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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Islamic Philosophy and the Problem of Evil; a Philosophical Theodicy Several Versions of the Problem In fact, what we called the "theoretical problem" can be expressed in several ways. According to a contemporary point of view, the main versions of the problem are two: "logical problem of evil" and "evidential problem of evil".5 This distinction, however, has not been common among Muslim philosophers up to now.

Indeed, we may hardly be able to find any similar distinction in their works. The main section where they discuss the problem is that which deals with God's attributes and actions. Many of Muslim philosophers begin their discussion on evil with a consideration of the property of Divine providence.

By this property, they usually mean a composition of three attributes: God's knowledge of the best possible order of the universe, His being its actual effective cause and, finally, His being satisfied with its actual realization.

Avicenna puts this definition in this way: It must, hence, be known that providence consists in the First's knowing in Himself [the mode] of existence of the order of the good, in His being, in Himself, a cause of goodness and perfection in terms of what is possible, and in His being satisfied [with the order of the good] in the manner that has been mentioned.

He would thus intellectually apprehend the order of the good in the highest possible manner, whereby what He intellectually apprehends in the highest possible way as an order and a good would overflow from Him in the manner, within the realm of possibility that is most complete in being conductive in order. (Avicenna, 2005, p.339) However, according to this characterization, Divine providence apparently would imply that our actual world must be of the best possible order.

Borrowing Leibniz' terminology, we may say that, given the Divine providence, our world must be the "best possible world". The best possible world, however, seems to be necessarily void of any kind of evils, since we surely maintain that such a world has a better order than that of a world containing evils.

So, regarding the reality of evil in our actual world, the theoretical problem arises: How can one who believes in God and His providence (in the above sense) give reason for the actual evils in the world?