Jump to content

Draft:Moral Evil

Add links
From wikishia
This page is about Moral Evil. For the general problem of evil and natural evil, see Problem of evil and Natural evil.

Moral Evil (Arabic: الشرور الأخلاقي), in contrast to Natural Evil (which arises from natural causes),[1] refers to morally reprehensible and voluntary actions, such as murder and theft, that inflict suffering upon others.[2] The existence of evil in the world poses one of the most significant theological challenges for religious belief systems,[3] raising profound questions concerning the existence of God in the face of such suffering. Atheists frequently cite the presence of moral evil as evidence against the existence of a just and benevolent God,[4] whereas religious adherents strive to reconcile the apparent inconsistency between the reality of evil and the divine nature.[5]

Muslim theologians maintain that the existence of moral evil does not contradict God's attributes, as such evils are fundamentally rooted in human free agency. According to this view, God endowed humanity with intellect and free will to enable the autonomous choice between good and evil.[6] This capacity for self-determination allows human beings to achieve an exalted spiritual station, potentially rendering their righteous deeds superior to those of angels.[7] Conversely, it also grants them the capacity to commit heinous acts. Were God to intervene and unilaterally prevent such choices, it would negate the very essence of human free will.[8] In the Hadith of Tawhid al-Mufaddal, transmitted by Mufaddal b. Umar from Imam al-Sadiq (a), human free will is invoked as the primary justification for moral evil, highlighting that this autonomy is the defining characteristic elevating human beings above animals.[9]

From this perspective, God did not create "evil people"; rather, He created autonomous beings who may misuse their free will to commit evil.[10] Within this theological framework, the world serves as a crucible for the interplay between good and evil, offering an environment necessary for human spiritual growth and divine testing.[11] Consequently, the presence of oppression and immorality acts as a catalyst for cultivating essential virtues, such as patience and the righteous struggle against injustice.[12] As articulated by the philosopher Mulla Sadra, without the existence of hardened and cruel hearts, seekers of truth would be unable to achieve their spiritual perfection.[13] Furthermore, Islamic mystics argue that the existence of evil is an ontological necessity for the manifestation and realization of specific Divine Names and Attributes,[14] including The Avenger (al-Muntaqim), The Subduer (al-Jabbar), and The Forgiver (al-Ghaffar).[15]

In Shi'a narrations, the presence of worldly tyranny is intrinsically linked to divine compensation for suffering and inequality, which will be exacted either in this world or the Hereafter.[16] Imami and Mu'tazili theologians have utilized rational arguments, along with citations from Qur'anic verses and prophetic narrations, to assert that God will ultimately restore the rights of the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable.[17] This compensatory mechanism ensures that the reality of moral evil remains fully compatible with belief in a perfectly just God.[18] In the social and political spheres, moral evil is mitigated through the promulgation of laws and the establishment of authoritative bodies to enforce them. In his exegesis of Qur'an 2:213, Allama Tabataba'i posits that the primary purpose of divine religions is to regulate and curb the inherent human propensity to exploit others for personal gain (istikhdam).[19]

Another philosophical approach to the problem of evil posits a privative theory, asserting that evil lacks independent ontological existence and is merely a deficiency or the absence of good.[20] According to this paradigm, immoral human acts stem directly from a void of virtuous characteristics within the individual.[21] For instance, adultery is deemed reprehensible because it signifies the absence of the virtue of chastity. Thus, moral evils are not created entities emanating from God, but rather arise from existential deficiencies.[22] It should be noted, however, that prominent scholars such as Morteza Motahhari have critiqued this strictly privative explanation as philosophically insufficient.[23]

Notes

  1. ↑ Khātamī, Sayyid Aḥmad, Farhang-i 'ilm-i kalām, 1370 Sh, p. 137; Khusrawpanāh, 'Abd al-Ḥusayn, Kalām-i jadīd, 1381 Sh, p. 34; Ṭāhirī, Ḥabīb Allāh, Dars-hāyī az kalām-i jadīd, 1384 Sh, p. 468.
  2. ↑ Khātamī, Sayyid Aḥmad, Farhang-i 'ilm-i kalām, 1370 Sh, p. 137; Khusrawpanāh, 'Abd al-Ḥusayn, Kalām-i jadīd, 1381 Sh, p. 33; Ṭāhirī, Ḥabīb Allāh, Dars-hāyī az kalām-i jadīd, 1384 Sh, p. 468.
  3. ↑ Qadardān Qarāmalikī, Muḥammad Ḥasan, Khudā wa mas'ala-yi shar, 1388 Sh, pp. 9-10.
  4. ↑ For example see: Mackie, J.L, The Miracle of Theism, 1982, pp. 155-156.
  5. ↑ Peterson, Michael et al., 'Aql wa i'tiqād-i dīnī, 1376 Sh, pp. 178-179.
  6. ↑ Khusrawpanāh, 'Abd al-Ḥusayn, Kalām-i jadīd, 1381 Sh, p. 34.
  7. ↑ Qadardān Qarāmalikī, Muḥammad Ḥasan, Pāsukh bih shubuhāt-i kalāmī (Justice), 1391 Sh, pp. 146-147.
  8. ↑ Qadardān Qarāmalikī, Muḥammad Ḥasan, Pāsukh bih shubuhāt-i kalāmī (Justice), 1391 Sh, pp. 158-160.
  9. ↑ See: Mufaḍḍal b. 'Umar, Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal, p. 173.
  10. ↑ Qadardān Qarāmalikī, Muḥammad Ḥasan, Pāsukh bih shubuhāt-i kalāmī (Justice), 1391 Sh, pp. 149-152.
  11. ↑ Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Muḥammad Taqī, Āmūzish-i falsafa, 1399 Sh, vol. 2, pp. 519-524.
  12. ↑ Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Muḥammad Taqī, Āmūzish-i falsafa, 1399 Sh, vol. 2, p. 525; Qadardān Qarāmalikī, Muḥammad Ḥasan, Pāsukh bih shubuhāt-i kalāmī (Justice), 1391 Sh, pp. 93-94.
  13. ↑ Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm, Sharḥ Uṣūl al-Kāfī, 1383 Sh, vol. 1, p. 407.
  14. ↑ Muṭahharī, Murtaḍā, Majmū'a-yi āthār-i Ustād Shahīd Muṭahharī, 1376 Sh, vol. 13, p. 288.
  15. ↑ Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm, Sharḥ Uṣūl al-Kāfī, 1383 Sh, vol. 1, p. 408.
  16. ↑ Qadardān Qarāmalikī, Muḥammad Ḥasan, Khudā wa mas'ala-yi shar, 1388 Sh, p. 242.
  17. ↑ For example see: Ibn Nawbakht, Ibrāhīm b. Nawbakht, al-Yāqūt fī 'ilm al-kalām, 1413 AH, pp. 49-50; al-Sayyid al-Murtaḍā, 'Alī b. al-Ḥusayn, Jumal al-'ilm wa l-'amal, 1387 AH, p. 35; al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan, al-Iqtiṣād, 1406 AH, p. 143; al-Qāḍī 'Abd al-Jabbār, 'Abd al-Jabbār b. Aḥmad, al-Mughnī, vol. 11, p. 387.
  18. ↑ Qadardān Qarāmalikī, Muḥammad Ḥasan, Pāsukh bih shubuhāt-i kalāmī (Justice), 1391 Sh, p. 152.
  19. ↑ Ṭabāṭabā'ī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn, al-Mīzān, 1390 AH, vol. 2, pp. 124-125.
  20. ↑ Ḥasanzāda Mushkānī, Muḥammad Jawād, "Naqd wa barrasī-yi rāh-ḥall-i 'adamī-ingārī-yi māhiyyat-i shurūr...", p. 77.
  21. ↑ Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn b. 'Abd Allāh, al-Ilāhiyyāt min kitāb al-Shifā', 1376 Sh, p. 455; Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm, al-Ḥikma al-muta'āliya, 1981, vol. 7, pp. 104-105.
  22. ↑ Qadardān Qarāmalikī, Muḥammad Ḥasan, Pāsukh bih shubuhāt-i kalāmī (Justice), 1391 Sh, p. 147.
  23. ↑ Muṭahharī, Murtaḍā, 'Adl-i Ilāhī, 1402 Sh, p. 134.

References

  • Ḥasanzāda Mushkānī, Muḥammad Jawād, "Naqd wa barrasī-yi rāh-ḥall-i 'adamī-ingārī-yi māhiyyat-i shurūr...", in Ḥikmat-i Isrā Journal, no. 1, vol. 16, Spring 1403 Sh.
  • Ibn Nawbakht, Ibrāhīm b. Nawbakht, al-Yāqūt fī 'ilm al-kalām, Qom, Maktabat Āyat Allāh al-'Uẓmā al-Mar'ashī al-Najafī, 1413 AH.
  • Ibn Sīnā, Ḥusayn b. 'Abd Allāh, al-Ilāhiyyāt min kitāb al-Shifā', Qom, Islamic Propagation Office of the Qom Seminary, 1376 Sh.
  • Khātamī, Sayyid Aḥmad, Farhang-i 'ilm-i kalām, Tehran, Saba, 1370 Sh.
  • Khusrawpanāh, 'Abd al-Ḥusayn, Kalām-i jadīd, Qom, Center for Cultural Studies and Research of the Seminary, 1381 Sh.
  • al-Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Ya'qūb, al-Kāfī, Tehran, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1407 AH.
  • Mackie, J.L, The Miracle of Theism, New York, Oxford, 1982.
  • Miṣbāḥ Yazdī, Muḥammad Taqī, Āmūzish-i falsafa, Qom, Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute, 1399 Sh.
  • Mufaḍḍal b. 'Umar, Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal, Qom, Maktabat al-Dāwarī, 3rd edition, n.d.
  • Muṭahharī, Murtaḍā, 'Adl-i Ilāhī, Tehran, Sadra, 1402 Sh.
  • Muṭahharī, Murtaḍā, Majmū'a-yi āthār-i Ustād Shahīd Muṭahharī, Tehran, Sadra, 1376 Sh.
  • Peterson, Michael et al., 'Aql wa i'tiqād-i dīnī, Tehran, Tarh-e Now, 1376 Sh.
  • al-Qāḍī 'Abd al-Jabbār, 'Abd al-Jabbār b. Aḥmad, al-Mughnī fī abwāb al-tawḥīd wa l-'adl wa l-imāma, ed. Maḥmūd Muḥammad Qāsim, n.p, n.d.
  • Qadardān Qarāmalikī, Muḥammad Ḥasan, Khudā wa mas'ala-yi shar, Qom, Bustan-e Kitab, 1388 Sh.
  • Qadardān Qarāmalikī, Muḥammad Ḥasan, Pāsukh bih shubuhāt-i kalāmī (Daftar-i shashum: 'Adl-i Ilāhī), Tehran, Research Institute of Islamic Culture and Thought, 1391 Sh.
  • al-Sayyid al-Murtaḍā, 'Alī b. al-Ḥusayn, Jumal al-'ilm wa l-'amal, Najaf, Maṭba'at al-Ādāb, 1387 AH.
  • al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan, al-Iqtiṣād fī mā yata'allaq bi-l-i'tiqād, Beirut, Dār al-Aḍwā', 1406 AH.
  • Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm, al-Ḥikma al-muta'āliya fī l-asfār al-'aqliyya al-arba'a, Beirut, Dār Iḥyā' al-Turāth al-'Arabī, 1981.
  • Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm, Sharḥ Uṣūl al-Kāfī, Tehran, Institute for Cultural Studies and Research, 1383 Sh.
  • Ṭāhirī, Ḥabīb Allāh, Dars-hāyī az kalām-i jadīd, Qom, Islamic Publication Office, 1384 Sh.
  • Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn, al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qur'ān, Beirut, al-A'lami Institute, 1390 AH.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikishia.net/w/index.php?title=Draft:Moral_Evil&oldid=206122"