Islamic Philosophy and the Problem of Evil; a Philosophical Theodicy

Introduction

The so-called "problem of evil", in its various forms and versions, has a long and impressive history. During past centuries, all great religious traditions – including Abrahamic ones, i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam - as well as Hinduism and Buddhism have more or less addressed this problem and tried to propose solutions for it. Moreover, philosophers belonging to different philosophical schools have made valuable attempts to find theoretical solutions. It would be helpful here to note that we can distinguish, from a very general perspective, between three main kinds of what may be called "the problem of evil":2

a) The Theoretical Problem

The theoretical problem of evil concerns the logical relations among certain beliefs about God and His attributes, on the one hand, and the reality of various on the other. One question here, for example, would arise as how could the reality of some actual evils be consistent with Divine justice or wisdom.

b) The Existential Problem

This problem, in contrast with the theoretical one, deals not merely with internal logical relations among a collection of beliefs or statements, but rather with one's personal experience of evils in the actual life which may be highly effective on his/her approach to life and its meaning. For instance, it is possible for someone who is unable to solve the existential problem to loose his/her trust in God or his/her belief in the meaningfulness of life.

c) The Practical Problem

This kind of problem consists of finding a practical way to decrease the amount of actual threatening evils around us and prevent their consequent calamities and disasters as much as possible. We may say that nowadays many charitable institutions are dealing with this practical problem.

Undoubledly dealing with the existential and practical problems of evil actually requires more or less some basic ideas and theories about God, world and Human beings and their interrelations. But a part of these ideas and theories could be presuppositions supported by authorities such as religious scriptures or reliable human information sources. Regarding the very complicated nature of theoretical problem of evil, however, engaging with it requires much more! Thus, we find prominent and well-known philosophers and theologians (among other thinkers) who have undertaken to wrestle, theoretically, with this powerful and nimble competitor!

In this paper, I shall explore briefly the main views of Muslim philosophers on the theoretical problem of evil. Since, there are naturally some disagreements among these philosophers, I, due to some actual limits, should almost restrict myself to the more common views in order to draw a whole and, as far as possible, clear and comprehensive picture that could be, though approximately, attributed to what is usually called "Islamic Philosophy". It is not necessary to mention here that a comprehensive critical and detailed discussion of the issue goes beyond the limits of an article like this.3

Broadly, we may call any approach to solve the theoretical theistic problem of evil a "theodicy". Therefore, the present article seeks to provide a brief exploration of Muslim philosophers' theodicy.4