Question 4: Divine Justice and Injustice

The Asharites have expressed a very peculiar opinion, about this problem both with regard to reason and religion.

They think that:

• the invisible world is quite opposed to the visible.
• God is just or unjust within the limits of religious actions.
  • So when a man’s action is just with regard to religion, he also is just.
  • Whatever religion calls it to be unjust; He is unjust.
• Whatever has not been imposed as a divinely ordained duty upon men, does not come within the four walls of religion.
  • He is neither just or unjust, but all His actions about such things are just.

They have laid down that there is nothing in itself which may be called just or unjust.

But I think it is simply intolerable to say that there is nothing which may be called good or bad in[280] itself.

• Justice is good
• Injustice is bad.

So according to them, polytheism is in itself neither injustice nor evil. It is only bad with regard to religion. Had religion ordained it, then it would have been just and true.

Such also would have been the case with any kind of sin.

But all this is quite contrary to our traditions and reason. As to tradition God has described himself as just, and denied injustice to himself.

The Prophet Mohammad says:

What is your opinion about misleading the people, whether it is just or unjust, for God has mentioned in many a verse of the Quran, “That He leads as well as misleads the people?”

He says:

These verses cannot be taken exoterically, for there are many verses which apparently contradict them—the verses in which God denies injustice to himself.

For instance, He says:

So it is clear that as He does not like ingratitude even from them, He certainly cannot cause them to err.

The Asharites believe that God sometimes does things which He does not like, and orders others which He does not want.

But I believe that God forbids us from holding such a view about him, for it is pure infidelity.

That God has not misled the people and has not caused them to err will be clear to you from the following verses:

A Tradition of the Prophet says, “Every child is born according to the divine constitution.”

These being contradictions in this problem we should try to reconcile them so that they may agree with reason.

This refers to the prearranged divine will, with which all things have been endowed. They have been created erring, that is, prepared to go astray by their very nature, and led to it by inner and outer causes.

This means that He thought of not creating people ready to err, by their nature, or by the outer causes or by both, He could have done so.

But as the dispositions of men are different[283] the words may mislead the one and direct the other. For these are the verses which speak of misleading the people.

For instance, “He will thereby mislead many, and will direct many thereby: but He will not mislead any thereby except the transgressors”[150]; and, “We have appointed the vision which we showed thee, and also the tree cursed in the Quran,”[151] and the verses about the number of angels of hell.

This means that for evil natures, these verses are misleading, as for the sick bodies even good drugs are injurious.

But some one[284] may object and ask, what was the need of creating a class of men already prepared to err, for this is the worst kind of injustice? We would say that divine wisdom designated it so. The injustice would have consisted in its being otherwise.

For the nature and constitution of men, in His very creation, are such that they require some men, though very few, to be wicked and evil by their nature.

Such is also the case with the outer causes, made for directing the people to the right path, which requires that some men must be bad.

If many had been good then the divine law would not have been fulfilled, because either there had not been created things in which there is little evil and much good, for the good would have disappeared on account of that little evil; or there had been created things with much good and little evil.

Now it is well known that the existence of many good ones with a few evil ones, is better than the non-existence of much good for the sake of little evil.

This very evil was the thing which remained[285] hidden to the angels when God informed them that He was going to create upon the earth, a vicegerent, that is, a man. “When God said to the angels, I am going to place a substitute on earth, they said, wilt thou place there one who will do evil therein, and shed blood? but we celebrate thy praise, and sanctify Thee. God answered, Verily I know that which ye know not.”[153]

He means that the thing which is hidden from them is that when there is found both good and evil in a thing, and good overpowers the evil, reason requires the creation of the one for the destruction of the other. So from all these it is clear how misleading can be attributed to Him, in spite of His justice, and injustice disproved. The causes of misleading are created, because from them appear the causes of direction to good. For some people have not been given causes of direction to good in which there is found nothing which may lead to erring. Such is the condition of the angels. So also the[286] causes of good have those evil, though in their nature much evil be not found; this applies to man.

What is the use of these contradictory verses, thus compelling the people to take refuge in interpretations, which you have absolutely forbidden?

To explain this problem to the common people, they have been compelled to adopt this method.

For they should know that God is just, and that He is the Creator of all good and evil, instead of believing, as many nations have done, that there are two Gods, the creator of good, and the creator of evil. So now they know that He is the Creator of both.

As misleading is evil, and as there is no Creator but He, it was necessary that it should be attributed to Him, like the creation of evil. But this should be done without qualifying it, that is, that He created good for its own sake, and evil for the sake of good—on account of their connection with one another. In this way His creation of evil[287] would be quite just.

To illustrate: fire has been made because of its necessity for the existence of things, and without it they could not have existed at all. It also destroys things by its very nature.

But if you think of the destruction and evil which it causes, and compare it to the advantages which we derive out of it, you will find that its existence is better than non-existence, that is,—good. Now the verse of the Quran “No account shall be demanded of him for what He shall do; but an account shall be demanded of them,” means that He does nothing because it is incumbent upon him for it is degrading to him, to need doing a thing.

If it be so, God needs that thing for His own existence, because of necessity or to be more perfect in His Being—and God is free from such imperfections. Man is just because he gains something good by being so, which he cannot gain otherwise. God is just, not that He may become more perfect by His justice, but because His perfection requires him to be just. When we understand it in this way it would[288] be evident, that He is not just in the same way as man is just. But it is not right to say that He is not just at all, and that all His actions are neither just nor unjust, as the Mutakallimuns have thought. For it cannot be understood by human intellect, and is at the same time falsifying religion.

These people knew the meaning but were misled. For if we say that He is not at all just, we falsify the principle that there are things which are just and good in themselves and others which are evil and unjust. Again, if we suppose that He is just in the same way as man is, it becomes necessary to admit there is some defect in him. For one who is just, his existence is for the sake of things for which he is just, and so he is dependent upon another.

It should now be known that it is not necessary for all the people to be told this interpretation in its entirety. Only those should be told it who have some doubts about this problem. For not every one among the common people is confronted[289] by these contradictions in the universal verses, and Tradition. Such people must believe in the exoteric meanings of them.

There is another reason for these verses.

The common people cannot differentiate between possible and impossible, while to God is not ascribed power over the impossible. If they be told what is impossible (Mustahil) and they think that God has power over it, and then told that God has no power, they begin to think that there is some defect in God, because He cannot do a certain thing and hence He is weak. As the existence of things free from evil was possible according to the masses, God has said, “If we had pleased, we had certainly given every soul its direction; but the word which hath proceeded from Me must necessarily be fulfilled, when I said, Verily I will fill the hell with genii and men, altogether.”[154] This verse means one thing to the common people, and the other to the learned.

The former take it to mean that it is not[290] incumbent upon him that He should create a class of men to whom evil may be attached. But it really means: Had we thought we could create men with whom evil could not be attached, but would have been good in all and all, and hence every one had been given his guidance. This much is enough for this problem. Now we would deal with the fifth question.