Argument, broadly: In the Quran, God is described as the master of evil and good,

whose identity is concealed behind many veils. If the identity of the master of evil
and good remains unknown to followers of the Islamic faith except through the
Quranic text, hadiths, and sunna of Prophet Muhammad, humans during their
lifetime are unable to embody evil or good in their purest quality. Through the
Quran, hadiths, and sunna, Muslims of the pre-modern era could find guidance in
coming to the precipice of divine goodness by practicing virtuous and pious
behavior knowing oneself, acting with refined conduct towards others, and living
for and by the words of God. Conversely, one may come close to evil through
unvirtuous acts such as environmental devastation, accumulation of wealth, or
abuse of power but never be characterized as evil. In this way, humans (both as
individuals and society at large) vacillate on a spectrum between good and evil,
experiencing both unvirtuous and virtuous behavior with self and others, falling in
and out of faith.
Include: concept of adab as practice of coming close to God through virtuous
conduct, fear/piety towards God, knowing oneself and cultivating an internal
consciousness of ones own behavior, mentality, and piety.
In the two-stage process of human development, mankind is not born perfect but
rather perfection lies in the future. To grow into that perfect being while exercising
genuine freedom requires a certain distance from God in a world where God is not
overwhelmingly evident but where humankind has the freedom to grow to know and
love God. (109)
Christian theology background
It is indeed my opinion now that evil is never radical, that it is only extreme and
that is possesses neither depth nor any demonic dimension. It can overgrow and lay
waste the whole world precisely because it spreads like a fungus on the surface. It is
thought-defying as I said because thought tries to reach some depth, to go to the
roots and the moment it concerns itself with evil it is frustrated because there is
nothing. (112)
With the exception of a few medieval thinkers, the issue of evil was not approached
directly but rather subsumed within the larger discussions around the unity of God
and the goodness of God. A dominant theme in Sufi literature was to argue that
there is really nothing in existence except God. God was the only Absolute, the only
manifest truth, and evil was really a name for not being. (114)
The Beloved takes on so many different forms
His beauty expresses itself in varied artistry
Multiplicity is there to heighten the charm of Unity
The one delights to appear in a thousand garbs
The same idea has been referred to in the verse. (114)
In the Bible the tree is regarded as the tree of knowledge of good and evil or the
tree of conscience, whereas in the Quran the tree is the tree of eternity and
possession In the Islamic tradition, Adam already had God-given knowledge, and

his succumbing to Satans whisperings is for the specific promise of immortality;

Adam finally relents when Satan swears the promise of immortality in Gods name.
(115)
Satan himself cannot change Gods creation on his own; he needs the weakness
and vulnerability of humankind for creation to change. Satan neither owns the world
nor humankind, but he does know that we humans have the choice and that we are
not bound by God to do the good. The assumption here is that creation is essentially
good but open to the corrupting passions of humankind. (116)
In Iqbals view, it is not that God desires to keep humankind from becoming more
aware but Adams inherent human impulse is to reach out for autonomous
experience and knowledge; his sin is that of being too inquisitive. (117)
However one understands this narrative, at one level the Quranic story is
essentially a story of struggle, but not alienation from a transcendent God. Firstly,
evil is not absolute; for only God is absolute and therefore evil, appearing in time,
can only be transitory and temporary, limited to this world. Secondly, Adam
outranks Iblis in creations hierarchy and therefore, despite the power of evil as
personified through Satan and his passions, all humankind has the potential to be
victorious over Satan, i.e. over their own passions that lead them astray. (119)
Adams transgression is not a repeated theme in the Quran, nor is he set up as the
origin of all subsequent human wrongdoing because Adam is already forgiven for his
slip. Adam must now experience distance from God to understand what nearness
was. (120)
The Quran itself does not give any abstract analysis of tragic evil and human loss,
but repeats the theme of human propensity to do wrong and the divine essence to
forgive. (122)
If anyone does evil or wrongs his own soul but afterwards seeks God s forgiveness,
he will find God most forgiving, most merciful (Q 4:110) (123)
The verses do not in themselves tell us what constitutes evil, except that evil is
that which takes you away from God. There is also a strong sense in these verses
that evil here refers to moral evil, the wrongdoings which we bring about
intentionally, which we do to ourselves or to others. (123)
moral evils can also be done unto oneself. Morality is not only conceived
through the ways in which we relate to others and to God, but also to ones own
soul the siphon through which divine intentions are related.
If we choose to look at natural evils in a pre-industrial/pre-colonial context,
they are largely out of the hands of human beings. If we look into natural
calamities and the suffering of the poor or children in a post-colonial/industrial
context, these are the result of imbalances of power caused and maintained by
humans. In reality, natural evils occur to a degree poverty and natural
disasters are part of human existence the exacerbation of natural evils occur
when humans attempt to embody evil which, in the Quran, is derived from an

attempt at eternity and possession. These qualities in their purest form belong
to God the truest sin therefore becomes the attempt to embody Gods
qualities
Those who are patient seeking the face of their Lord, establish prayers, spend from
what we have bestowed for their sustenance, secretly and openly and ward off evil
with good, for those people the end is the eternal home. (Q 13:22, 123)
God does not forgive that any partner be associated with him. But he forgives
anything else to whom he pleases. Whoever associates partners with God has
devised a great sin. (Q 4:48, 125)
God has written down the good deeds and the evil deeds. Then he explained it
thus, He who has intended a good deed and has not done it, God writes it down
with himself as a full good deed, but if he has intended it and done it, God writes it
down with himself as from ten good deeds to seven hundred times of many times.
But if he has intended an evil deed and has not done it, God writes it down with
himself as a good deed, but if he has intended it and done it, God writes it down as
one evil deed. (Hadith on pages 127-128)
Observing the good and abstaining from the bad is essential for the attainment of
ultimate salvation, though human repentance and Gods mercy are constant
reminders of our innate propensity to do bad things and Gods power to forgive.
Trust (tawakkul) and patience (sabr) must form part of righteous devotion. (128)
However, those Muslim thinkers who did consider human wrongdoing did not look
at evil as the ultimate tragedy of creation, and human suffering as an abstract
entity of the world; they did not speak of evil in some pure state because it seems,
if not impossible, extremely difficult to define pure evil. Rather, they tried to
reconcile the inevitability of human wrongdoing and the necessity of divine
forgiveness in the face of a merciful and benign creator. Evil is problematic but
wrongdoing definitely exists and wrongdoing is relational as it harms others an
ourselves. Yet wrongdoing is closely associated with a God who forgives, and wants
to forgive, for an unforgiving God is not God. (134)
Furthermore, while the divine breath is an essential element in the completion of
humankind, it does not explain how and if this makes humanity godlike in any way.
This is not because there is no reference to images of God in the Quran but becuse
the dominant message of the Quran is that nothing is like him [God] (Q 42:11).
There can be no confusion between the Creator and the Created. (146)
-God does not reveal himself to humanity nor does he resemble humanity.
(146)
The Quranic God is intimately but not openly tied to the lives of his creation. God
retains the element of secrecy of self by speaking only through inspiration or from
behind a veil, never revealing himself directly to humankind. The secrecy motif is
presented throughout the Quran in various ways; God hides and reveals; God

knows the secrets of our hearts but human beings do not know the secrets of God.
(147)
God the Almighty has said, Whoever shows enmity to a friend of mine, I shall be at
war with him. My servant does not draw near to me with anything more loved by me
(ahabba ilaiyyi) that what I have made obligatory upon him and my servant
continues to draw near to me with supererogatory works so that I shall love him
(uhibbahu). When I love him (ahabtuhu) I am his hearing with which he hears, his
seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he
walks. Were he to ask [something] of me, I would surely give it to him; and were he
to ask me for refuge, I would surely grant him it (158-159)
Without spiritual knowledge there can be no love; the stronger the knowledge the
stronger the love because love is not merely an emotion but the highest form of
cognition. (160)
-Tie back to quote about the tree of eternity and possession. One cannot have
full knowledge of God but one can have knowledge of oneself, of others, and
attempt to be in closeness with God through pious study of the Quran, hadiths,
sunna, etc.
This overwhelming mercy is a mystery, for it is essentially a plea from God to
humankind not to despair of Gods mercy. Mercy, unlike love, is not bilateral
human beings cannot have mercy on God, but God chooses, indeed desires, to be
merciful to human beings. (161)
Love here is is concerned with the ethical behavior of humankind to each other to
which God responds. In acting upon those virtues that God encourages we are
honoring Gods preferences for human behavior. Gods dislike for certain human
characteristics are the traits that human beings should not like in themselves as
they take us away form God, for example, arrogance, waste etc. (164)

Christiaan Pfeifer
March 2, 2016
Muslim Ethics and Religious Law
Kristin Sands
Essay #1
The Beloved takes on so many different forms
His beauty expresses itself in varied artistry
Multiplicity is there to heighten the charm of Unity
The one delights to appear in a thousand garbs

The same idea has been referred to in the verse. 1

God displays himself in a multiplicity of manners while never revealing his true
nature. Through Islamic doctrine humankind can begin to understand the virtues
and qualities of God. By way of these subtle revelations God cultivates an essence
of unity among humankind in the direction of divinity, piety, and morality. This
philosophical lesson drawn from the Sufi quote above provides a point of departure
for understanding humankinds relationship to both good and evil within classical
Islamic doctrine. Good and evil as defining concepts of human behavior and
spirituality allow us to complicate how and why humans relate to God. While it
seems that humankind can never embody good or evil in their purest sense,
concepts

tangential to good and evil such as virtuosity, piety, mercy, power,

inequality, and mortality, allow followers of the Islamic faith to better understand
their relationship (or lack thereof) to God. Throughout her book The Good Muslim:
Reflections on Classical Islamic Law and Theology, Mona Siddiqui refers deeply to
the Quran, hadiths, and other Islamic literature to elucidate the relationship
between evil and love in Islam, bringing readers to a clearer understanding of the
ways in which humankind embodies evil or good and how this defines humankinds
relationship to God. Using Siddiquis reflections as a point of departure, I argue that
humankind can never be purely good or evil as these qualities in their divine
essence belong to God. Rather, humankind vacillates on a spectrum between these
two, constantly performing behaviors characterized as evil or good while never
becoming good or evil themselves. Through the Quran, hadiths, and sunna of the
Prophet Muhammad, Muslims may find guidance in coming to the precipice of divine
goodness by practicing virtuous and pious behavior knowing oneself, acting with

1 114, The Good Muslim

refined conduct towards others, and living for and by the words of God. Conversely,
one may come close to evil through unvirtuous acts such as environmental
devastation, accumulation of wealth, or abuse of power. As God is the master of
good behaviors such as mercy, compassion, and forgiveness in the Islamic doctrine,
I argue that humankind is inclined towards good behaviors, attempting to embrace
and enact these divine qualities of Islamic piety.

Humankind as Neither Evil nor Good

Throughout the Quran and other Islamic texts, humankind is never described
as evil nor good. Rather, we find that humans are described in a constant war
between embracing a path towards the promises of Satan or the qualities of God.
Using the story of creation in the Quran, we may begin to understand how
humanity has vacillated between good and evil from its genesis. Siddiqui explains,
In the Bible the tree is regarded as the tree of knowledge of good and
evil or the tree of conscience, whereas in the Quran the tree is the
tree of eternity and possession In the Islamic tradition, Adam
already had God-given knowledge, and his succumbing to Satans
whisperings is for the specific promise of immortality; Adam finally
relents when Satan swears the promise of immortality in Gods name.2
From the beginning of humanity in Islamic doctrine, humans have sought out
knowledge which may bring them closer to the qualities of God. The tree of eternity
and possession represents qualities which belong only to God never ending life
and eternal possession; but both are never achievable within the scope of human
life. While the Quran considers embodying the qualities of God to be a great sin, it
seems that Satan is the singular figure who has seen this transgression through with
success. A verse from the Quran states, God does not forgive that any partner be
associated with him. But he forgives anything else to whom he pleases. Whoever
2 115, The Good Muslim.

associates partners with God has devised a great sin.34 In the Qurans

story of

creation, Adam accepts Satans promise of immortality because Satan swears as a

partner of God. Since Adam attempts to grow closer to God through Satans
deception, he is never truly able to associate himself with God as a partner with
equal power his inability to do so differentiates him from evil as embodied by
Satan. While humankind may carry out evil behaviors such as leveraging power,
accumulating wealth, or dehumanizing other aspects of creation, these attempts of
embodying a Godlike sense of authority are limited to the span of human life. While
humans may possess in this lifetime, humans are not eternal, differentiating them
vastly from God and rendering them incapable of an all-encompassing character of
evil.
It is this same inability to attain God like qualities in the manner of evil which
renders humans unable to attain goodness in its purest sense. Throughout Siddiqui s
analysis of the Quran and other holy texts, she does not mention humankind as
entirely good but rather characterizes them through virtuous or ethical acts. In the
same way that God is described as the singular entity which has eternity and
possession, Gods ability to understand good in its purity emerges through his ability
to make judgments. Throughout the Quran God evaluates and ascribes value to the
behaviors of humans, rather than rendering finite judgments on the allencompassing character of humanity. Siddiqui quotes a Hadith which explains:
God has written down the good deeds and the evil deeds. Then he
explained it thus, He who has intended a good deed and has not done
it, God writes it down with himself as a full good deed, but if he has
intended it and done it, God writes it down with himself as from ten
good deeds to seven hundred times of many times. But if he has
intended an evil deed and has not done it, God writes it down with
3 Quran 4:48, Found in 125, The Good Muslim.
4 146, The Good Muslim.

himself as a good deed, but if he has intended it and done it, God
writes it down as one evil deed.5
Because God renders judgments between good and evil behavior among humans, it
seems as though God becomes the arbiter of good and evil, with humans unable to
ever know either of these in their purest sense. Where the embrace of evil and good
behaviors differ, however, is Gods desire for humans to internalize and emulate his
character through virtuous and pious behavior. Unlike the unforgivable embrace of
evil through association with Gods eternity and possession, God encourages human
beings to embody good behaviors and attempt to draw nearer to him. As the Hadith
above explains, good deeds which are imagined and enacted, God writes it down
with himself as from ten good deeds to seven hundred times of many times. While
God becomes the knower and master over good and evil, with humans making good
and bad choices or behaviors in their lifetime, the essence of human behavior in the
Quran is the potential for the victory of Gods mercy and compassion over eternal
power.
Humankinds Embrace of God and Virtuosity
The human experience of tension between evil and good as a major theme
throughout the Quran emerges as an example of the imperfection of humanity and
nearness to God for followers of Islam. In Siddiquis analysis of the Quran, she
frequently reiterates the compassionate, merciful, and forgiving nature of God
which characterize his divine goodness. In order for humankind to understand what
an embodiment of good looks like within a human lifespan, one cannot be purely
good in Gods sense one must relent to the human propensity for sinfulness and
retreat away from God. Siddiqui explains, Adams transgression is not a repeated
5 127-128, The Good Muslim.

theme in the Quran, nor is he set up as the origin of all subsequent human
wrongdoing because Adam is already forgiven for his slip. Adam must now
experience distance from God to understand what nearness was.6 As explained in
the previous section, Adam himself never becomes evil but moves away from the
innocent knowledge of and closeness to God with which humankind is born. 7
Despite his transgression, God has already forgiven him for relenting to Satans
promise of immortality because of the imperfection of human nature and Gods
divine, unconditional mercy. Siddiqui elucidates this succinctly,
However one understands this narrative, at one level the Quranic story
is essentially a story of struggle, but not alienation from a
transcendent God. Firstly, evil is not absolute; for only God is absolute
and therefore evil, appearing in time, can only be transitory and
temporary, limited to this world. Secondly, Adam outranks Iblis in
creations hierarchy and therefore, despite the power of evil as
personified through Satan and his passions, all humankind as the
potential to be victorious over Satan, i.e. over their own passions that
lead them astray.8
While humans possess the capacity for wrongdoing, the Quranic message is one of
evils necessity in revealing humankinds capacity for drawing back to God and the
divine innocence with which humans are born. As the Quran promulgates a story of
the victory of good over evil, the very existence of evil becomes necessary for God
to reveal his defining qualities of mercy, forgiveness, and compassion.
While it may not be possible for humans to embody Gods unconditional
behavior towards his creation, Islamic doctrine reveals the possibility to begin doing
so through the presence of God in everyone and by encouraging followers to

6 120, The Good Muslim.

7 117, The Good Muslim.
8 119, The Good Muslim.

engage in pious practice of Gods virtues. Siddiqui quotes a formative Hadith which
notes:
When I love him (ahabtuhu) I am hearing with which he hears, his
seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot
with which he walks. Were he to ask [something] of me, I would surely
give it to him; and were he to ask me for refuge, I would surely grant
him it.9
As God emanates throughout all aspects of humankind, the possibility for closeness
with God is manyfold. Since the Quranic story is one of continuous struggle
between evil and good, where humans fall privy to the temptations of evil through
behaviors such as arrogance or greed, piety becomes the most important factor in
the struggle to embody goodness within this lifetime. Siddiqui notes, Observing the
good and abstaining from the bad is essential for the attainment of ultimate
salvation, though human repentance and Gods mercy are constant reminders of our
innate propensity to do bad things and Gods power to forgive. Trust (tawakkul) and
patience (sabr) must form part of righteous devotion.10 While God may be forgiving
for evil behaviors, it seems that cultivating self-understanding, acting with refined
conduct to others, and conscious piety become essential aspects to a holistic and
divine relationship to God. While humankind may not reap any benefits from these
ethical and spiritual pursuits within the scope of human existence, the temporal
quality of evil and the transcendent aspects of good give birth to a universal charm
of Unity as expressed in the Sufi verse quoted in the beginning of this reflection.

9 159, The Good Muslim.

10 128, The Good Muslim.