The Divine Wisdom in Allowing Evil to Exist: Perspectives from Ibn Al-Qayyim
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
Introduction
In times of despair, we may start to question why God would allow the Coronavirus and other viruses to spread. While we can consider how the sahaba responded to a plague for guidance, it may also help to understand the Divine wisdom in allowing evil to exist in the first place.
For more on the existence of evil, read why do people suffer?God’s Existence & the Problem of Evil.
For a contemporary and detailed theodicy see the newly published book by Tallal M. Zeni, Revival of piety through an Islamic theodicy .
Abstract
The existence of evil in this world has long provided a dilemma for theologians, whether Muslim or not. This article will discuss the theodicy put forth by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. It is based on the Qur’ān, Sunnah, and knowledge of the Predecessors and represents one of the most elaborate and comprehensive theodicies in the Islamic tradition.
Who was Ibn al-Qayyim?
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr b. Ayyūb b. Saʿd al-Zurʿī al-Dimashqī, better known as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, was born outside of Damascus, Syria in 691 H/1292 CE.
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Ibn al-Qayyim was one of the most important scholars of the late-Ḥanbalī school, along with figures like Ibn al-Jawzī and Ibn Taymiyya. Ibn al-Qayyim’s name is inevitably attached to that of his famous teacher Taqī al-Dīn b. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm b. Taymiyya (1263-1328 CE). Although Ibn al-Qayyim had other teachers—such as Ṣafī al-Dīn al-Hindī and ʿImād al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Wāṣiṭī—he dedicated himself almost exclusively to Ibn Taymiyya, after meeting him at the age of twenty-one until the latter’s death.
It was only after Ibn Taymiyya’s passing that Ibn al-Qayyim became a prolific author on a multitude of subjects. Ibn al-Qayyim’s writings
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spanned more than twenty years. His foremost goal was to explain and establish the primacy of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah, that God’s Will is concordant with His Wisdom, and the congruity of reason and revelation. Moreover, he sought to repudiate those groups that denied God’s Wisdom. Ibn al-Qayyim was also committed to refuting what he considered to be extremes in Sufi mysticism, such as monism (waḥdat al-wujūd), antinomianism (suqūṭ al-taklīf), as well as the notion that mystical unveiling (kashf) could result in knowledge that rivals revelation.
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Ibn al-Qayyim’s exposition of the duration of Hellfire
Ibn al-Qayyim also discusses at length whether the punishment of Hellfire will eventually end for the disbelievers. Ibn al-Qayyim (as well as Ibn Taymiyya) maintained that many of the Predecessors held that opinion. This represents Ibn al-Qayyim’s opinion in Shifā’ al-ʿalīl. That said, by the time Ibn al-Qayyim writes al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursala he puts forth universal salvation. The essence of Ibn al-Qayyim’s argument is that: (1) God’s mercy encompasses everything; and (2) since all of humanity possesses an innately good disposition, after the disbelievers are punished in Hellfire—no matter how long—only their innate disposition will remain, and hence they will be ultimately saved.
Ibn al-Qayyim ultimately abandoned a position of universal salvation, most likely due to Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī writing his letter al-Iʿtibār bi-baqāʾ al-janna wa’l-nār.
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In Zād al-maʿād, considered to be Ibn al-Qayyim’s last work,
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he states: “Since those who worship others [besides God] have a nature and essence which is wicked, they will never be purified through [the punishment of] Hellfire… For this reason, God (Exalted is He) has prohibited those who have worshipped others from entering Paradise.”
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This, however, does not indicate that Ibn al-Qayyim abandoned his position that the punishment of the disbelievers will end. The punishment of a disbeliever in Hellfire may end in light of God’s mercy, some interpretations of verse 107 of Sūrat Hūd,
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as well as other arguments, and God knows best.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Ibn al-Qayyim’s theodicy addresses many aspects by which the existence of evil (even gratuitous types) can be reconciled with God’s wise purposes in the creation of this world. Although further work needs to be done, Ibn al-Qayyim provides a theodicy useful to Muslims today since it is rigorously based on revelation and congruent with reason, as well as one, in the estimation of this writer, that is of the most comprehensive of those proposed by Muslim theologians to date.
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