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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Islamic Philosophy and the Problem of Evil; a Philosophical Theodicy Introduction The so-called "problem of evil", in its various forms and versions, has a long and impressive history. During past centuries, all great religious traditions – including Abrahamic ones, i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam - as well as Hinduism and Buddhism have more or less addressed this problem and tried to propose solutions for it.

Moreover, philosophers belonging to different philosophical schools have made valuable attempts to find theoretical solutions. It would be helpful here to note that we can distinguish, from a very general perspective, between three main kinds of what may be called "the problem of evil":2 a) The Theoretical Problem The theoretical problem of evil concerns the logical relations among certain beliefs about God and His attributes, on the one hand, and the reality of various on the other.

One question here, for example, would arise as how could the reality of some actual evils be consistent with Divine justice or wisdom. b) The Existential Problem This problem, in contrast with the theoretical one, deals not merely with internal logical relations among a collection of beliefs or statements, but rather with one's personal experience of evils in the actual life which may be highly effective on his/her approach to life and its meaning.

For instance, it is possible for someone who is unable to solve the existential problem to loose his/her trust in God or his/her belief in the meaningfulness of life. c) The Practical Problem This kind of problem consists of finding a practical way to decrease the amount of actual threatening evils around us and prevent their consequent calamities and disasters as much as possible. We may say that nowadays many charitable institutions are dealing with this practical problem.

Undoubledly dealing with the existential and practical problems of evil actually requires more or less some basic ideas and theories about God, world and Human beings and their interrelations. But a part of these ideas and theories could be presuppositions supported by authorities such as religious scriptures or reliable human information sources. Regarding the very complicated nature of theoretical problem of evil, however, engaging with it requires much more!