Islamic Philosophy and the Problem of Evil; a Philosophical Theodicy

What is an Evil Like?

To present a more or less minute definition for "evil" is not as easy as it may seem at the first glance. That is partly because the word "evil", within an Aristotelian metaphysical framework, does not refer to a certain kind of a particular metaphysical category, as "red" or "cat" denotes a certain kind of color or animal respectively.

We may rightly regard things belonging to different categories as "evil". Some of human acts are called "evil" as well as some natural events such as earthquakes and floods.

Moreover, mental states like pain and suffering provide another sort of evils. So, one may wonder whether there could be a single and general concept of evilness applicable to theseheterogeneous entities.

To engage in a fruitful philosophical discussion of the problem of evil, however, it is necessary to have an almost clear conception of what evil is like. Otherwise, it would be too optimistic to expect a satisfying settlement for the problem.

Bearing these facts in mind, Muslim philosophers commonly try to characterize "evil" especially in terms of the opposition between the concepts of good and evil. A conspicuous view is that good consists in (or stems from) existence (wujud ) and, therefore, evil consists in (or stems from) nonexistence (adam ). The immediate result of this view is that all of the various forms and kinds of evil could be reduced to nonexistence and privation; evils, in their very essences, are of negative and non-existential nature. As we shall see later, this type of characterization mobilized Muslim philosophers with a theoretical apparatus, which enabled them to provide a solution for some versions of the problem of evil.