Good, Evil & ‘Adl The Islamic treatment of Euphthyro’s Dilemma

Euphthyro’s Dilemma  Does Allah love morality/ethics because it’s inherently good?  Or is morality/ethics good because Allah so decrees is?  Put another way, are things good or evil inherently, or simply because Allah said so?  This question is known as a dilemma for the theist, because either choice leads to seemingly intractable problems.

Main problem with first horn – inherency  If we say things are good or evil in their own right, does this mean Allah is also bound by them?  If so, this means He is not Absolute, but restricted by some higher truth that is external to Him.  This position would be incompatible with notions of an All-Powerful God, regardless of one’s religion

Second horn – Divine decree or voluntarism  If something is good or evil just because Allah so decrees it, then His commands would seem to be arbitrary  If His commands are arbitrary, the only good reason to obey them would be to avoid punishment  This position undermines the notion of a Just (‘Adl) and Wise (Hakim) God

The Islamic position  Muslim scholars have very largely taken the position of voluntarism  Something is good or bad only because Allah so decrees it  He is not bound by any higher truth, since He is the highest truth and reality (al-Haqq)  He is All-Powerful (Qadir) and therefore not limited or constrained by anything

The Islamic position  “We hold that good and evil are by Allah’s decision and determination…”  “Then lying is only evil because Allah declared it to be evil? Certainly. And if He declared it to be good, it would be good; and if He commanded it, no one could gainsay Him.” Al-Ashari.

The Islamic position  “We confess that the decision concerning good and evil wholly depends on Allah. For whoever should say that the decision regarding good and evil depends upon another than Allah would thereby be guilty of unbelief regarding Allah, and his confession of the unity of Allah would become invalid.”  “…He is free to impose unbearable obligations and to punish the innocent, while taking into consideration that which is salutary [beneficial] is not obligatory upon Him…” Al-Ghazali

Good, Evil and Justice  Does this make good and evil totally arbitrary in Islam?  In order to determine whether the Islamic position is just, we must understand what is meant by the terms ‘good’, ‘evil’ and ‘just’ in Islam

What is ‘Good’?  Allah, being a conscious Being, perceives Beauty (Jamal) in His own attributes  He also sees that His attributes are absolute and therefore, at the level of Kamal (Perfection)  Beauty and Perfection are loved for their own sake (from the Eleventh Word). Together, they are the essence of goodness

What is ‘Good’?  Thus goodness resides in the Beauty and Perfection of Allah’s Essence, Names and attributes  Allah is the most real existent, the highest reality – (Al-Haqq). Everything else only exists because He creates it.  Since all His Names and attributes are Beautiful and Perfect, all that ‘exists’ is perfect and good  Thus goodness can be equated with ‘existence’

What is ‘evil’  If good equates to existence, and therefore to Allah, evil equates to non-existence  Non-existence refers to a departure from Allah’s Names and nature  Since Allah is pure goodness, any departure from His Names is a departure from good  Thus evil is simply any departure from good (or a ‘privation’ of good) See for e.g. Turner, C. & Mermer, Y

What is evil?  Nothing that Allah creates is evil, since He is Absolute Goodness  Things which appear evil actually veil instances of goodness  The only evil is the human inclination or desire for those things which Allah has prohibited since those things represent a departure from His Names

What is Justice?  One of Allah’s Names is ‘Adl – Just.  But what does this mean in terms of His relationship with us and the universe?  How does it accord with the apparent evils we see?

‘Adl  ‘Adl, while not excluding ‘fairness’, means much more than just fairness or equitable dealing  In terms of the creation, ‘Adl should be thought of more as ‘putting things in their rightful place’  The exquisitely finely tuned and balanced universe and the ordering of the nucleotide bases in our DNA, are just two manifestations of ‘Adl

‘Adl  Do you wish for a proof that all things are done with justice and balance? The fact that all things are endowed with being, given shape and put in their appropriate place in accordance with precise equilibrium and in appropriate measure, shows that all matters are done in accordance with infinite justice and balance. Nursi, S. – The Tenth Word

‘Adl  Allah’s ‘putting things in their right place’, in right measure, with equilibrium and harmony, relates to the purpose for His creating in the first place  His adalet creates, with balance and harmony, things in complementary opposite pairs, to make existence known, and thus operates together with Wisdom – Hikmet and Divine determining – Kader

‘Adl  For example, darkness makes light known and degrees of ugliness make beauty known  Thus His decreeing things either good or bad is done with ‘Adl and Hikmet as part of that purpose – to make His infinite attributes known  How else might a finite creature understand the infinite?

‘Adl is never arbitrary  Therefore, when Allah decrees a thing good or bad, it is never arbitrary  His decrees are made with adalet and wisdom, for the purpose of making His Names known, and also to facilitate us to reflect His attributes through our choices and behaviour

‘Adl is never arbitrary  They are not grounded in some higher truth external to Allah  But His decrees are not good in their own right, they are good on account of being decreed by a Just God for wise purposes  And are good on account of being grounded ultimately in His Names

Example: Truth and Falsehood  Lying for example, is not evil in its own right, as though it might have existed existed apart from or above Allah  It is a created concept. What lying can exist prior to Allah creating beings with free-will, who can speak?  Thus, Allah creates the concept of lying, as a way of allowing free-willed beings to either reflect His Names of Haqq and ‘Adl by refraining from lying, or…  To enable beings to depart from the goodness of His Names by choosing to engage in lying  The existence of degrees of falsehood makes known the concept of ‘truth’, which in turn makes known Allah’s absolute Name of Haqq

Conclusion  Things are good or bad by Allah’s decree  But His decrees are made with adalet and hikmet as part of His plan (Kader) to create a universe full of harmonious differentiation, through finely balanced complementary opposites  This creates ‘degrees’ and make existence known. It therefore makes Him known  Thus, His decrees are not good on their own account, but on account of being grounded in Him  The only evil is desiring things which amount to a departure from the goodness of His Names