never denies; this is a promise He always keeps. That is why we say that ‘justice is to give everyone their due’.
Anwar:Thank you very much.
Hasan:Thank you. See you next time.
Symposium 17
Is It One of the Essence Qualities or Deed Qualities?
Anwar:We are still talking about justice and I still have question!
Hasan:And I am more than ready to answer them. Go ahead, Anwar!
Anwar:Is this quality of Allah – Justice – part of His essence qualities or deed qualities?
Hasan:Very good question, Anwar! Majority of religious experts consider it one of the deed qualities. Their evidence comes from the definition of justice which is ‘to give everyone their due’, that is, not to be unjust nor repulsive to any of the creatures; this requires a creator in the first place in order to be fulfilled, but prior to existence of the Creator, there was no meaning to
justice, injustice or rights.
Anwar:Does that mean that the Most Exalted Allah was not just before His creation of the world?
Hasan:Not at all! What I meant was that just is like providing and resurrecting and healing; without the existence of the creatures, the Glorious Allah could not be called the Just or the Provider or the Healer. To end any possible confusion you might still have, I would like to say that the Glorious Allah has His perfection qualities since eternity, and these perfection qualities are the foundation for His deed qualities like the Just, the Provider or the Creator. So, the Glorious Allah is capable of giving justice but He only when He decided to create the universe; to have the universe in existence is crucial for justice to be served. Is it clear now?
Anwar:Very Clear. Thank you very much. All right! We have just proved the justice of the Almighty Allah through giving reasonable evidence. But, is it generally agreed about by religious scholars?
Hasan:I can see you are referring to ‘the reason’s good and bad rule’, aren’t you?