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on 11-09-2002 23:34
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On Disaster and Misfortune
The world we live in is a stressful place. There are earthquakes, floods, falling pianos, wet paint, automobile accidents, etc., many things that man would rather live without. Why do these things happen? People have been asking ’Why’ since the beginning of time, and they’ve also devoted hundreds of books and papers to answering it. We thought we’d jump on the band-wagon and do the same, throw in a few lines about it because it is such an important question. Not knowing the answer can be a weakness in your faith, a weak link in your spiritual chain that someone may try to pry apart.
The following information may seem strange but it’s relevant so humor me. Gangrene is a bacterial infection so serious that the entire affected limb has to be amputated, cut off, otherwise the bacteria spreads throughout the whole body, causing a painful death. When the doctor cuts off your hand or foot, he is doing it for your benefit.
There is an old Persian story about a king who had his fingers severed in an accident. He thought the loss of his fingers was a great evil, until he was captured by a group who wanted to sacrifice him to their god. When they saw he was missing fingers, they let him go, because they didn’t want to offer an incomplete sacrifice. Sometimes we think things are good for us when they’re actually bad, and when Allah takes them from us we get mad. Why? Do we know better or does All-Knowing Allah?
If you lose your job, your house, your family, your health, then you are being tested, and Allah is doing things for your benefit in the next life. Like the doctor who takes his patient’s hand in order to give him life, Allah sometimes takes the things we love in order to give us better ones. Remember: We are not talking about better things in THIS LIFE, we’re talking about better things in the NEXT; rewards for our patience can lead us to the Gardens of Paradise. Allah is never evil to us. Allah has said “Oh My Servants, I have forbidden oppression for Myself, and have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another…” (Hadith Qudsi 17 of 40, on the authority of Abu Dharr al-Ghifari)
Professional athletes train long and hard for events and their coaches push them to their absolute limits. When a coach turns up the settings on the treadmill, he makes the athlete sweat. He gives him muscle cramps, he tests the athletes endurance, and in the end, this has all benefited the athlete. The athlete who trains hardest wins the race, breaks world records, wins gold medals.
We spend out entire lives training for an ultimate test, whether we know it or not. Everyone is an athlete, but not everyone realizes they’re even on a treadmill. Sometimes Allah makes the treadmill go faster and tests our patience, our endurance, and our faith; but never more than we can bear. How do we know this? Because Allah has said in the Qur’an that He does not place a burden on anyone that they can’t bear. (Surah Al-Baqra, 285)
When things speed up you have two options, you can run and trust that Allah isn’t making things move faster than you can. Or, you can give up, jump off the treadmill and be in flabby spiritual shape on the Day of Judgment, losing the race, failing the test, going to hell, etc.
If your house burns down and you find yourself homeless, Allah hasn’t been evil to you. He has just turned up the treadmill. If your parents die in an accident, the treadmill is moving faster, training you to be patient, to be grateful no matter what, and benefiting you in the next life. You only fail if you give up your faith in God, your hope for mercy, your belief in the After-life. When faced with hardship, some people get mad at God, not realizing that Allah has given them an opportunity to improve themselves and earn His blessings. People also cop-out, claiming that the burden was too much for them to bear. Well it’s Allah’s word versus theirs, and Allah said that He over-burdens no one. Allah is the Most-Kind and man is the Most-Silly and tries to push the blame onto others when he fails.
Is rain good or evil? It washes away houses, drowns people and animals, it also puts water on the earth to support life, waters crops to feed man. Is death good or evil? For some death is terrifying, for others it is a well-needed release from life.
The only things that are truly evil are the ones that are INTENDED to be evil. If one man cuts another man’s heart out, is that evil? No, not if the man is a heart surgeon. If one man removes another’s kidneys, is that evil? Yes, if the man is a murderer desecrating his victim’s body. Actions are classified by their intentions. If someone knocks you down, it is good if it was to push you away from oncoming traffic and save your life. It is bad if they detest you for who you are and intends to insult and humiliate you. Allah knocks us down, picks us up, tries us, tests us, blesses us, comforts us, provides for us, and His intentions are to allow us to improve our selves, how can that be called evil?
Evil from one Human to Another
Some foolish people ask: If God is All Good, and All-Powerful, and controls everything, then how come He allows evil? He’s All-Powerful, so He could prevent it, He’s also the Creator, so He created the evil as well. Isn’t God supposed to be All-Good?
The answer to this is long but simple. We know there is no evil that Allah commits towards us. There is, however, evil in the world that man commits against his fellow man. There is genocide in Palestine, Bosnia, Kashmir, Chechnya, the whole-sale slaughter of people everywhere, murder, rape, theft, lying and more. Why, some people ask, does the All-Powerful, All-Good God allow this?
Here is an example which may help explain: The government allows the manufacturing of cars that can go up to 140 miles per hour, but no one blames the Government when someone speeds. Is driving fast good or evil? It’s fine if you’re on the express-way. It’s evil to do 65 miles per hour on a small street while school children are running around.
As with the example of the surgeon and the serial killer, we see that the same action (slicing and dicing) can be done in different ways, with different intentions and different results. Driving fast can either carry you over the highway or splatter the brains of a pedestrian across the road. Allah gave us free will, we are allowed to drive, to use our hands and legs, to speak, to think, to fight. Allah also gave us warnings to go with these gifts, that we should use our hands to help and not hurt. That we should speak words of kindness instead of harshness. We are to use our thoughts and intellects for the betterment of society, and our fighting skills in defense of the defenseless, our freedom, our faith, our lives.
When people fail to obey Allah, and fight the helpless, and hurt innocent people, they are exercising the free will that Allah has given us. Free will itself is not evil, nor is man created evil. Man has the same potential for evil as he does for good. The hands that hurt are the same ones that could be helping. God does not choose evil for man, man chooses evil for himself.
Allah the All-Mighty is also The Just, The Judge, and any one who has been wronged will be compensated. Evil people never get away, their trials are merely put on hold. They get what’s coming to them the same time everyone else does...on the Day of Reckoning. If someone lies and slanders your name, they will have to give up some of their blessings to you on Judgment Day. Rewards that get you in to Paradise are for more worthwhile than the few thousand you could earn when suing. When someone makes fun of you, smile! You just earned blessings that you didn’t even have to work for.
Someone who harms you in this life will pay you damages in blessings and may lose their spot in Paradise as a result of the harm they inflicted upon others. They haven’t actually been evil to you, just hurt you a bit and benefited your after-life. There are other things that hurt but can still be good for you. So, there is no real injustice or evil, only a temporary imbalance until Judgment Day. That’s when everything is evened out and everyone gets what’s coming to them. When Allah allows someone to hurt you, He’s allowing them to benefit you with their blessings and He’s allowing you to improve yourself with a test of patience and perseverance. Don’t worry, it ’s all good. :)
Last update : 11-09-2002 23:34
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