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?
Anwar:I have actually heard it, but I don’t know what it exactly means!
Hasan:We are not going deep into the explanation of this rule, but I’ll simply refer to what religious scholars say in this regard; reason can judge what is good and what is bad without depending on religious evidence. So, the reason’s judgment is enough to know the good deeds from the bad ones.
Anwar:I might want to avoid getting into this rule as well, yet I still need to know the meaning of good and bad.
Hasan:Religious scholars answered that. Good is what deserves praise and bad is what deserves dispraised. I see you are smiling!
Anwar:Your name means good, and your parents deserve to be praised for raising a man like you.
Hasan:This is very kind of you. Thank you!
Anwar:You earlier made reference to what Sheikh Al-Muzaffar said: ‘He rewards dutiful people as He can punish the sinners’. I wonder why he said ‘He can punish the sinners’!
Hasan:All right! The Glorious Allah never breaks His promise to reward dutiful followers. He also has the right to refrain from punishing sinners; this is out of His mercifulness and generosity.
Anwar:So, dutiful followers cannot be punished, I understand!
Hasan:Yes, of course! This is if the followers fulfill their duties.
Anwar:I got a different question now. What are the conditions of obedience to the Almighty Allah?
Hasan:We are going to discuss this later when we talk about Religious Duty (Taklif). However, I’ll mention some important points in brief. ‘Conditions of obedience’ means that when an order comes from the Almighty Allah, mankind must obey. Also this obedience has to be only for the Almighty Allah and not be associated with anything or anyone else.
Anwar:Thanks. It is very obvious now.
Hasan:Thanks God. I’ll see you next time, Inshallah.
Symposium 18
Interpretation of Evils and Tribulations
Anwar:Hello Sir! Are we still discussing the divine justice?
Hasan:Yes, go ahead.
Anwar:Now that we know that the Glorious Allah does not commit the evil acts nor does He avoid the good ones, how can we explain evil acts and disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and other tribulations and misfortunes?
Hasan:Here we have two answers, one general and another in details:
The General answer says that Allah, Praised Be His
Name, is far above bad or evil acts; He is also Wise and far above ill-treatment. This is proved through reason and reported evidence. Thus, all that comes from the Glorious Allah is the very exact wisdom, the very exact good act and the very exact mercy, and consequently all forms of disasters and misfortunes are based on wisdom and for the good of mankind, but the point here is that we cannot know the wisdom and the benefit behind it.
So, our lack of knowledge should not affect the way we explain disasters or catastrophes as injustice; this is not fair at all. I’ll give you an example to make this point clear. Let’s say if we see a bulldozer destroying a beautiful house or garden, we’d think it is an evil deed. But after some inquiries if we find out that they will be building a hospital, then we’ll be happy and not only change our mind but we’ll also thank them for that matter. Again, if we could ask God to stop what we think it is an evil thing happening to us, the answer then would be like ‘in order to for you to get this certain benefit or to stop that certain damage from happening to you. This sets our minds at rest and we thank the Lord for taking such good care of us.
Anwar:This is a very reasonable point; we should not rush into judgments, especially when we know that the Doer is Just and Wise.
Hasan:Now we’ll answer in details:
Looking at a phenomenon isolated from other ones is an incomplete look, because incidents are interconnected rings in an interlocked extended chain. So, we cannot judge a particular phenomenon or incident without noting what preceded it or what will follow it.
For example, when a storm hits a coast, it demolishes many houses and trees; this is an evil act for those it happens to them, yet it is a good thing for the ships sailing in the midst of the sea. It is also considered good and valuable when it is a way to pollinates flowers or when it moves the clouds bearing rain or when it dissipates the fumes and the smoke rising from factories that may affect the environment if they remain still, and many other benefits of winds.
We understand here that damage is partial, as it affects a particular individual or a small group, when it is compared to the public benefit it brings to many others.
When those who experienced the damage know that the benefit is more than the damage, they will not be upset – this is of course if they are not selfish. The same goes for earthquakes and other incidents; if the benefit and the gain exceed the loss, they are not evil but pure good
Anwar:But what is the fault of those affected by the damage?
Hasan:Misfortunes and disasters do not always happen because people commit sins, so we should not be surprised here, and even if it was because of the sins, it is still good because the pain and the damage occurring to the sinners will be a form of expiation to their sins.
Anwar:Yet, what is the fault of the believers who suffered from the damage?
Hasan:You are still preoccupied by the idea that these incidents are only for revenge or punishment. No, my brother! We have just shown that the benefit they might have for others. Those who get affected by those misfortunes will be compensated by either expiating their sins or raising their rankings for those with no sins!