Kathy posted a comment,
"And GOD will save those who have maintained righteousness; He will reward them. No harm will touch them, nor will they have any grief. GOD is the Creator of all things, and He is in full control of all things. To Him belongs all decisions in the heavens and the earth, and those who disbelieve in GOD's revelations are the real losers." {Quoting from Quran}
i have a question. If God created all things...then why did he create the Devil? or did he create the devil? is there a devil? or is it in the heart...our good/bad a heart thing. i get confused.
"And GOD will save those who have maintained righteousness; He will reward them. No harm will touch them, nor will they have any grief. GOD is the Creator of all things, and He is in full control of all things. To Him belongs all decisions in the heavens and the earth, and those who disbelieve in GOD's revelations are the real losers." {Quoting from Quran}
i have a question. If God created all things...then why did he create the Devil? or did he create the devil? is there a devil? or is it in the heart...our good/bad a heart thing. i get confused.
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Dear Kathy, let me answer it with my own understanding. It may not necessarily be in line with Islam or Judio-Christian philosophy. I will explain using Old, New and Final Testament in some other post, God willing. The fact is, I'm not a priest nor an expert, i'm simply a servant of God. Pls don't mind if my answer is not enough.
If we look at the system of creation, the very structure of how world works, then we might get an answer. Take hunger for example. Do u think, would this world work without the need for food, or had we not felt any hunger? Think deep, we need for food, so we earn money, and in order to earn money ppl are doing all sorts of things. And to earn money or rather can say for career, ppls r going for eduction. So they r learning and human society is advancing. So the system is working.
Now God wanted to be known, so He created the Creation. God wanted to Love, so He created Creation. Now in order for that creation, which is our cosmos and universe and planet earth, God created a system (call it by laws of nature, call it by mechnism).
That was physical system. Now for morality, there needs a similar system. In order to realize what is good u need what is bad, right? In order to realize darkness, u need absence of Light (therefore Light in the first place). There is no cold in science, rather it is absence of heat. So, from my limited understanding, evil or devil or wrong came into existence the moment mankind realizes everything good and right. Think this, if there is no evil, can u realize the very concept of good? The word 'good' has no value then, right?
May be the very character 'Devil' is symbolic. Perhaps it was required to let ppl of limited understanding to understand more easily. As u know, human brain always requires names, forms to understand things or ideas. And thus devil could be a metaphor. A metaphor for evil (which is the absence of God's grace).
In Mytic Islamic idea, there is no evil. It is an illusion which is necessary for this world to work. Our self ego is such an illusion which is needed but nevertheless it is a veil that separates us from God. If you have nothing in you but Love (be it for urs, ur neighbor or God), then you will not see any evil, u can readily forgive anything. Just as to a person who loves truly his or her lover, can see only good and nothing bad, its like that.
So to be very specific, the system of creation (and also human mind) needs an opposing idea for understanding. If everybody is same, doing absolutely the same thing (say, obeying every commands of God) then do u think the world would work? (and even though God wants ppl to obey, He gifted mankind the precious freedom.. and that freedom was also needed for the system to work) It is the very idea of evil that makes clear into our mind, what is good. So we can choose. So we can be in the straight path.
May God forgive me for my mistakes. May God bless you with His unlimited Blessings, so that your heart opens up to the Truth. Verily there is no power and might except God. { If you any other question, pls do ask, I will be more than happy to ponder }
Tag: Devil, God
you said:
ReplyDeleteMay be the very character 'Devil' is symbolic. Perhaps it was required to let ppl of limited understanding to understand more easily. As u know, human brain always requires names, forms to understand things or ideas. And thus devil could be a metaphor.
I like this! Thank You! I'm still reading and pondering your words...I'll be back.
Thanks,
Kathy
To understand the importance of good, god created evil.
ReplyDeleteTo understand the importance of other religions, god created islam.
But now a days this devil monster islam is beyond the control of god, god will give a heavy punishment to this devil monster soon.
Dear Prophet,
ReplyDeleteyou have to excuse me !! don't be too biased by the media.
and pls don't make such comment such as "... now a days this devil monster islam is beyond the control of god' ... nothing is beyond the control of God. its not proper to say something like thta regarding God.
Just ask yourself, who is selling weapons to the starving ppl of Africa and else where. Why there is so much poverty in the world? , why not ppl talk too much when everyday there is bombing in Iraq or Palestine? How many ppl are starving everyday in the world because of western policy?
Is it because media said so, that u believe this or that? don't be fool dear friend. use ur conscience.
I condemn evey act of bombing no matter who does that. But ponder this, what kind of treatment did those ppl or their family or their country got, so that they had to go beyond certain point..where they had to sacrifice their own lives?
What made them do that, since own life is the most precious thing to any human being. Media may identify them as simply terrorist, and may be they are compelled to be terrorist, since they r getting no other way of justice. Don't be one eyed.. use ur head.
U should not, and can not judge a religon with only a handful ppls. Few priests are homosexual, few even had sexual misconduct regarding children in church... does it means Jesus Christ (peace be upon him)'s teaching are like that? offcourse not. They r simply few wrong doers, but the religion has no blame what so ever.
May God bless you and dear ones. God is ever forgiver. And God is not only for Christians .. He is for all.
Dear Kathy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for ur thoughts.
Pls do share what is ur own realization on it. I will try to get others input in that matter. Surely its thought provocating.
It would be interesting to know not from any religious dogma, but from realization from spiritual people. Offcourse i'm not discarding religious teachings since they r themselves collection of spiritual realization at different ages.
But personal dimensions would be great to learn, don't u think?
Thanks again. May you be blessed.
My beliefs are a little different from the major world religions (Judaism/Christian/Islam), but I have studied many of the world's religions. Asking this question of "Why did God create Evil?" is very frequently asked, usually by skeptics or doubters or those seeking "final answers." But there is no final answer to this anymore than there is a final answer to many other such questions.
ReplyDeleteBecause the Creator is unknowable, such questions are unanswerable. If the Creator was knowable, there would be no such questions to ask. Would it not seem wise that having created creatures such as man, capable of asking such questions, that the Creator was, in effect, creating the conditions for mankind's freewill, that we would have choice whether to do good or evil, whether to believe men's writings on the "will of god" or whether to find the true heart and soul of the Creator in our own way... thus we would not be mere automatons, puppets to a God?
We were given choice to find the truths for ourselves. We were never meant, imho, to be enslaved or subordinate under other human beings who claim to know the will of the Creator better than we, ourselves, can know it. Most of the world's religions, however, seem bent on using beliefs to keep people under their control and power, often for their own reasons which have nothing to do with spirituality or the betterment of mankind or our souls.
And then there is the whole notion of assigning "evil" to people or beings or deeds or things (i.e. - weapons). What is labeled "evil" may in fact be "good", depending on which side of the duality fence you're sitting on and your intent/agenda and/or perceptions. Villification of other people to strengthen one's perceived worldly position is often used for purposes that have little or nothing to do with the Creator.
I will even go so far to further state that virtually all that we could agree that *is* evil in the world today is created by mankind, not by some supernatural, super-omniscient being. If you believe in things such as demons, your belief in them tends to help things like that be created in the world. I truly believe that the will and intent and thoughts of the human race are capable of creating things like this in our shared reality, which is actually an illusion in the grand scheme of things. Are we not all "children of God"? Who decides what limits that statement puts on us?
These are just some of my opinions. Yours may differ and I'm alright with that.
I will share several perspectives on evil.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of evil was created by God, since God created all things.
Evil is a result of free will choice. It is a result of separation. Separation created duality. Evil is one side of the duality pair called good and evil.
God is in the center of all things. God is in the center of good and evil.
Sensei summarizes evil thus: “How do you spell “live” backwards? “Live” spelled backwards is e-v-i-l. It is the opposite of life.” It is backwards living.
Evil represents death or a way of living that turns its back on the Light. What is the “it” that is turning its back on life? You and me. Evil is when we turn from the light, and darkness is the shadow we project when we do this. That’s why, when we turn from the Light, we see darkness.
God, the original prime God of all things, is lonely. God is seeking a companion. God can and has created all kinds of things, but the best companion is the one that has all the qualities of God, who decides to become God’s companion based on his or her own free will. To be the most worthy companion, versus a puppet, the companion(s) must be able to go through and experience all things. Otherwise, they aren’t a fully vested companion. And such a companion should always be striving, of his or her own free will, to see and find God in the center of all things.
God is in the center of all things. The companion should be able to find God in the center of evil. And if the companion finds God in the center of evil, and can bring awareness with him or her, than guess what? Evil becomes aware that God is at its center.
To be able to perceive the light we need some perspective. Our heart's perspective puts us inside a tunnel, and there is a brin of light. There is where we truyly see the light. We know what it is, we can even grasp it. We can understand its meaning. Being surrounded by light itself, there is no way to understand what light is. we need the opposite to view it, see it and feel it. and then follow it or not. Evil is an option but never a fate.
ReplyDeleteAs to the issue of Evil and the Devil, Satan, or Iblis in arabic, I have always believed that human beings may do evil things, as the word is defined, for many reasons, all due to their twisted nafs and deep psychological problems. I do not believe that evil exists as a force unto itself. In fact, the whole underlying theme of my book, Master of the Jinn, is that in the end, Allah forgives all human beings, even demons, even the Jinn, for He is the All Merciful, the All compassionate.
ReplyDeleteOn the Sufi path, we begin with free will, as all human beings have, but as we travel the path, our free will slowly drops away, and in the end, we have only Allah's will, so that He guides our hands, our feet, and our tongue.
After I had finished the book, I found that this was not an original concept. It was first put forth by Saint Isaac of Nineveh, a Nestorian monk, in around 660-680 AD. His writings are filled consant reminders of the love one should have for mercy toward all of creation, which he sees as the foundation of love and humility. Of course his doctrine of mercy was censured by self-righteous believers, and he spent most of his life in a cell, which is a small room in a monastary.
Irving Karchmar, author of the book, Master of the Jinn.
Beloved Brother Sadiq,
ReplyDeleteBismillah ir rahman ir rahim
You have covered the issue quite admirably in your initial reply to Kathy, and it seems that there is little that I could possibly add. But perhaps I can express some of the thoughts in an alternate manner. Feel free to put any or all of this in your blog, as you choose.
We humans are faced with a fundamental limitation... we cannot understand Reality. The best that we can do is to create simple models that generally seem to roughly correspond to our observations. For example, we do not even understand what light actually is, and our best models generally treat light as either a wave or as a particle depending upon which model gives the desired results. Sadly, there is little or nothing that mankind can actually understand.
Our lack of understanding leads us to create a variety of models that seem appropriate at a certain time and in a certain place... not only in physics, but in religion as well. The common idea of evil is that evil is a counterpart to goodness. That is, that evil is some sort of equal and opposite force that opposes goodness. But what if that is actually not a very good model of what is really happening?
An alternate explanation is that God has created all manner of goodness and beauty, and has given man a veil which can at least partially block the goodness and beauty. As the Divine Radiance continually illuminates all of mankind with the essence of goodness and beauty, man can choose to either allow the full Radiance to manifest in his life, or he can block the Radiance. When the Divine Radiance is blocked, it casts a shadow. When the Radiance is visible light, we call the shadow darkness. When the Radiance is Goodness, we call the shadow evil.
Why would we block the Radiance? We block the Glorious Radiance simply because we do not understand the benefits. That is, we block the Divine Radiance from shining into our life due to our ignorance, our misunderstanding. Thus, the idea of "sin" is best considered as "misunderstanding", and the concept of "evil" becomes simply recognized as "ignorance".
That is, the Divine Radiance is always good and beautiful, and man is given a certain measure of freewill to either accept those Divine Qualities, or to shield himself from them and to cast a dark shadow that lacks goodness or beauty. People call that shadow evil, and the human ego will proudly proclaim that it is the work of a devil... but alas, it is our own foolishness that has cast the dark shadow.
When we recognize that it is only our own ignorance and misunderstanding that causes the appearance of the dark shadow, then we truly have the power and the ability to change the situation. Indeed we are not the doomed victims of some evil force, but merely the victims of our own misunderstanding and our own ignorance.
When we begin to recognize the Glorious Divine Radiance as entirely wholesome, good, and beautiful, and when we recognize that it is the ignorance of mankind that casts the dark shadows, then we have the opportunity to shift from being the helpless victims of evil into a new condition of wholeness and peace by simply allowing the Divine Radiance to be reflected into the world.
That is, when we become mirrors, rather than veils, then we will reflect the Glorious Divine Radiance into the world and illuminate the darkness around us.
We each have a choice to make: to obstruct the flow of the Divine Glory, or to allow it to flow freely into the world... that is, to choose to be a veil or a mirror.
Which will you choose???
For those who choose to be a mirror, a warrior of the Light, all that is necessary is to set aside the selfish, self-centered ego and witness with awe and respect the glorious wonders which God pours forth in every moment.
with love,
Wahiduddin
Author of the website: www.wahiduddin.net
Wahiduddin left a clear comment: that in fact nothing is clear for us, we are ignorant, we cannot understand why God did or created Iblis, Shaytan, Evil... it's true, we don't know, only God knows. The thing is precisely that sometimes people tend to humanize something that is Divine, that we cannot understand its meaning or why it is there and not here or the contrary. It would be better to feel the Divine instead of mentalizing something so subtle and complex. Our words are short to explain what we feel when we feel light (light without colors, light with shapes, shapeless, no light within light, inner light, dream like light, we can't give a description of what evil is in fact. so how can we know why evil was created for? We can only "grasp" a little and this is what makes us follow a path . to believe like a blind would not be fair. Because there are many evidences that show us what or why something was created. Even though they are unreachable to our whole understanding (not even half of half of half...) But they are there, and we approach, feel the evidences and the best should be to transmit them with love instead of words, or mental explanations. or both.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Maryam