The problem of evil – why does evil exist?

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الحَمْدُ لِلهِ وَالصَّلاَةُ وَالسَّلاَمُ عَلَى رَسُوْلِ اللهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَمَنْ وَالَاهُ وَبَعْدُ

The problem of evil – why does evil exist?

If you ask me why evil exists, I would say a better question is why do we look at it and choose it?

Mankind and jinn were given the responsibility and ability to choose things further and further away from Allah ta’ala until you are out of the light and in the darkness. This is where things do not make sense anymore. They are irrational. They are illogical. The sound intellect can never make sense of it. The unsound intellect has been damaged by it. So you don’t actually try to, you just turn away from it, turn back to the light, and there things get better. Things heal. Things get fixed. The world runs smoothly.

As humans and jinn choose evil, it gets created. All good is attributed to Allah ta’ala and evil is never attributed to Him, so that means it is attributed to the creation, which means it is the result of choices. To my knowledge, He always offers you a halal alternative before you turn to the darkness. He always tells you, deep within yourself through various ways, “don’t do that. Turn away from it. There is nothing there for you, only harm, only evil. Turn away from the darkness and come to My Light. I will give you goodness.” We may choose to listen or not to. We may hear it or not. But I suspect that it’s always there.

• There’s Divine inspiration in your heart and your secret with Him deep inside your heart.
• There’s always an angel with you giving you good suggestions.
• There’s always your own intellect which is supposed to be used to keep things tied down and keep you out of the darkness and turn you towards the light.

So there is no asking Allah ta’ala “why does evil exist?” Because the real question is “why did you look at it and choose it?” There is no answer because it actually has no logical or rational answer. It makes no sense. There’s literally nothing there for you but potential harm. All goodness comes from Him and you went somewhere and chose something where there’s no goodness for you. It’s like going from a high-paying, easy job to actually spending your money to work harder and nobody benefits or gains anything, instead everybody loses. No one in their right mind would choose such a thing. So if you were asked why you sinned, you in fact have no answer. There is no one to blame but your own self.

So you repent. You turn back to the light. And He always takes you back. So don’t look at the darkness again and don’t go there. It’s a waste.

Every moment He is creating goodness for all of creation, or it wouldn’t exist. Existence is good, it’s a gift from Him to us. The further out you go, the closer you get to non-existence and the further away from reality. This is one reason nightmares make no sense – they are demonic, from the Satanic jinn, who in their darkness make no sense. They’re so far out that their nonsense is just that–nonsensical. So you just ignore it and forget it and move on. It will never make sense. It can’t. It’s so far outside of the light. It is something of no benefit to be ignored and forgotten.

Go to the light and go to Allah ta’ala. Live the way He wants us to because that is where He gives us goodness. If He ceases from sending us goodness, that’s our mistake, so don’t go that way. The Shari’a is the highest lifestyle because it is how He informed us to live in a way that keeps us out of the darkness and in His light for a safe return.

Allah ta’ala is al-Haqq, the One True Reality. His Truth is the Highest Truth. If you witnessed it strongly enough you would never want to look away for eternity. Turn to the light and there are many paths within the light for you to return to Him. All of those paths take you to Him at different speeds and in different ways.

Wise people take the fastest path to Him because they realize their own existence is just to be a recipient of His gifts. Focus on the good and shun evil and you will get even more gifts. So the salik is called by Him to come to Him faster. He has a lot to give you, just come, and you will see. Once you see this is the ultimate treasure, the ultimate gift, the ultimate achievement, the ultimate success, it’s all you’ll really want. Your irada will be one, on Him. Going to Him. He gives you everything and it keeps getting better until you die then it keeps getting better eternally. You were always a guest in His kingdom. For those who want to meet the King, or those whom the King wants to meet, for them is the quick return.

The salik only looks at the goodness in others. He sees the potential in others. If only they would go to Him, how great they would be! Every human being and jinn is thus amazing in their potential. If only you knew who you truly were deep down! You will find out in this world or the next, but why not seek it now? Why wait? Why not go now and discover your secret self? The true purpose He created you for. The highest light and biggest gifts He has for you. The most knowledge you can gain about Him. The highest worship of Him you can perform. This is your secret. Why would you not want that? Your murshid helps you get there fast. He is there to take you to your Lord as quickly as possible. It’s the job He put your murshid to task in. Come to Me then help others come to Me. His love for you is strong if you are ready to accept it and take the journey.

So in the Garden I suppose there is no longer a choice of evil. That is removed. There are only good choices. And you get to see how much goodness Allah ta’ala has for you. More than you could ever imagine and it eternally gets better. The highest reward is to gaze upon Him, so why not ask Him to give you His gaze perpetually and eternally? Why not seek Him now and witness (mushahada) the good that’s already right in front of you every day?

Now if you ask me why we choose evil then, the answer is here in the khutbah al-Haajah:

When you lose the guidance, you can get lost in the darkness until He gives it back to you. So when we choose evil we can lose His gifts for us until we turn back to the light, turn back to Him, and He gives them back to us, insha’Allah even better than we had them before.

So then we have another question: why do we choose evil when there’s no benefit to us in it? Perhaps we forgot, perhaps we made a mistake, perhaps we chose something out of ignorance, perhaps we listened to the wrong influences. Which came first, our bad choices or us losing His guidance? This I do not know the answer to.

Bad influences are another discussion. We find in surat al-Nuh that human beings can lead each other astray, and the prophet Nuh (alayhi as-Salaam) prays for Allah ta’ala not to leave any of the disbelievers left on Earth because they will only misguide others. So there is both an individual and a collective component. Satan himself is bent on choosing evil and trying to lead others astray. He never chooses the good even though it is offered to him. He keeps choosing evil. So why was he even created? One answer is that he tells you not to turn away from Allah ta’ala. He points out your faults and open doors, showing you what to work on and where you are exposed to the darkness. You don’t listen to him or follow him, but rather you quickly turn to Allah ta’ala and seek His help, healing, protection, and any other needs you have internally or externally. When you are close to Allah ta’ala he cannot come near you, for he is out of Allah’s presence. But be careful ever thinking you are safe from error until you die. You can always slip and fall until your last breath, so always rely on Allah ta’ala and try to follow His way.

والله أعلم