Why Doesn't God Comply?
Dr. Pasha
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)
People often have questions about the way God does things. Many good people do.
And it is perfectly all right for them to do so.
At least from the Islamic point of view it is.
God, in the Qur'an, not only allows humans to ask questions, he even encourages and challenges them to do so.
So, there are people who do not understand how a loving, good, just, fair and compassionate God can allow bad things to happen in this world if he is really in control of everything that happens.
How can a Good God permit, watch and preside over Evil?
This has been an old question among philosophers, skeptics, theologians – of all faiths – and others.
Eighteenth-Century French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire wrote his famous religious satire Candide to highlight this question, in which he tore apart the popularly held notion that ours was the Best of All Possible Worlds.
I am not aware of any rejoinder to Voltaire and his Candide from a “religious” point of view that could be considered equally decisive or devastating.
But I look at this entire issue from a somewhat different perspective.
And that has been my own personal passport to navigating some of these turbulent currents.
To me, the skeptics' beef – that is, the real quarrel of many of the people who have issue with God – seems to be twofold:
a) Why don't I understand everything God does and why doesn't God do everything the way I can understand?
b) Why doesn't God do everything my way – the way I would do them if I were in charge, if I were running the world, that is?
It seems to me that a great deal of thinking, logic, argument and philosophizing on this subject boils down to these two basic questions.
Of course, it seems to escape many of these often sharp-witted and well-meaning worthies – philosophers, skeptics, theologians, scientists and others – that God knows EVERYTHING. And they don't.
God's knowledge is INFINITY, theirs ZERO.
And that makes a difference. A huge difference in fact.
So, many of these wonderful people seem to be unable to grasp the simple logic behind why these round holes and square pegs do not seem to fit perfectly all the time.
They are not supposed to.
For one simple reason: The pegs are square while the holes are round.
I went through these intellectual and spiritual challenges and torments myself. But thank God Almighty I am over them now.
Now, thanks to God's mercy and compassion and grace, I believe.
And my heart has found peace.
Or, as true believers would say, it has been given peace.
Qur’an: A-laa bidhikrillahi tat-ma-innul quloob! My paraphrase: “Human hearts are hard-wired to find true peace, joy and contentment only in the thought, mention and remembrance of Allah.”
END
© 2011 Syed Husain Pasha
Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional
talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at]
AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com.
