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Your current IP address is 8.222.208.146. </p> <div class="paragraphbreak" style="margin-top:0.5em"></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"> <p>Even while globally blocked, you will <i>usually</i> still be able to edit pages on <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/" class="extiw" title="m:">Meta-Wiki</a>. </p> </div> <div class="paragraphbreak" style="margin-top:0.5em"></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"> <p>If you believe you were blocked by mistake, you can find additional information and instructions in the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/No_open_proxies" class="extiw" title="m:Special:MyLanguage/No open proxies">No open proxies</a> global policy. Otherwise, to discuss the block please <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Steward_requests/Global" class="extiw" title="m:Steward requests/Global">post a request for review on Meta-Wiki</a>. You could also send an email to the <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Stewards" class="extiw" title="m:Special:MyLanguage/Stewards">stewards</a> <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/VRT" class="extiw" title="m:Special:MyLanguage/VRT">VRT</a> queue at <kbd>stewards@wikimedia.org</kbd> including all above details. </p> </div> <p>Other useful links: <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_blocks" class="extiw" title="m:Global blocks">Global blocks</a> · <a href="/wiki/Help:I_have_been_blocked" title="Help:I have been blocked">Help:I have been blocked</a> </p> </div></li></ul><hr /> <div id="viewsourcetext">You can view and copy the source of this page:</div><textarea readonly="" accesskey="," id="wpTextbox1" cols="80" rows="25" style="" class="mw-editfont-monospace" lang="en" dir="ltr" name="wpTextbox1">== Islam == === Ashʿarī theology === Most Sunni theologians analyzed theodicy from an anti-realist [[Meta-ethics|metaethical]] standpoint.<ref name=shihadeh/> [[Ash'ari]] theologians argued that ordinary moral judgments stem from emotion and [[social convention]], which are inadequate to either condemn or justify divine actions.<ref name=shihadeh/> Ash'arites hold that God creates everything, including human actions, but distinguish creation ({{transl|ar|khalq}}) from acquisition ({{transl|ar|kasb}}) of actions.<ref name=roy>{{cite book|title=What is Islamic Philosophy?|first=Roy |last=Jackson|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5XPMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA32|pages=32–33|isbn=9781317814047|date=2014-02-05}}</ref> They allow individuals the latter ability, though they do not posit existence of free will in a fuller sense of the term. In the words of [[Al-Shahrastani]] (1086–1153):<ref name=roy/> {{quote|God creates, in man, the power, ability, choice, and will to perform an act, and man, endowed with this derived power, chooses freely one of the alternatives and intends or wills to do the action, and, corresponding to this intention, God creates and completes the action.}} [[Ash'ari]] theology insists on ultimate divine transcendence and teaches that human knowledge regarding it is limited to what has been revealed through the prophets, so that on the question of God's creation of evil, revelation has to be accepted {{transl|ar|bila kayfa}} (without asking how).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Tamara |last=Sonn|title=Tawḥīd|encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World|editor-first=John L. |editor-last=Esposito|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2009|isbn=978-0-19-530513-5 |url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195305135.001.0001/acref-9780195305135-e-0788?rskey=y8ZWqZ|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=roy/> === Māturīdism === In contrast to Ash'arites, [[Maturidi]] adheres to [[moral realism]] (human mind is able to grasp good and evil independent from revelation),<ref>{{cite book |first=Oliver |last=Leaman |title=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-472-56945-5 |page=311}}</ref> yet disagrees with the Mu'tazilite assertion that God's wisdom entails creating only what is good. Good and evil, though real, are considered to be created by God, thus God is not subject to good and evil, human merely learn whatever God created. Blaming God for a violation of right and wrong is thus considered undue, since God created ''right'' and ''wrong'' in the first place.<ref name="auto">{{cite journal |last=Alper |first=Hülya |title=Maturidi'nin Mutezile Eleştirisi: Tanrı En İyiyi Yaratmak Zorunda mıdır? |trans-title=Maturidi's Criticism of Mu'tazila: Does God Have to Create the Best? |language=tr |journal=KADER Kelam Araştırmaları Dergisi |volume=11 |issue=1 |year=2013 |pages=17–36}}</ref> Whatever is considered evil by humans, would be ultimately good. A distinction exists among those who follow {{lang|ar-Latn|tawhid}} and those who reject it. Maturidi cites Surah [[Al Imran]] verse 178, to point out that God does not regard believers and unbelievers as equal; God would increase the sin of the sinners (and guide the believers).<ref name="auto"/> According to the Maturidite school of thought, ontological evil serves a greater purpose and is a in essence a hidden good.{{cn|date=September 2023}} Since God's wisdom is not considered to focus on choosing between good and evil, it is concerned with putting things in their proper place. The existence of evil as separate from good (or opposing good) is rejected throughout sources of Maturidite thinkers. Maturidi himself criticizes believing in the opposition of good and evil as a remnant of [[Persian religion|Persian]] [[Dualism (philosophy)|dualistic religions]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Bürgel |first=J. Christoph |chapter=Zoroastrianism as Viewed in Medieval Islamic Sources |title=Muslim Perceptions of Other Religions |year=1999 |pages=202–212}}</ref> [[Rumi]] likewise said in his refutation of ''[[Ahriman]]'' (principle of evil) that "good cannot exist without evil" and "there is no separation between them".<ref>{{cite thesis |type=MA |url=https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=10585&context=etd |last=Asghar |first=Irfan |title=The Notion of Evil in the Qur'an and Islamic Mystical Thought |publisher=The University of Western Ontario |year=2021}}</ref> === Mu'tazilism === [[Mu'tazila]] theologians approached the problem of theodicy within a framework of [[moral realism]], according to which the moral value of acts is accessible to unaided reason, so that humans can make moral judgments about divine acts.<ref name=shihadeh>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Ayman |last=Shihadeh |title=Suffering|editor-first=Josef W. |editor-last=Meri|encyclopedia=Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|page=772|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LaV-IGZ8VKIC&pg=PA772|isbn=9780415966924}}</ref> They argued that the divine act of creation is good despite existence of suffering, because it allows humans a compensation of greater reward in the afterlife.<ref name=shihadeh/> They posited that individuals have free will to commit evil and absolved God of responsibility for such acts.<ref name=shihadeh/> God's justice thus consists of punishing wrongdoers.<ref name=shihadeh/> Following the demise of Mu'tazila as a school, their theodicy was adopted in the [[Zaydi]] and [[Twelver]] branches of [[Shia Islam]].<ref name=shihadeh/> [[Ibn Sina]], the most influential Muslim philosopher, analyzed theodicy from a purely ontological, [[neoplatonic]] standpoint, aiming to prove that God, as the absolutely good First Cause, created a good world.<ref name=shihadeh/> Ibn Sina argued that evil refers either to a cause of an entity (such as burning in a fire), being a quality of another entity, or to its imperfection (such as blindness), in which case it does not exist as an entity. According to Ibn Sina, such qualities are necessary attributes of the best possible order of things, so that the good they serve is greater than the harm they cause.<ref name=shihadeh/> Philosophical Sufi theologians such as [[Ibn Arabi]] were influenced by the neoplatonic theodicy of [[Ibn Sina]].<ref name=shihadeh/> [[Al-Ghazali]] anticipated the optimistic theodicy of Leibniz in his dictum "There is nothing in possibility more wonderful than what is."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Religious Diversity, Evil, and a Variety of Theodicies |first=Michael L. |last=Peterson|encyclopedia=The Oxford Handbook of Religious Diversity|editor-first=Chad |editor-last=Meister|year=2011|page=162|url=http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195340136.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780195340136-e-12|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Fakhr al-Din al-Razi]], who represented the mainstream Sunni view, challenged Ibn Sina's analysis and argued that it merely sidesteps the real problem of evil, which is rooted in the human experience of suffering in a world that contains more pain than pleasure.<ref name=shihadeh/> === Atharī === The [[Hanbali]] scholar [[Ibn Taymiyya]], whose writings became influential in [[Wahhabism]], argued that, while God creates human acts, humans are responsible for their deeds as the agents of their acts.<ref name=hoover>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Jon|last=Hoover|title=Ḥanbalī Theology|editor-first=Sabine |editor-last=Schmidtke|encyclopedia=The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2014|url=http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199696703-e-014|url-access=subscription |page=642|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.014 |isbn=978-0-19-969670-3 }}</ref> He held that divine creation is good from a causal standpoint, as God creates all things for wise purposes.<ref name=hoover/> Thus apparent evil is in actuality good in view of its purpose, and pure evil does not exist.<ref name=hoover/> This analysis was developed further with practical illustrations by [[Ibn al-Qayyim]].<ref name=hoover/> </textarea><div class="templatesUsed"></div><p id="mw-returnto">Return to <a href="/wiki/Theodicy" title="Theodicy">Theodicy</a>.</p> <noscript><img src="https://login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?type=1x1" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border: none; 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