The Justice of Allah 2

2022-11-28

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In this part of the article titled “The Justice of Allah”, we shall discuss the danger of hasty decisions in relation to the justice of Allah.

The Dangers of Hasty Decision

The Holy Qur’an warns man against taking a hasty decision as often man’s action is based on baseless thoughts and speculations. There are many things which appear to be harmful but actually, they are of benefit to man and similarly many things appear to be very good but actually, they are harmful to man.

For example, the Holy Qur’an says about Jihad that man apparently considers it to be not good but actually it brings good to him.
Fighting is made obligatory on you but you dislike it. You may dislike a thing yet it may be good for you, or a thing may haply please you but may be bad for you. Only Allah has the knowledge, and you do not know. (1)

Fighting for the sake of Allah perfects man’s abilities and brightens his capabilities. Those who put on airs and those who are men of action are distinguished on the battlefield. Fighting unites the scattered forces which are dedicated to the common cause and confer upon man honour and dignity. Basically fighting is the purpose of life for the people who have been oppressed and tyrannized.
The Holy Qur’an says:

It may be that you dislike a thing though Allah has placed abundant good in it. (2)

We learn that the Holy Qur’an warns that we should not think of a such and such thing, guess such and such thing and conjure such and such thing. It tells us about things which contradict the decisions cursorily and hastily taken.

We read in the Holy Qur’an about the angels that, as they did not possess thorough knowledge about man, they pleaded to Allah that as they already worshipped Allah why He was creating man. But since Allah had willed to appoint His vicegerent on earth he bestowed upon man knowledge and brought out a stunning spectacle and established that their (the angels’) decision about the man was a hasty one.

In short, if we doubt about the Justice of Allah and say that if Allah is Just why and how such and such things happened, then we should keep in mind that our speculations and decisions are mostly false and wrong because in most cases, the causes and the effects of problems remain hidden from us as our knowledge and experience are very limited. It is for over several centuries that we have been considering the existence of forests as useless, but with the passage of time, we have now realized that we obtain a number of useful things from these very forests.
Had not people been saying for a long time that the glands in our body are quite useless? But now they say that these glands produce in the blood useful cells technically called phagocytes which devour the invading microbes in our body.

For years people thought that vermiform appendix, the blind pouch at the junction of the small and the large intestine was a useless thing but nowadays it is claimed that this appendix plays an important role in the prevention of cancer.

If we are reading a book which deals with highly important subjects and we come across a difficult word whose meaning is not known to us, we should not arrive at a hasty decision about the book and should not blame its author, but on the contrary, we should review our understanding of the meaning of that word.

Now that we have comprehended the true meaning of justice and that our criticism of it is based on our superficial and hasty decision, we deal with the third point, that is, why we should try to know the causes of our troubles.

(iii) The third point is that while counting our troubles we altogether ignore our own doings and blame Allah for all that. We complain to Allah and say, “O Allah! if you are Just why am I faced with these troubles?” Obviously, many of the troubles and hardships are due to our own faults as for example if we do not take care of our health by hygienic methods we are sure to fall sick. Similarly according to the principle of doing good and preventing others from doing evil and if we do not prevent the evils the evildoers will overpower us and in that case our supplications, implorations and invocations would be of no use. On this subject too we take the guideline from the following verses of the Holy Qur’an:

Whatever misfortune befalls you is a consequence of your own deeds. (3)

When We let the people taste mercy, they rejoice in it, but when some misfortune befalls them because of their own doings they at once become desperate. (4)

As for man, whenever his Lord tests him by bestowing favour on him and blesses him, he says, ‘My Lord is kind to me. But when He tests him by stinting his means of living, he says my Lord has disgraced me. (5)

As a matter of fact, we should try to find out the cause and reason for our misfortunes and afflictions within ourselves and in the latter part of the preceding verse as we read, “Since wealth does not necessarily guarantee everlasting happiness then why do you not honour the orphans, or urge one another to feed the destitute?” Thus, your carelessness resulted in the wrath of Allah. This verse too tells us about our deeds being the cause of our misfortune and deprivation of Allah’s Mercy. The Holy Qur’an says:

Eat of the lawful and good things which Allah has provided for you and give thanks for His favours if it is He Whom you worship (6)

In this verse, Allah tells of a place where Allah’s blessings and bounties were in abundance but its inhabitants became ungrateful to Allah and thus became guilty of infidelity. And Allah plunged them into hunger, poverty and terrible fear. This verse also establishes that ungratefulness to Allah becomes the cause of afflictions.
We have already mentioned before that the misdeed of the people is the cause of their troubles and afflictions and consequently Allah’s wrath befalls them. Here the following two questions arise.

(i) We see that those who indulge in all sorts of misdeeds, cruelties and oppression are leading a very prosperous life! Why is it so?
(ii) We say that it is due to our misdeeds that misfortune and afflictions befall us but those people whose misdeeds are even worse than ours are not subjected to any afflictions! Why is it so?

In the eyes of Allah, all the people are not accounted for in the same way, because:
(i) Allah punishes some people or a nation at once.
(ii) Allah gives time to some people or a nation.
(iii) Allah does not punish a certain group of people or a nation at all and despite their misdeeds, they lead a comfortable life until Doomsday as according to the Divine Outlook on the Universe and life this world is not separated from the Hereafter.

It is possible that a teacher may be having different standards for reprimanding his pupils. He may punish some at once as a result of his anger, but he may leave some alone for a certain period of time, and against some who are the worst he may take no action at all, and leave them to themselves until the end of the session for the purpose of awarding the marks. This sort of categorization is based on wisdom endowed by Allah because all the guilty ones are not equally responsible nor the nature of their deeds and mentality is similar so that we may deal with them equally from the point of view of punishment. Sometimes the teacher reacts violently to the negligence of one of his best pupils because he did not expect such negligence from his best pupil while in the case of his unworthy pupils he does not crack down on them severely.

We read in the Holy Qur’an that Allah on certain occasions reprimanded his Prophets and Messengers for their actions though these were not under the commitment of sins because He would not have expected of so august a personage an unexpected action, but we read about the common people differently. The Holy Qur’an says:
We destroyed the inhabitants of certain towns only when they transgressed and did not repent before our deadline. (7)

It is explained that Allah does not hasten the punishment for those who commit sins by putting them into misfortune but from the side of Allah, there remains a deadline within which they can repent of their misdeeds. The Holy Qur’an says:
They want you to bring upon them their punishment without delay. Allah never disregards His promise. One day for Allah is equal to a thousand years for you. To how many unjust towns have we given respite and then seized with torment (8)

I granted temporary respite to the unbelievers (so that they would repent, but they did not). At last, I seized them with a terrible retribution. (9)

However, Allah gives the following reasons for His giving respite to the unbelievers:

The unbelievers must not think that our respite is for their good. We only give them time to let them indulge in their sins and suffer an ignominious doom. For them, there will be a humiliating torment. (10)

After the martyrdom of the Chief of the Martyrs, Imam Husain, when the accursed Yazid thought himself victorious and successful, the revered sister of the Holy Imam, Lady Zaynab recited this very verse of the Holy Qur’an and pointed out to him that his seeming victory, freedom, comfort and power were only increasing the burden of his sins so that these should become the source of terrible torment for him as the Holy Qur’an says that Allah provides the people greater comfort so that they should become used to it and then He strikes them suddenly with a painful torment. The Holy Qur’an says.

When they neglected what we exhorted them, We opened to them the gates to all the worldly gains so much so that they became immensely rejoiced with that and then we caught them suddenly and they became utterly surprised and dejected. (11)

Such sort of people are like those who climb a tree higher and higher and think that they are getting more successful but when they fall down from it they realize that their going up was the beginning of their torment. Thus, Allah treats some people in a similar way save those who have the capability of reforming themselves. The Holy Qur’an says:

Evil has spread over the land and the sea because of corruption and hence, Allah will cause some people to suffer so that perhaps they will return to Him. (12)

In answer to the question as to why people are in comfort despite their flouting the Divine commands and why some receive punishment on that account, the above-mentioned verses from the Holy Qur’an will suffice.
In this context, we would take the opportunity of referring to some ahadith (traditions) which warn the people to fear Allah if despite their sins they have not been faced with Allah’s wrath so that the matter may not go too far away and they may lose a golden chance of retrieving and the punishment is meted out to them in the Hereafter by their being thrown into the Fire of Hell. It is like that sometimes a patient reaches such a stage of his disease that the physician gives up his efforts by losing all hope and he then issues no instructions to the patient and allows him to eat whatever he likes whether it is harmful to him or not.

Thus there are people who have committed many sins and to whom Allah says in the Holy Qur’an:
Act as you wish; Allah is Well Aware of whatever you do. (13)

The Holy Prophet also when became disappointed with the people used to say:

My people, do as you wish and I will do what I believe. (14)

From the supplications of the Holy Imams, we often read the following words. “O Allah! Do not leave me on my own”.

In short, Allah’s wrath befalls the transgressors whom worldly comfort and pleasure prevented from getting warned and the punishment of the Doomsday awaits them eagerly.

(iv) The fourth point is that sometimes man despite the fact that he had not committed any sin or fault becomes afflicted with troubles. What is the analytical approach of the Holy Qur’an about the Justice of Allah?
Explanation: Allah’s putting people on trial has been mentioned about twenty times in the Holy Qur’an. Thus one of the methods of Allah putting a man on trial and the hardships that have been described above are just the means of that trial. Similarly, happiness and pleasure are also one of the means of trial. The Holy Qur’an says:

We shall test you through fear, hunger, loss of life, property and crops. Muhammad, give glad tidings to the people who have patience. (15)

Here the following points should be given due consideration:
(i) Does Allah not know the type and kind of man that He puts him on trial?
(ii) What is the means of trial?
(iii) People’s reaction to unpleasant incidents!
(iv) Method of overcoming the difficulties.

The First Question: Obviously, our trial is not for the purpose of His knowing our state of mind, mentality and reactive tendency because Allah already knows all this. He knows how we think and how we react but the purpose of the trial is to make us react by counteraction so that according to our deeds the question of recompense with reward or punishment is determined, because Allah never rewards or punishes a person on the basis of His Knowledge about his being good or bad, but He bases His decision on the deeds performed by that person.
The Second question: We said earlier that pleasant and unpleasant happenings are the source of man’s trial. The Holy Qur’an says:

We test you with both misfortune and blessings. (16)

You (believers) will certainly be tested by the loss of your property and lives. (17)

The Third Question: A friend of ours says that the people who face ordeals and misfortune can be divided into the following four groups:
1. Those when confronted with unpleasant incidents start complaining and find fault with Allah’s Justice, His Grace, Wisdom and His method of working things in this Universe. The Holy Qur’an tells of such a group of people as follows: “When misfortune befalls him, he is perturbed”. (18) It means that when misfortune befalls such people they start grumbling and crying.
2. Those who bear hardship with patience and forbearance and they only declare: We are the servants of Allah and to Him, we shall return. (19)
3. Those who exceed the second group in this respect as these people not only remain patient and steadfast but they also thank Allah for what befalls them. We recite in Ziyarat ‘Ashura as follows: “O Allah! I thank you in the same way as the companions of the Holy Imam Husayn had done”.
Indeed, there are people whose main ambition is to bear hardships and martyrdom in the path of Allah and when they achieve their goal, they offer their sincere gratitude to Allah.
4. Those who are on a still higher plane than those of the third group and who not only do not complain or show patience and steadfastness but they also yearn for bearing hardships and misfortune.

We read in the Holy Qur’an that when the Companions of the Holy Prophet asked him to provide them with means and materials (horses, swords etc.) for Jihad and the Holy Prophet said that he had no such means available with him, they returned crying that they had not been able to lay their lives for the cause of Islam. The Holy Qur’an says:

Those who come to you (Muhammad) asking to be taken to the battle, but you cannot find the necessary means for them, are exempt from the duty of fighting for the cause of Allah and they go away in tears grieving that they are not being able to keep the cause of Allah. (20)

People generally react to unexpected incidents very violently. If you hand over a peeled onion to a child, he shouts as soon as he puts it in his mouth and throws it away because he feels uneasiness in his eyes, but the father of the child goes out to the market and buys the onions for the kitchen use. The hardships in life are like that. One runs away from them while the other welcomes them.

NOTES:

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1. Qur’an 2:216.

2. Qur’an 4:19.

3. Qur’an 42:30.

4. Qur’an 30:36.

5. Qur’an 89:15-16.

6. Qur’an 16:114.

7. Qur’an 18:59.

8. Qur’an 22:48.

9. Qur’an 13:32.

10. Qur’an 3:178.