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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Roots of Religion Lesson 12: Dualism and Monotheism Good and Evil Dualists were those who believed that creation are divided into two - good and evil. According to this they believed in two sources of creation for the universe and said that the good things were made by Yazdan and the evil things by Ahriman. Their purpose in this belief was to make God free from imperfection, insufficiency and evil.

However, they were unaware that in this belief they were guilty of the polytheism mentioned in the previous chapter. Moreover, they were mistaken in dividing creation into two compartments - good and evil - because, if the entire order of things is examined, it becomes clear that there is no evil in the world at all, because everything in its place has the quality of goodness.

They also believed that the existence of what they called evil was distinct from the existence of what they called good, and thereby they came to the conclusion that the problem could be solved by positing two sources for the existence of the universe - a good source for the good things and a bad source for the bad things. In fact, a more careful understanding would show that these two aspects couldn’t be separated from each other.

For example: Rain is good because it is useful for agriculture, but some people may think that rain is bad because it ruins houses made of mud and straw in which people live in some parts of the world. Clearly, the dualists' way cannot resolve the difficulty they raised, because the evil of rain is not divorced from its benefit. In fact there are not two existents - one good (from God), and the other bad (from another source). The holy Qur’an and Hadith show the solution.

Reason would also acknowledge this solution through considering those things whose goodness cannot be perceived at a glance, such as thirst, hunger, the problems of life, mental difficulties, extreme cold and heat, poisonous animals, etc. In fact, in the complete order of things, all is necessary and good. For further consideration one may examine the following: The avoidance of Danger The human body is composed of flesh and bones, which are subject to attack.

Fire alone can reduce the body to ash in a short time, and the same body has no resistance to cuts and beatings one stroke, if powerful enough, can damage it severely. For protection of man from great dangers, God has designed several agents.