Punishment, trial, or natural phenomena ... divine wisdom and interpretation of cosmic disasters

Every crisis and every exceptional cosmic phenomenon, such as the eruption of a volcano, the occurrence of a hurricane, or the spread of a dangerous virus, provide a series of discussions at the religious faith level, especially if these events are related to consequences affecting the human existence with life, death or suffering. In other words, when a person is terrified of a matter of majesty, a grave event and a huge catastrophe, such as seeing blood flying or bodies being spilled, or victims falling; His existential questions arise.

It is the same catastrophes and human suffering that our questions in our contemporary situation explode, such as: Why does God not intervene in Syria to save the innocent? Or where is God from what is going on in Gaza for the victory of Muslims? Why did the Crane of the Great Mosque of Mecca fall and kill the innocent worshipers? What were they wrong? Does this virus punish us for our past actions? Will life be easier for those who are good and righteous than people?

To answer these questions, we need to disassemble and discuss three main issues: first, the concepts of affliction and punishment, and secondly, the divine wisdom of events and phenomena, and thirdly, the interpretative model of faith in the universe, to finally come to the believer’s position on cosmic events.

“I pondered a strange situation ... such as the impression of a young man whose intended purpose was some of his building, and it was more astonishing than that to take a child from his father’s palms, and the secret of his depravity does not appear, and God does not need to take it, and his parents are the poorest of his creatures to stay, and the envelope of him is to keep a pyramid (old) And he does not know the meaning of survival, and he only has harm in his survival, and from this race: sustenance sustains the wise believer, and expands it to the foolish infidel. And in analogues to these aforemention, the mind is puzzled in its reasoning and remains amazed. "

(Hunting the mind, Ibn al-Jawzi)

A large portion of people believe that good events happen to good people, that bad events happen to bad people, that the universe in this life rewards good people with good consequences, and that it punishes darkness and corrupt with negative consequences, which we call the moral consequence (Karma). Here, the first problem arises, as the concept of moral consequence is intruder from a nodal point of view and comes from East Asian religions. Life in the Islamic conception is full of calamities and exams that include the good and the bad, and it is one of the forms of affliction: “ Let us enlighten you with fear and hunger, a shortage of money, souls and fruits, and the preaching of the patient ” (1).

Even the Qur’an is aware of this belief, and this perception that a person may think that what happens in the world in terms of calamities or blessings is an expression of divine contentment or discontentment . If he is afflicted, then he will be able to provide for his livelihood, and my Lord will say that he has insulted (16) "(2). But the Qur’an immediately warns in the next verse that: “ No ,” (17), that is, the matter is not what you went to. Earthly honor is not a sign of contentment, nor is calamity an indication of discontent necessarily. Likewise, God Almighty says: “ Do they reckon that we will provide them with Money and Benin (55) We hasten to them in good deeds, but do not feel (56) "(3).

The problem of believing in the moral consequence in its absolute form is that if every person gets the reward for his good deed in this world, and every person gets a penalty for his bad work in this world, then this will nullify any value for the last day and for the reckoning and punishment, as it is not needed, because all people have already On the consequences of their actions and obtaining what they deserve in this world. Also, this interpretation will not help us very much when we see an innocent child suffering from cancer, and a good woman who suffers from successive hardships in her life.

And because if every global calamity, disaster or calamity was an expression of divine discontent, then we would fall into trouble when explaining a number of things:

• The affliction of the prophets, who are those who disobey and not disobey God, and they feared the creation and honored them with God, yet they were tested with the loss of loved ones, disease, harm, chase, and other forms of affliction, so they were patient and thanked.
• Some of the honorable Companions lived in a time and place where the plague occurred, so whoever makes the plague a punishment that necessarily took place as a moral consequence for the actions of people, it flatters the companions ’ethics, piety, and faith.
• The Holy Qur’an documented an immortal story about the owners of the groove who believed in God, and the unjust king threw them in a groove in which they lit the fire and died on the faith, and they died wronged and lived the darkness, they believed in the description of the Qur’an himself, and yet they died wronged by burning with fire, but God will triumph over them on the Day of Resurrection Restore their rights, and reward them for their patience and faith.

If the matter is not purely moral consequences, then what does the Islamic conception tell us?

Before answering this question, we must realize that religion is not understood by one text, not by one hadith or one verse, but rather by the entirety of its texts, its origins, purposes, and spirit, as some of the evidence is stronger than some, and some of it is more meaningful than others, and in this Imam Shatby says in approvals : “Evidence was inferred by the verses separately, and the hadiths separately.” (4) The legal evidence is dependent on its significance - after the validity of its evidence - on: “the transfer of languages, grammar, non-participation, lack of permissibility, legal or regular transmission, predicate, and allocation to the public , Absolute restraint, non-copyist, presentation and delay, and mental opponents "(5). Al-Shatby's intention here is that every legal evidence needs to verify its significance through several considerations in order to understand its significance, and in order not to be a text that is restricted or specific to an event, category, time, or abrogated from its basis.

Therefore, the fundamentalists and the owners of the Maqasidiyya School, headed by Shatby, see that the Sharia is made up of colleges and molecules, and that the particles should not contradict the colleges or revoke them as invalid. Among the practical examples of the idea of ​​colleges and how they judge and control the particles is what Ibn Al-Qayyim mentioned in his book “Informing the Signatories” when he said: “The law is the fairest of all, the mercy of all, the interests of all, and the wisdom of all.” Every issue went out of justice to injustice and mercy to Against it, and from the interest to the spoiler, and from the wisdom to the absurd, it is not from the Sharia, and if it is inserted in it by interpretation "(6).

Now we can answer this question in three levels:

• Man and his position with God

One of the wonderful quotations that may sum up the saying in this regard is a wisdom mentioned by Ibn Ata Allah of Alexandria in his wisdom, when he says: “If you want to know with God your standing, look at what he has raised you” (7), i.e. if you want to know your position with God, then look at What you do in your life, if you do good and walk in the needs of people, and believe in your request, and do not oppress anyone, and say and do good, then your standing with God is good, and if you are in your life you walk in gossip, lying, deception, disobedience and people’s injustice, then your standing with God is evil, Good behavior. A person’s standing is what he does, not what befalls him, and the origin of this noble Prophet’s saying: “God gives the world to those who love and who does not love, and faith is given only to those who love.” (8) The beautiful thing in this scenario is that it makes a person's position with his Lord the personal responsibility of the individual, so he who seeks good and commits to doing good is an expression of God’s success for him and his contentment and vice versa.

• Societal injustice and human errors

The fate of the unjust according to the Qur’an bears a double face. In Surat Maryam, God the Exalted, the Exalted, says to His Prophet: “ Say: Whoever is in a delusion, let the Beneficent extend for a period of time even if they see what they are promised either as torment or as the hour they will know ” (9), meaning that the options that may occur For the dark and the corrupt are either an urgent torment in this world or a postponed torment in the Hereafter. And in this is the root of justice, because it is absolutely free for a person to be able to sin, sin and debauchery, and he may repent and correct his mistakes, and he may not do so, and the eschatological account will follow him. The intention here is that we do not know after the death of the Holy Prophet, which incidents I want to torment its owners and which are delayed until the Day of Resurrection, but what we know is that darkness will eventually receive their punishment.

• Cosmic events and natural phenomena

The cosmic events carry many divine judgment that are difficult to explain on its face, for in the event of annihilation which one thinks at first glance when it is read that it is a calamity and the evil of what is after it evil, the Qur’an comes to say: “ Those who came to dismantle a group of you ح خ (10). The intention is that cosmic events are not only in the way we understand them, so what seems good may contain evil, and what appears evil may contain goodness, and for this, giving and blessing may often be a form of examination, and some gifts are evil; Because it helps you to corruption.

A mosque after being exposed to the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia (Reuters)

As for the level of cosmic events, the Holy Prophet insisted in many places of the biography on breaking the correlation between personal and ritual beliefs and between global events. In the incident of the eclipse of the sun that occurred after the death of Ibrahim Ibn the Prophet, people spoke that the eclipse had occurred to the death of Abraham, but the Prophet Soon he re-corrected and reoriented this perception, saying: “No, it was not blown apart for Abraham. The sun and moon are two of God’s signs, and neither of the death of any of the people nor of his life will be diminished.”

It is true that the Qur’an and Sunnah are full of texts that talk about the behavior of people and their moral and behavioral corruption that may lead to bad consequences, diseases, epidemics and indignation, and this is not denied only by a non-believer. But what lies at the core of the fundamental mistake is that a person claims that God’s goal of a global catastrophe or epidemic is a punishment that is deserving of people for their corruption, because in this appointment and allocation there is a kind of daring of the divine self in which man places himself in the position of divinity and places his awareness and knowledge in parallel with science On the one hand, God’s purposes and intent are specifically determined by his actions, which the verse specifically warned of: “ And what the Lord’s soldiers know is only He ” (12), that is, no one can determine which things are soldiers from God and punishment, and which are not soldiers.

Finally, if the totality of texts always contradicts the perception and belief held by people about the moral consequence, then why do so many people, Muslims and others, believe in the moral consequence?

In 1980, social psychologist Malvin Jay Lerner published his book "The belief in a Just World", in which he talks about a transient belief in cultures and religions that many people find that good consequences happen to good people, and bad consequences happen to evil people. . And when trying to explain it, Lerner found that people prefer to see things and the world is moving in this way to reduce the embarrassment and psychological pressure on them when they see the calamities and injustices that happen around them, so when they believe in this perception, everyone becomes worthy of what is happening with him, and therefore it is not my responsibility to help him or To defend him (13).

Book: "Faith in a Fair World" by the Social Psychologist Melvin Jay Lerner

Lerner extracted from his research on this perception the idea of ​​blaming the victim (Victim blaming), which Rainier Gérard explains in his book "Violence and the Sacred" by saying: "We like to think of the victim like this, as he deserves what happened to him, because he usually did not commit any guilt different from what we do." We, and this worries us internally, we search for special properties in it, we make ourselves an exception to it, and makes his misfortune a legitimate matter. (14)

"Perhaps you say: What is the wisdom of this plant sown in deserts, wasteland and mountains that do not get forgotten or inhabited, and you think that it is a bounty that is neither needed nor beneficial in its creation, and this is the amount of your mind and the end of your knowledge. How much is it for its wisdom and verse!"

(The Key to the House of Happiness, Ibn Al-Qayyim)

Imagine that you now live in the year 1000 BC, cut your path walking in one of the deserts, it was a cold night, and you wanted to find a warm shelter or fire sleeping near it, but you did not find, and during your search you heard a sound of turmoil in the interior of a spot of the earth, you dig, but unfortunately you You find a black, unpleasant liquid that is of no use to anything, so curse yourself, you wasted your time and effort to find what is worthless, then curse existence, what is the value of this questioner and why is it present mainly, what a mess.

But mankind will have another opinion after 3000 thousand years, as what was once in vain has become black gold, which has a symbolic and material value capable of warming the entire Sohar at night. But at that moment, in your limited existence in time, you understand the amount of your data, you do not see further than your nose, and you cannot understand that things have dimensions that do not appear at the same moment, and that what appears to be futile today will devolve gold tomorrow.

It is striking that a person has the courage to make judgments on many matters, despite his limited awareness, and this may not be limited to popular and daily behavior, as this happens a lot in scientific discoveries, in 1972 scientists discovered that not a small part of the DNA It consists of parts that have no practical value, and have no function, merely a scrap or a garbage and an evolutionary appendix, which they called "Junk DNA", that is scrap. *

However, a series of subsequent studies, which were relatively late until 2012, showed that this part plays a very important role in the mechanisms of copying and coding and organizing it to return after what was called a valuable scrap. It is only for you that if you were a scientist who conducted these researches and adopted a dogmatic position based on your research, that our bodies and the universe are full of scrap and absurd assets, and she died in 2000, for example, before the discovery of the importance and purpose of this present, you would be indignant and believing in the absurdity of existence. Life is a story from which a person only witnesses a very small episode in terms of temporal perspective.

One of the funny cartoons exposed this human cognitive deficiency in exchange for his daring to launch absurdity over the discoveries, and in this caricature the DNA scrap (Junk DNA) is lying in the garbage, and shouting in the human face: just because you can not understand our job (our importance) It doesn't make you authorized to call us "junk".

The purpose of listing these examples is to emphasize one point. That we often cannot understand because we are limited by our primary data, and trapped by the accumulated scientific knowledge we have in our time, and it would be conceited and arrogant to pretend that we understood, because our human experience has always revealed to us our ignorance, for every scientific revolution describes Thomas Kon (15) Rather, it is an expression of our conceptual shift of the universe as we knew it to the universe as we will define it in its new solution.

The reader may not think that these are incidental events, as this issue is repeated by many scholars who write in the scientific field. In 1980, paleontologist Jay Gould wrote his book "The Panda's Thumb" stating that the panda has a superfluous finger that has no value. However, this vision was completely reversed in 1999, when a research paper was published in the journal Nature by a Japanese research team. Using anatomical images, it was found that the finger of the panda, which was believed to be absurd plus without any benefit, plays an important role in controlling it.

It seems that whatever our understanding, we will remain limited in our time, tools and perceptions, which is what the noble verse alludes to: “What you have come from knowledge is only a little” (16), and to demonstrate this cognitive limitations I suggest that we read well in two scientific fields: Chaos Theory (Chaos) Theory) and Systems Sciences, because they make us closer to understanding the complexity of the cosmic system, the extent to which events are intertwined, and the impossibility of reducing events to initial interpretations, as influences and influences overlap in a complex relational way (17).

In the sense that the single event in the universe, no matter how simple, but completely reshapes the cosmic system and affects it completely, and you just have to imagine a point from which hundreds of thousands of rubber threads come out, and these threads are attached to millions of points, which in turn are bound to hundreds of thousands of threads, then you move the point The first is only one centimeter tall; Imagine how the entire network will be affected and appear new.

Thus, when one person dies, the energy equations in the universe are remodeled even partially and quantitatively simple from a physical side, as well as the production and consumption equations are economically reconfigured, and the soil compounds in which they are buried are chemically reconfigured, and the neurological responses in the brains of his family and loved ones are reconfigured, Psychologically, the network of family relations may change socially. What we see as one event, as we realize it, may be millions of events, which we do not realize. On these interferences, Joseph Popper-Linkius says: “Every time a person dies, a group of worlds dies” (18).

A person may always think that he is the center of cosmic events, but the creator often, as the texts show, is another measure elsewhere, and as an example of cognitive expansion of this issue, it came with Solomon's story, when the Qur’an transmitted to man, ants are aware of the human action, as if he says It is for him that what you do in this universe is longer than you, and that the plan of the Creator takes care of all that exists, and according to you from this is what came in the Prophet’s Hadith: “And without the beasts, they would not rain” (19), meaning that God wanted a people who prevented zakat to deprive them of sickness, and not for the presence of beasts Between them on the ground when it rained them, and this is a simple embodiment that God only manages for man and others, and for the entire universe, no matter how man makes himself the subject of the divine action and its end, and this is from the perfection of Godliness, majesty and beauty.

Returning to the point of human understanding of events, this would be a good occasion to explain a small part of systems philosophy, to serve the context. The levels of relationships between the systems that we monitor in this existence as humans can be divided into four relationships (20):

• Linear relationships, and one example is that you turn the radio control volume control knob, the higher you turn it, the higher the sound, and the more you turn it in the opposite direction, the lower the sound.
• Non-Linear Relationships, one example of which is that if you took a plastic bag (nylon) and tightened it with both hands, it will stretch slightly for a certain distance, then it will suddenly deform and will not return to its normal state (note that in the first stages of tension it was going in a way Sin, before being deformed).
• Complex Systems, and the simplest explanation for it is that if you come with a grain of sand on a table, then put another grain next to it to settle each grain in place, and thus add each time a new grain above and its side until the pile of sand becomes stable, then if you add after This is all the grain of a million. For example, on this pile, suddenly the pile of sand will collapse, by flowing a torrent of sand on the side of the pile down, even though before this movement we did not get a "one millionth of the flow" when the first sand grain was placed. What actually happened was that the system had reached a certain level of complexity, which led to the emergence of new behaviors in the system (such as the flow of sand flow) parts of which had not previously appeared. These new behaviors are called emergent properties.
• Adaptive systems, which are a form of basically complex systems, but the primary elements of this system are not as solid as the sand in the previous example, but rather adaptive units, such as humans, market economies or the nervous system in the human brain.

You may ask: What does all this have to do with our topic? The human being in terms of his awareness of events at the present moment cannot observe a more understandable pattern of linear relationships and some non-linear relationships at best. As for the rest of the systems, it needs many simulation and mathematical analysis tools that help it represent and embody cosmic relationships in an understandable relationship.

The simplest representation of this is that when you see a person cross the street, and a car is walking, then you say that he will "be run over", it is because your mind is able to predict this event by virtue of the fact that the speed equations of the car and the person who crosses the street are walking according to a linear equation. But why was we struck by a bomb explosion in front of us? In addition to its destructive power, sound, and effects, the bomb explosion equation operates within more complex equations of type, accelerating tremendously at the level of "spacetime", and in a way we cannot perceive essentially, which confuses us when you ask: What happened? He replies: I don't know, everything happened suddenly, I didn't understand what happened!

The conclusion that systems science predicts is that what people often perceive is simply chaos, "confusion", or incomprehensible things that are not only a system that is arranged and is not random, but our minds cannot understand them intuitively as they are. All that is random is complex relationships that we have not yet understood, and all that is chaotic is subject to many laws that we cannot limit, understand its effect, or predict its future behavior (21).

"If the scientific view of the world changes in the future, then every new version will allow itself to be a religious reading, but also an atheistic reading, the universe will always be the same as having a dual religious connotation."

(Beyond The Big Bang Quantum Cosmologies And God, Willem B. Drees)

The cosmic events will continue to hold a dual interpretative connotation until the Day of Resurrection, and the world will not settle for you for the benefit of the believers, and this is a natural thing in front of a religious conception of the world as a testing ground in which God tests the faith of the believers, because if the universe always carries only a single monistic connotation, then the earthly test will fall It was imperative for all to believe, and for the whole world to be made among the believers, “ If your Lord wanted, all those on earth would be safe. ” (22) But the difference is the Sunnah of the universe, and an essential part of what is going on with the universe, but rather what is necessary for testing faith, and because freedom of error and lack of faith are imperatives of the afterlife, so how are people held accountable for necessary choices?

The believer knows very well that it is within the divine ability to download verses from the beginning clearly and indisputably in which people subdue faith voluntarily and hate it, as it was stated in the noble verse: “ If it arises, then we will send them to them from heaven as a sign, and their necks will remain subject to them ” (23), and in Ibn Kathir’s interpretation of this The verse says: “If we wish, we would send a verse that compels them to believe in coercion, but we do not do that, because we only want anyone except the optional faith” (24).

In the first surah in the Qur’an after al-Fatihah, Surat al-Baqara, the first verses describing the characteristics of those who fear the believers that they believe in the unseen, and the unseenness all of what we do not see or possess with its sensory proof: God, angels, heaven, fire and life after death and the last day are from the unseen. In the scene portrayed by a theologian in a dialogue between man and God on the Day of Resurrection, man asks: “Lord, why did you not give me the certainty of your existence?” He replied: I wanted to see some of you from you (25).

Because faith requires a degree of transcendence by what is necessarily rational, that is, when you believe, you do not only follow your mind, but your heart also, to recognize what your mind does not necessarily recognize, which is what the philosopher Kierkegaard calls the faith threshold or the leap of faith, which is the leap determined by the heart The result of his surrender, in order to jump on the other bank of the river, that bank that represents faith, and in this Kierkegaard says: “Endless surrender is the last stage that precedes faith” (26), which is what Pascal said in his meditations one day: “What if it were The heart has reasons that the mind does not understand? (27).

If cosmic events always have a double connotation, how can a believer read them?

Dr. Abdullah Al-Shehri (28) suggests that we take advantage of the idea of ​​the similar and the Qur’anic arbitrator, and generalize its approach to the similar and cosmic arbitrator. Phelps text on them. But believers and those who are well-established in science, they return the same to the arbitrator and do not confuse matters to them, and they see that all the verses are necessarily from our Lord. “ As for those who have aberration in their hearts, they follow the similarities in order to seek discord and seek to interpret it ” (29).

The arbitrator is a clear sign, there is no ambiguity in one of the people, and the similar is what constitutes his interpretation on the people. How do we apply this idea to cosmic events?

It is from the universal judgments that God is wise to do everything for wisdom, and from the rulings that God is just, does not oppress anyone, and will not leave an oppressor without being held accountable in this world or the hereafter. It is from the universal judgments that God knows the minutes and details of matters, and from the judgments that the world is a home of trial and trial, and calamities occur to the believer and the infidel alike.

If a similar cosmic event occurred, and it was formed on believers and confused them, such as the injury of a good man to cancer, we refer this to the arbitrator that God has wisdom in all matters, and that this world is a test and trial place, and that one's goodness does not absolve him from worldly affliction, on the contrary Sometimes a person may be afflicted with the measure of his faith, and that God will count for his patience, harm and reward for him.

People are often polarized in two contradictory directions in front of any cosmic event; An educated team deems holiness away from existence and its events and denies that the event has teleological dimensions behind the event, and a team that neglects the intent of the event to the extent that it leads to confer on God and determine its inevitable intentions of the event and the distribution of punishment and reward.

As for the believer according to the sum of the texts and evidence, he is reconciled with his presence, he does not dispense from his holiness and does not lose sight of the effects of God being his ineffectiveness and management, but he is humble in front of his cognitive limitations and ignorance, and is preoccupied with what he is responsible for, and what he must do (the question of work) in front of The current circumstance, in short, we can say that the believer shapes his perceptions in the face of global events:

• He believes that God has wisdom in all matters, understands some of them and does not realize many of them, and that he cannot limit the wisdom of God to only one reason or only limited reasons, because he is ignorant of God's exact purpose, and because he is limited by his cognitive limitations.
• He believes that God will reward reward and punishment, and afflict people in this worldly life with blessings and calamities, for every event carries its good and bad, no matter how pure good or pure evil, “May it be that you hate something that is good for you and may you love something that is evil for you” (30).
• The believer reviews himself, evaluates himself and his behaviors, because cosmic events are a claim to re-examine one's own self and faith, and he advises his community to do good and forbids him from doing evil as he can with the rational argument and good manner.
• He cannot claim that he knows that God's purpose from the cosmic event is a reward or reward. In determining the divine purpose of actions, it transgresses the position of divinity, and raises man to himself from the position of the creature to the position of the Creator who realizes his purpose specifically.
• He goes directly to the work question (What should I do?) By taking it with cosmic causes and teeth to confront and control the global event and reduce its harm, limit its spread, and seek scientific research and practical behavior, and is not preoccupied with interpretation or waiting, and it is one of the purposes of the Holy Prophet in his speech “If the Hour rises and someone has a hand, let him plant it” (31).
• No matter what he likes or desires, what he hates comes to him, he must always ask God for the best of the matter and seek refuge from his evil, and to pray to God with prayers to reveal the sorrow or to sustain the blessings of thanks and praise.

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Margin