Rather...

Rather, it urges us to search for an understanding of why a just and powerful God allows suffering. Exploring this question naturally leads us into the broader doctrine of divine justice. The question of divine justice is deeply significant because it touches real and pressing human concerns—natural disasters, human wrongdoing, and the inequalities built into social life. A host of objections arise here.

People wonder why some regions of the world face constant hardship while others enjoy abundance. Why do individuals differ so greatly—some born healthy, others with illness; some with beauty, others with deformity? These inequalities naturally raise a piercing question: If God is just, why do such differences exist? Engaging sincerely with both sides of this debate allows us to better understand the issue itself and appreciate why resolving it is essential.

For a believer, grappling honestly with the problem of evil is not a threat to faith but an opportunity to deepen it. By confronting these questions openly, seeking clarity, and working toward thoughtful answers, one’s belief becomes more grounded and resilient [1] . Islamic Perspectives on the Problem of Evil Various explanations have been offered by both theologians and philosophers regarding the problem of evil.

In this study, we will focus on the most important perspectives on the subject: Muslim philosophers argue that evil does not truly exist on its own. Instead, evil is understood as the absence of something good. Sometimes evil is simply total non-existence, and other times it is the lack of an ability or quality that should be present. Because evil is not a real, independent existence, it cannot be something created by God.

Shahid Motahhari , while explaining the concept of non-existence of evil, writes, “the non-existence of evil does not mean that what is known as evil does not exist, so that some might say this is against necessity, because we obviously see that blindness, deafness, oppression, tyranny, ignorance, disability, death, earthquake, and other afflictions exist. We can deny neither their existence nor their evilness.

Rather, the point is that all these matters are “non-existential” and “absent,” and their existence is of “faulty” and “empty” types, and they are evil because they are non-entity, non-existence, shortage, and emptiness per se [2] . Some philosophers believe it is obvious that evil has no real existence, but they still offer arguments to support this view.