"Let me ask you something, have you read the book fo Bhudda, spent some time in a Bhuddist temple meditating? Have you read the Bible and spent some time in a Catholic monestary to see if that is the right way for you? Can you honestly, in your heart, say you have examined the worlds religions even-handedly and then drawn your conclusions?"
Indeed I can Mad Mac, Christianity-full of contradictions, how on earth can someone believe in a religion that just CONTRADICTS itself?
Come on, lets be a bit realistic here Mad Mac, can you (now be honest) refute these contradictions SomaliSizz is posting just like we are refuting these "alleged" contradicitons? I very much doubt, but go head proof me wrong if you can! The beliefs of the Jewish-full of contradictions as well (it's not any different to Christianity really) Bhudda? LOL....don't make me even go there!
"Go home and tell your family you have left Islam and are becoming a Bhuddist. Watch the reaction from your "non-practicing" family. They are more practicing than you think"
Mad Mac, any Muslim family, regardless of whether they are practicing Muslims or not will have shocking reaction!
Anyways, back to the topic!
First, let make this clear to you again.....Allah (God) created men so that they may serve Him. His being a servant of Allah constitutes the essence of man. Man cannot therefore attain to his true humanity and acquire peace of mind unless he realises this aim for which he was created. But how can he do this! Allah, being Merciful and Just, has helped him in many ways. He granted him as we said before an originally good nature that is inclined to know and serve its true Lord. He granted him a mind that possesses a moral sense and the ability to reason. He made the whole universe a natural book full of signs that lead a thinking person to Allah. But to make things more specific, to give him more detailed knowledge of his Lord, and to show him in a more detailed manner how to serve Him, Allah has been sending down verbal messages through His prophets chosen from among men, ever since the creation of man. Hence the description of these messages in the Qur'an as guidance, light, signs, reminders, etc.
Allah, the Almighty, has provided the human being with evidence to make faith easy for him/her. The Almighty (Allah SWT) has given mankind a level of playing field so that EVERY (regardless whether they are born Muslims or born Christians, Jewish...etc) human being has an equal opportunity to understand this evidence. The ability to understand it is not confined to those who have been given particular knowledge.
"God also created poinsonous creatures that bite, sickness, disease, pain. When my girlfriend died of cancer, a slow painful death visited upon a kind and gentle soul, where was Gods mercy then? What we have on Earth is not merca, it's balance. The good and the bad, all intertwined"
We see things that are ugly, people who are insane and foolish. There are storms, earthquakes, floods, draught and famine. We also see people commit sins, show disloyalty, unfaithfulness, greed and insincerity. We see people commit rapes, murders; they fight and make wars. We know all these and many more problems. There are evils caused by human beings and there are natural disasters. There are suffering for individuals and there are those that involve a large number of people.
But we also know that this is not the whole story. Besides all these negative things, we also see beauty, health, prosperity, life, birth, wisdom, intelligence, growth and progress. We also see goodness among people, faith, sincerity, charity, love and the spirit of sacrifice. We also see a lot of virtue and piety. It is wrong to see one side of the coin and not to see the other side. Any philosophy that concentrates on one aspect of the creation and denies or ignores the other side is partially true and partial truths are no truth at all.
It is also the fact that the element of good is more in the creation than the element of evil. We all see that there are more people who are healthy than those who are sick. There are more that eat well than those who starve.
There are more that lead decent life than those who commit crimes. Goodness is the rule and evil is the exception. Virtue is the norm and sin is the aberration. Generally trees bear fruits, the flowers bloom, the winds move smoothly.
But then the question is why does Allah allow these exceptions to the rules?
Let us ask this question to understand Allah's ways in His creation. The Quran tells us that good, evil and whatever happens in this world happens by Allah's Will (mashiat Allah). Only Allah knows fully His Will. We finite beings cannot grasp fully His infinite Will and Wisdom. He runs His universe the way He deems fit. The Quran tells us that Allah is Wise and everything that Allah does is right, just, good and fair. We must submit and surrender to His Will. The Quran has not given us all the details about Allah's Will, but it has enlightened us with the guidance that is useful and sufficient for us. There are several points that we should keep in our mind to understand this issue:
1. First of all, Allah did not make this world a permanent world. This is a temporary world and everything here has a time limit. When its times comes it will die, come to an end and finish. Neither the good things of this world are forever, nor the bad things eternal. We are here for a short time and we are being tested. Those who will pass this test will find an eternal world that is perfect and permanent. Those who will fail this test shall see the evil consequences of their sins and corruption.
2. Allah has placed a physical law and a moral law in this universe. Allah allows suffering to occur when one or more of these laws are broken. The physical law is based on cause and effect. Sickness comes if one does not take care of ones health or is exposed to infections. A car accident occurs when one is not alert, or drives in a careless manner, or if the cars are not checked, roads and freeways are not made and kept in right shape, or the traffic laws are not right or not properly enforced. Study of causes and effects is very important to facilitate safeguards. Even here we should keep in mind that Allah often saves us and He does not let us suffer from every negligence. How many times it happens that we are not careful and still we reach safely to our destinations. The way people drive in some cities, it is a miracle that more accidents do not happen and more people do not suffer. Allah says:
(Allah) Most Gracious! It is He Who has taught the Quran. He has created man: He has taught him speech (and Intelligence). The sun and the moon follow courses (exactly) computed; and the herbs and the trees both (alike) bow in adoration. And the Firmament has He raised high, and He has set up the Balance (of Justice), in order that you may not transgress (due) balance. So establish weight with justice and fall not short in the balance. It is He Who has spread out the earth for (His) creatures."
(Ar-Rahman:1-10)
The way we exceed the measures set by Allah and violate His laws of "cause and effect" is incredible. It is really the mercy of Allah that we are saved. Strictly speaking, the question should not be why does Allah allow suffering, but how much Allah protects us and saves us all the time in spite of our violations and negligence. The Quran says:
"If Allah were to punish people according to what they deserve, He would not leave on the back of the (earth) a single living creature: but He gives them respite for a stated Term: when their Term expires, verily Allah has in His sight all His servants."
(Fatir:45)
But sometimes Allah does punish people because of their violations of His laws whether they are physical or moral. The Quran tells us that many nations and communities were destroyed because of their sinful lifestyles:
If they treat thy (mission) as false, so did the Peoples before them (with their Prophets), the People of Noah, and Ad and Thamud. Those of Abraham and Lut; and the Companions of the Madyan people; and Moses was rejected (in the same way). But I granted respite to the Unbelievers, and (only) after that did I punish them: but how (terrible) was My rejection (of them)! How many populations have We destroyed, which were given to wrong-doing! They tumbled down on their roofs. And how many wells are lying idle and neglected, and castles lofty and well-built?" (Al-Hajj: 42-45)
3. Suffering can also be a test and trial for some people. Allah allows some people to suffer in order to test their patience and steadfastness. Even Allah's Prophets and Messengers were made to suffer. Prophet Ayyub is mentioned in the Quran as a Prophet who was very patient. Good people sometimes suffer but their sufferings heal others and bring goodness to their communities. People learn lessons from their good examples. Martyrs die for their faith, soldiers give their lives for their nations and this brings liberation and freedom for their people.
Concerning your girlfriend, sorry about what happened. Let me also mention that Allah (Almighty) can make death occur without any apparent cause, and He can make it come suddenly at any moment. It is by no means certain that a man who enjoys good health will live for a long time or that a man who is young has a long life ahead of him/her! Neither of us know whether we will die tomorrow even today. Death comes to both young and old, healthy and sick. A man/woman may die in the best of health or when very young, and a sick man/woman may live until he reaches a great age. Your girlfriends sickness, as mentioned above, could have been a test for both you and her (Allahu A'lim).
"Back to the concept of Justice and Mercy. I shall try and keep this simple. You refer to Gods mercy (as does Islamic thought) in basically two areas. The first is the mercy he has betowed upon us by providing us so much bounty here on Earth. Yet I would submit to you that the bounty here on earth are, in Islamic thought, the test conditions. Are creating test conditions to be considered acts of mercy. If you are taking a test in a hot room, and the professor turns on the fact, do we define that as an act of mercy?"
Let me ask you this, lets say you are doing last year of school and you had your exams. The teachers or examiners prepared this cool/comfortable room to do your exams, since you had to write about 3 essays and in order to make sure every single student got a fair go they give you all 5 minutes reading time and 10 minutes to plan out your first essay (they do the same thing for the other two left)....would not consider them as being "merciful" and "just"?
And again, as I mentioned earlier, lets say a mother has about 10 kids right. Can she be just (i.e. treat them equally, give them the same punishments when they do something wrong....etc) and at the same time be merciful towards her kids?
See the problem here is that you are comparing God (Allah SWT) to human beings...if a human being can NOT be just and merciful at the same time (which btw they CAN) does NOT mean that God can't....afterall, He created us!
"You also don't adequately (though you do do your homework) address the issue of distribution and protection of the message. On Islam-QA the "sheik" who posts there wrote "nothing is trivial in Islam". He was discussing how the Prophet pointed his index finger while prostrating himself. I mean, it's ludicrous. Any objectively thinking human being would reject such nonsense. Far, far, far more people in the hisotry of the world have never been exposed to the Qur'an than the inverse. Yet we are suppose to believe that following all these rules, and there are many, are the key to paradise? Follow the rules God has set down for you, and you will be rewarded. But oh, by the way, I failed to make sure most people got the rules. It's as if the professor only told 1/4 of the class where the instruction would be held at, the rest he said "I'll get back with you" and then he provides intense instruction to that 1/4. Then he announces to all, the test will be held tomorrow. The other students never even knew what books to read before the test.
If the message was so important, why did God fail to properly distribute AND PROTECT it from human inception? Why did he allow competing religious conepts to exist? Why does he allow some people to get massive exposure to his message while others get none at all?"
Before I answer your question, tell me how is it possible that, if God did not "distribute" His message properly, there are Muslims living in all parts of the world? Is the Qur'an not PROTECTED from human inception? As for the religions, could this not be part of the test?
