About good and Evil

[ahmad]

يْنَمَا تَكُونُوا يُدْرِككُّمُ الْمَوْتُ وَلَوْ كُنتُمْ فِي بُرُوجٍ مُّشَيَّدَةٍ ۗ وَإِن تُصِبْهُمْ حَسَنَةٌ يَقُولُوا هَـٰذِهِ مِنْ عِندِ اللَّـهِ ۖ وَإِن تُصِبْهُمْ سَيِّئَةٌ يَقُولُوا هَـٰذِهِ مِنْ عِندِكَ ۚ قُلْ كُلٌّ مِّنْ عِندِ اللَّـهِ ۖ فَمَالِ هَـٰؤُلَاءِ الْقَوْمِ لَا يَكَادُونَ يَفْقَهُونَ حَدِيثًا ﴿٧٨﴾ مَّا أَصَابَكَ مِنْ حَسَنَةٍ فَمِنَ اللَّـهِ ۖ وَمَا أَصَابَكَ مِن سَيِّئَةٍ فَمِن نَّفْسِكَ ۚ وَأَرْسَلْنَاكَ لِلنَّاسِ رَسُولًا ۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِاللَّـهِ شَهِيدًا ﴿٧٩﴾

Wherever you may be, death will overtake you, even if you should be within towers of lofty construction. But if good comes to them, they say, "This is from Allah "; and if evil befalls them, they say, "This is from you." Say, "All [things] are from Allah." So what is [the matter] with those people that they can hardly understand any statement?

What comes to you of good is from Allah, but what comes to you of evil, [O man], is from yourself. And We have sent you, [O Muhammad], to the people as a messenger, and sufficient is Allah as Witness.


The first verse says that all good and evil is from god.
The second verses says that anything good is from god while evil is from yourself.
This can be understood as : when god makes somethings good to human it is a blessing but when god makes something bad it is due to the human's wrong doings.

BUT how can this be consistent with the fact that god tests humans with good and evil as per
[21:35]
Every soul will taste death. And We test you with evil and with good as trial; and to Us you will be returned.


Are all tests that involve evil are due the wrong doings of a human ? (what about children who are born with disabilities they did not do anything evil yet)
And are all tests that involve good a blessing from god. ( aren't blessings sometimes given to mislead people ? )


I would appreciate it if anyone can shed some light on the matter...

Thank you.

[Nura]

Salam Ahmed,

In the following,

But if good comes to them, they say, "This is from Allah "; and if evil befalls them, they say, "This is from you." Say, "All [things] are from Allah." So what is [the matter] with those people that they can hardly understand any statement?

I think, Here Allah is rebuking the fleeting attitude of some believers, they used to believe in Allah when good used to come to them, and blame the messenger for the evil that used to befall them. These people used to pray and believe as long as good things where happening to them, but the second a bad thing happened, they used to turn on the prophet and blame him saying that bad things were happening to them because they believed in him... that's why we see Allah clearing the blame by saying  ( Say, "All [things] are from Allah." So what is [the matter] with those people that they can hardly understand any statement?)

proving that all good and evil things with which He wants to test humans and jinns is from Him, as also mentioned in
[21:35]
Every soul will taste death. And We test you with evil and with good as trial; and to Us you will be returned.

In the following,

What comes to you of good is from Allah, but what comes to you of evil, [O man], is from yourself. And We have sent you, [O Muhammad], to the people as a messenger, and sufficient is Allah as Witness.

Here, I believe Allah is talking about the inherent natural inclinations of men, we all know that a soul is made balanced and we do have free will which gives us the option to do evil things, and our souls do understand what is good and what is bad for it, but our souls do have both good and evil inclinations. Here Allah is saying that whatever good inclinations and actions we do is from Allah, since he guided us to do the right thing, so whatever good comes our way as a result of choosing to follow Allah's law comes as a blessing from Allah. But if we use our free will and choose to fall pray to the evil inclinations of our souls and willingly not follow Allah's law, then we are going to do something evil by choice, ergo evil resulting from ourselves. Now, from this conscious  decision to do a evil action comes from ourselves and whatever evil results from it is also upon us. Hence, good comes from Allah ( as a result of following Allah's commands) and evil ( from within us, choosing to not follow Allah's commands).

Another point to be kept in mind is that since we are part of a society, so majority's decision to not remain honest also affects our fate. So, the concept that bad things only happen to bad people is not really right. If you are living in a place where admissions to good university depends on the amount of money you can give as bribe to the university authority, then no matter how good a student you are, you have to give bribe.But, Allah has said that He is not going to punish a person  for evil things that are out of that person's control, and also if he is forced to do evil.

As far as disabilities are concerned, animals are also born disabled sometimes, why do we think that being born with a disability is a curse or a test? Animals are born sinless and they won't be brought to justice on the day of judgment, so why are animals born disabled? Are they being punished? plus humans are all born sinless, it might be that Allah wants to test the parents and people around the child and also the child if he/she is not mentally challenged. Having a mental disability that robes a person of his/her sense of right and wrong can actually come as a blessing because that person then remains sinless throughout his/her whole life.

All creations with free will ( humans and jinns ) will be tested with trials, to see who does not waver from Allah's path. we forget that great wealth , intelligence, beauty or power can also be sources of trial, even though they are perceived to be positive things but so can poverty, low intelligence, lack of beauty and power be used, ( these things are generally thought to be the cause of most evil actions brought about by men) to test a person's true level of gratitude towards the creator. All things good or evil comes as a test, and as long as you follow Allah's command regarding the matter, you will pass the test. It doesn't matter if the evil comes to you as a result of your own previous evil deeds or not, if so , you can atone for them this time by remaining patient and following His commandments. e.g. if You are rich, you have to give zakat, etc and if you are born poor or became poor because of bad business decisions, you still have to remain honest and have patience. If in case A, you don't give zakat, you fail the test and in case B, if you don't remain honest and have patience and decide to rob a bank, you also will fail the test.

Hope this helps you.

[ahmad]

If as u said some bad things happen as a test that may not be due to our mistakes. Then why does the verse say "what comes to you of evil, [O man], is from yourself" ?

That's the part I don't understand.

[HOPE]

Peace b. Ahmad,

Then why does the verse say "what comes to you of evil, [O man], is from yourself" 

God being the source of all goodness, al-Birr, any negativity we experience stems from our limited understanding, IMHO.  Testing is not necessarily offered as a Pass/Fail situation but a remedy for a deficiency.  Sometimes the suffering and pain can serve as healing agents in their own right.  It may teach us to become strong, compassionate, faithful.  Like addicts, people do not change unless they hit the very bottom.  We can always find solace in the promise that God will not lay on us a burden greater than our capacity to bear.  We must experience the bad, the evil, the ugly so we can appreciate the goodness of virtue and want it for ourselves.

[Nura]

salam Ahmad,

as I have mentioned above, bad incidences is meant as trial sometimes, even if you did not do anything bad, Allah might test your patience by making you come face to face with a bad situation, to test whether you believe and call on to Allah even when a calamity strikes, as in how strong is your eman?

and sometimes evil results from your previous misdeeds, as in evil ( you might consider it evil, but to Allah it might be just punishment for your actions) happens as a punishment, like the stoning of the people of Lut (PBUH). so, bad things can happen with two possible end results in mind:

1) punishment for previous evil deeds. This time the bad thing or evil thing that happens to you comes from yourself, i.e. your past mistakes.

2) test of patience and eman, which has nothing to do with your previous sins. Allah has said that He is not going to leave us alone just because we say that we believe in Him, He is going to test us till it is clear whether we truly trust and believe in him or not, and to do  that He  said  He will test us with both good and bad times.

[ahmad]

Thank you all for you answers it was really helpful.

[Lobotomize94]

The first verse says that all good and evil is from god.
The second verses says that anything good is from god while evil is from yourself.
This can be understood as : when god makes somethings good to human it is a blessing but when god makes something bad it is due to the human's wrong doings.

BUT how can this be consistent with the fact that god tests humans with good and evil as per
[21:35]
Every soul will taste death. And We test you with evil and with good as trial; and to Us you will be returned.

Hello everyone. I didn't feel like my reply was worth starting a new topic since this thread is so old.

I just wanted to add my understanding of Good and Evil. Here is my addendum:

"Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that Allah does is GOOD. There is NOTHING that Allah does that is evil".

You may think that Allah killing you is Evil, or Allah allowing things to happen to you is evil. That is false. You are not the judge of what is good and evil. Everything that Allah does, whether it harms you or not is by definition GOOD. Evil is as a result of not following Allah's command. If you do not follow Allah's command, then you are evil. Now, one can see how the definition of Evil cannot and does not apply to God and thus God cannot be evil.

The only way that moral values and duties can be objective is if Allah declares certain duties. Allah is the source of objectivity in the world. Allah creates the universe with his word "be" and the universe becomes objectively existing. Allah creates humans, and humans become objectively existing. By a simple deduction, Allah defines what is Good and what is Evil and they become objectively binding on us. It thus follows that Allah cannot be evil. Surely Allah follows his will and his will is by definition, Good. I do not see how evil can be an attribute of Allah. You may perceive certain actions that Allah does as evil, but they are your subjective perception. Objective morals only come from God and not your feelings on how God acts.