World War II - the most destructive war in human history- produced a generation so dejected by the horrendous Nazi barbarity that it lost hope in the intrinsic goodness of man and was prone to believe that God, because He had abandoned humankind to the gruesome fate of concentration camps and gas chambers, was not entitled to existence anymore. With the latest Indian-ocean tsunami that registered a death toll of a staggering 350.000 (but a trifle in comparison with the 60 million souls reaped by World War II) and damages beyond imagination, history, some claim, has repeated itself and the feeling of dejection and bitterness concomitant with World War II is prevalent again amongst a large portion of Asian population. Some intellectuals have raised the issue that so much damage is incompatible with the concept of a benevolent God.

     Underlying this attitude is the assumption that the world should be free from evil (1) and that, because it is not, the concept of God's benevolence is incongruous.

But is a perfect world really what we need? And is rampant evil irreconcilable with Allah's (2) benevolence? My answer to both questions is no:

     A world free from poverty, ignorance, crime, war and disease; a world free from failure, despair and hatred is meaningless and unbearable; meaningless because one would not experience any sense of growth or improvement, because one would not feel the need to rest and relax, because life would be tasteless and monotonous; unbearable because one would not be able to grasp the meaning of love in the absence of hate, the serenity of peace in the absence of trouble, the warmth of friendliness in the absence of hostility, the mercy of hope in the absence of despair, the gratification of health in the absence of sickness, the elevation of purity in the absence of impurity. In a word, it is only when the well is dry that we do know the worth of water.

     In consequence, evil plays a decisive role: it substantiates and enhances good, reinforcing, thereby, our desire to promote it. Similarly, good puts in sharp relief the ugliness of evil, urging us, thereby, to overcome it. The balance struck by the coexistence of good and evil is what makes our world a place worth living in. Indeed, an utterly good world is intolerable just as an utterly evil one is! That happy balance effected by good and evil is comparable to the harmonious interplay between day and night: the vivacious clearness of the former is appreciated only because of the dormant darkness of the latter and vice versa. In fact, balance is deeply ingrained in everything; the blackness of the night is offset by the brightness of the moon, the pointed thorns by the velvet beauty of the rose, the warm tear by the refreshing smile, or just consider, for example, the obvious dichotomy in the following pairs of animals: the hyena and the lamb, the vulture and the dove, the shark and the dolphin, the rattling snake and the silk worm. The ugliness and cruelty of the former in the pair is set off by the beauty and gentleness of the latter.

   This striking harmony effected by the clash and rivalry between good and evil – at work in man, in nature and in the animal kingdom- bears witness to Allah's wisdom, benevolence and mercifulness. One may state that Allah is benevolent precisely because he made the world imperfect! Indeed, who but a blind force would create a perfect world inhabited by perfect people?

This basic complementary duality between good and evil will be understood more fully if one emphasizes a little further man's capacity to be angelic or wicked, his freedom of choice and accountability.

     Allah created man from clay and breathed His spirit in him, which means that man is a combination of two powers; a lowly one and a heavenly one - evil and good- and it is man's predicament to be torn between and drawn by the two. However, Allah – in His munificence- endowed man with intellect and common sense, providing him with the natural faculty of distinguishing between good and evil; right and wrong; piety and impiety. Furthermore, He sent him prophet after prophet with basically the same message: worship Allah, the Lord of the universe and your only creator, do good and strive to preserve the purity of your soul. When man follows the path of good and strives to shun evil, he is indeed nobler than and superior to angels (and that is why Allah decreed that man should be His vicegerent on earth) ; when, in contrast, he follows the path of evil and strives to shun good, he is indeed more evil and  wicked than devils.

     It ensues from all this that the evil in the world is man's doing; only man's doing and should, therefore, never be ascribed to Allah as suggested implicitly by the allegation that Allah is not benevolent. Indeed, who but man lies, steals, tortures, intimidates, kidnaps, rapes? Who but the son of Adam humiliates, dispossesses, despises, destroys, and corrupts? Who but humans make weapons of mass destruction, wage wars, pollute the entire globe, waste its natural resources and cause devastating viruses and epidemics to wreck havoc in it?

     This is all the more true as good and evil have no volition of their own. They are like raw materials that can be molded in whatever shape one wants. In other words, good and evil are neutral; they take shape and emerge as behaviour only when, where and how man – to whom Allah gave absolute freedom of choice and power of initiative-- wants them to. One cannot blame the potential evil in us – and thereby Allah- for the evil actually done in the same manner one cannot ascribe a murder by stabbing to the sharpness of the knife that stabbed the victim! If, in fact, one attributed good or evil to the propensity to both created in us by Allah, then there would be absolutely no difference between malefactors and benefactors, between the torturer and the victim – Pharaoh, Nero, Abu Lahab and Hitler would be treated on equal footing with Moses, Jesus Christ, Mohamad and  Mother Theresa, which, no one would consider, by any stretch of imagination, fair and sound.

     One may argue, however, that if one concedes the good-evil dichotomy, one finds it hard conceding the awful destructiveness of natural calamities-- the work of Allah alone-- such as tsunamis, typhoons, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, etc. To address this legitimate query, it should be pointed out first that this issue is a stem arising from a root, a picture whose background is missing. So let's relate the root to the stem and draw the background of the picture:

     Allah decreed that this life is temporary and that it function as the antechamber to an eternal life- the only real life. In other words, this life here below has no value per se; it derives its value in its being a competition ground, a trial field, a bridge to the life to come. In fact, this life must be viewed as a farmland whose fruits –- bitter or sweet-- are to be harvested only in the life to come or as an examination whose results are to be announced only in the Hereafter: he who sows good shall reap good; he who sows evil shall reap evil. (3) In this sense, how can one expect the examiner (Allah) to intervene during the examination (life) and stop the students (humans) from committing mistakes (evil)? Not that the examiner is unable to, but doing so would fall short of any sense of justice and fairness.

     While doing his utmost to till his farm (the world) and make his stay therein as comfortable and enjoyable as possible, a true believer should never lose sight of the life to come, but keep it paramount in his heart and mind. Death, accordingly, is not an end but a fresh beginning. It is the threshold of a new life. The soul, which has now relinquished the body, goes through a state of utter bliss or agony, according to the deeds of its companion. On Resurrection Day, the soul fuses again with its body, and stands trial before the seat of the Final Judgment, following which the soul and the body are led – after the body has been given new characteristics suitable for eternity - to their final abode: paradise or hell.

     As far as death is concerned, it occurs according to a fixed term, in terms of time, place and manner, i.e. , one may die at night or in the day; at home or abroad; in a car accident or in a plane crash, in an earthquake or in a flood, in a state of health  or ailment, in the bloom of  youth or at a very old age (so many people die young while senile people remain alive; so many people, hale and hearty, perish while ailing people survive!). Whatever the time, place or manner, death is by all means pre-ordained, and we have no option but to yield to it. That our own death is beyond our control is in keeping with the transience and inherent imperfection of life; that some people die during natural calamities is perfectly in accordance with the aforementioned nature of life. In the last resort, what really matters is not so much how, where and when we die as it is the kind of fate awaiting us after dying. Indeed, if one secured eternal happiness in the Hereafter, one should care little about the discomfort, no matter how great it is, that may befall one in life, particularly dying a violent death during a natural calamity or seeing one's relatives, friends or acquaintances die so. 

     In fact, dying this kind of death is, in many cases, attended by Allah's forgiveness and acceptance in the Hereafter. Anyhow, whatever the outcome, natural calamities remain, first and foremost, an integral part of the world'simperfect decor and function as a constant reminder of that imperfection. They echo the basic balance overruling the world. In fact, just like evil is counterbalanced by good, so are natural calamities counterbalanced by natural bounties: dust storms and typhoons are offset by the gentle cool breeze caressing our skins on a summer evening; sea storms by days of an unruffled sea stretching serene and tranquil; tsunami waves by the calm surface of the sea on a fresh summer dawn; droughts by ever-flowing rivers meandering through valleys and forests;  earthquakes by years of stability and  immovability; floods by the gentle drizzle breast-feeding the soil, thunder by the melodious singing of birds, lightning by the smooth crescendo of light at daybreak.

     In conclusion, we may assert that evil -albeit deplorable- is a natural phenomenon and echoes the balance that governs all creation- the balance between night and day, ferocity and gentleness (at work in humans and animals),  natural calamities and natural bounties. This prevailing balance generates variety and symmetry which, in turn, generate interest and beauty. The whole process bears witness to Allah's profound wisdom and boundless benevolence.