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The problem of evil — and the Quran

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31.05.2025

If God is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent, how does He allow the existence of 'evil', such as suffering, natural disaster, sin or immorality. This question has challenged theologians and philosophers through the ages.

A classic example is of a baby deer burning in a forest fire, and the question why God did not save it. This is like putting God in man's shoes. The question is, are the life and working of a creator-engineer and the washing machine he creates same? Can a constructed robot designed to follow a code of conduct demand the same code from the scientists who made it.

Certainly, God is capable of creating many worlds free from all evil, corruption, hurt; His own abode and the Heavens He has promised the good-doers are such worlds. But this present world, of the Earthly life and the Universe that bounds it, is specially designed as a 'test' for humanity.

Though it may seem to be boundless in time and space, it is really a speck in God creative space. And it is evident that this design has elements of construction and destruction, of life and death, of systems within systems within systems. And inevitably it has elements of good and evil so that humans may choose between them with their freewill.

The Quran says, "We will surely test you with things of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient" Al-Baqarah (2:155). So, for those who have goodness in their hearts,........

© The Express Tribune