A Muslim Response to Evil

Said Nursi on the Theodicy

Tubanur Yesilhark Ozkan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317187530
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Études islamiques

While Christian approaches to the problem of evil have been much discussed, the issue of theodicy in Islam is relatively neglected. A Muslim Response to Evil explores new insights and viewpoints and discusses possible solutions to theodicy and the problem of evil through the early philosophy and theology ofIslam as well as through a semantic analysis of evil (sharr) in the Qur'?n. Reflecting on Said Nursi's magnum opus, the Risale-i Nur Collection (Epistles of Light), Tubanur Yesilhark Ozkan puts Nursi's theodicy into discourse with so called 'secular' theodicy or 'anthropodicy', supported by scholars such as Newton, Descartes, Leibniz, Spinoza, Hume, and Kant. Her study offers a fascinating new perspective on the problem of evil for scholars of comparative religion, philosophy of religion, and Islamic thought.

PART I
SHARR IN THE QUR’AN AND IN GENERAL MUSLIM THOUGHT

Part I will analyze the semantic structure of the term sharr in the Qur’ān. This way it will hopefully become clear, whether man’s general understanding of evil is equal to the Qur’anic definition thereof.

Furthermore, a theological and philosophical approach to the problem of evil will be offered by looking, as a first step, into mainstream Muslim theology in the history of Islam, such as the Ash’arī, Maturidī, Jabriyya, Qadariyya, and Mu’tazila. The second step will be to analyze the works of Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and al-Ghazālī, in order to provide an overview of the main types of solutions offered to the problem at present and to illustrate their possible limitations.

In addition to all the above, Part I also covers a prologue to sharr in the Risale-i Nur. This chapter aims to ease the reader’s way, as he embarks on the journey of understanding sharr according to the Risale-i Nur, for the topic is very complex and related to so many other aspects and areas of theology.

Chapter 1
The Perspective of the Qur’ān on Sharr

This chapter will explore the meaning of sharr in the Qur’ān. The methodology that will be used in approaching the Qur’anic text will be that of Toshihiko Iztusu, which has already been explained in the introduction. The application of this sort of semantic analysis hopefully will help the reader to distinguish between sharr, as purposed and willed by God and evil, as understood by man. Once the difference becomes clear, it will be easier to apply this distinction to the rest of this work.

Three different Qur’an translations are used in order to see and be aware of possible differences in translation: The Meaning of the Holy Qur’ān by ’Abdullah Yūsuf ’Alī; An Interpretation of the Qur’an by Majid Fakhry (both English translations); Kur’an-ı Hakim’in Açıklamalı Meali by Prof. Dr. Suat Yıldırım (Turkish translation) and Der Koran by Adel Theodor Khoury, with the assistance of Muhammad Salim Abdullah (German translation).

Semantic Analysis of the Term Sharr in the Qur’ān

By examining the behavior of the key term sharr in the Qur’ān, it will be important to let the Qur’anic term explain itself for it has been understood in the introduction of this book on the methodology of Izutsu, that to understand the meaning of a word it is not sufficient to simply consult dictionaries. They can merely be a mediator and help.

The Arabic root-word for sharr is sh-r-r, occurring 31 times in the Qur’ān and comprising 30 verses. In one of these verses, it has the meaning ‘sparks of fire’ (bishararin) and therefore falls outside of the area of interest.¹ Eleven of the 29 verses are Medinan verses whereas 18 are Meccan.¹ None of these seem to describe any kind of disaster or natural calamities that were defined later by many philosophers and theologians as ‘natural evil.’² Rather, any kind of misbehavior by man against the will of God is named sharr. Hence, if the term sharr is considered to be a secondary level moral term, in other words, forms the evaluative rather than descriptive layer of a term,³ it is important to build the related semantic field of it.

The Semantic Field of Sharr

In this case, that recognized secondary level moral term would be sharr. The following deeds fall into the semantic field⁴ of the term sharr and form its descriptive layer.

Parsimony

The state of extreme stinginess, withholding things in a covetous manner. The Arabic root-word used for it in the Qur’ān is b-kh-l. This word occurs seven times in the Qur’ān,⁵ one time in combination with the term sharr. In each of these verses God warns man not to withhold from what He has given man out of His grace and God further warns that no property and good in the world can protect man from punishment. Hence, whoever shows stinginess harms himself and not God, for God is the possessor of all things. Parsimony is therefore identified as sharr for piling up possessions instead of spending them for the sake of God is sharr, although one might think that it is good:

And let not those who are niggardly in spending (yabkhalūna) what God has given them of His bounty suppose that it is good for them. No, it is sharr; they will carry what they stinted around their necks on the Day of Resurrection. And to Allah belongs the inheritance of the heavens and the earth. Allah is aware of what you do.⁶

It is worth mentioning at this point that God touches on man’s foolishness when it comes to distinguishing between khayr and sharr. This verse points out that if man thinks unwisely that greedily withholding God’s gifts is good for him – he should know that it is not. What he considers to be khayr, in fact is sharr for him. Ultimately, everything is a trust from God, belongs to Him and will return to Him.

Going Astray

To err, to leave the ‘right path’ (ṣirāṭ al-mustaqīm). The Arabic root-word for it is ḍ-l-l. Being a very famous word in the Qur’ān, it occurs over 100 times.⁷ Preferring unbelief (kufr) over faith (īmān), associating partners with God (shirk), sowing discord (nifāq) and transgressing the lines set by God (fisq) are the main topics in relation with ḍalla. This term therefore falls into the category of sharr, explaining that those people who go astray by committing these mistakes will be in an evil plight and worse in rank:

Those who are mustered on their faces in hell; those are in a worse position (sharrun mekānan) and are more wayward (aḍallu).⁸

Say: ‘Shall I tell you something much worse (bi sharri) than this for retribution with Allah? Those whom Allah cursed and on whom He poured forth His wrath, transformed them into apes and swine, and worshippers of the Devil. They are worse off (sharrun makānan) and farther astray (aḍallu).’⁹

Say: ‘Whoever is in error (ḍalālati), let the Compassionate prolong his term; so that when they see what they are threatened with, whether it be the punishment or the Hour, they will know who is worse in position (sharrun makānan) and weaker in supporters.’¹⁰

Rejecting God

In other words, to choose not to believe in God but in other entities instead; to cover the truth and to be ungrateful. The Arabic root-word is k-f-r. This word, like ḍalla, can be found several hundred times in the Qur’ān.¹¹ Analyzing the context shows that God describes man to be very ungrateful (kafūrun).¹² Furthermore, He states that man worships other things beside God for which no authority has been sent down to them and of which they have no knowledge.¹³ Additionally, one can see a denial in the faces of the kāfirūn, when the revelation is recited unto them:

And when Our clear revelations are recited to them, you will recognize in the faces of the unbelievers (kafarū) the denial. They will almost fall upon those who recite to them Our revelations. Say: ‘Shall I tell you about what is worse than that (bisharri min dhālikum)? It is the Fire which Allah has promised the unbelievers (kafarū); and what a wretched fate!’¹⁴

They go even further and nearly attack with violence those who rehearse God’s signs to them. If one takes a closer look at the descriptions above, he will see that it all has to do with wrong actions; to be ungrateful, to worship idols instead of God, to ridicule the signs of God by pulling a long face and by nearly becoming violent. And worse than all this (bi sharri min dhālikum) is ultimately hellfire. If hellfire is worse than all the actions mentioned above, this indicates that those actions, all of them, are described to be sharr. Therefore k-f-r is a primary level descriptive moral term that falls under the semantic field of sharr.

At this point, one might ask the question, if kufr is defined as sharr in the Qur’an, might the outcome of such an assessment not lead to other evils and be the first step to radical actions and violence against e.g. unbelievers, as can be seen nowadays in many so called ‘Islamic Countries’? Mustafa Ulusoy claims that although the tension between faith and unbelief is an understandable one, the transformation of this tension into violence, aggression, oppression and crime seems to rather arise from ‘absolute unbelief,’ in other words, judgment and acceptance of non-existence (not to be confused with doubtful or sceptical unbelief).¹⁵ Targets are not the people of unbelief but ‘absolute unbelief ’: for faith as well as unbelief are transformed into practice in their various degrees and are not absolute. Alt...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Transliteration
• Introduction
• Part I Sharr in the Qur’an and in General Muslim Thought
• Part II The Nature of Sharr
• Part III The Moral Aspect of Sharr
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index