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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Discursive Theology Volume 1 Lesson 21: Rational Goodness and Evil The principle of rational goodness and evil has a prominent position in the justice-oriented ( ‘adliyyah ) theology and is regarded as the foundation and bedrock of the discussions on justice in Islamic theology. For this reason, at the beginning of their discussion on the justice of God, the justice-oriented theologians would deal first with this principle.

An Elucidation of the Rule of Rational Goodness and Evil The rule of rational good and evil has two connotations: The actions done by conscious and independent agents have one of the two states: either they have the quality of good or evil (state of affirmation). The human intellect can independently discern the goodness or wickedness of some actions (state of demonstration). Let us explain the first connotation. Two types of labels can be given to human actions, viz.

primary and secondary labels. The primary labels differentiate actions from one another in the creational perspective; for example, labels such as eating, drinking, standing sitting, speaking, moving, pausing, and the like do not describe actions as good or bad, and they only have creational goodness.

Secondary labels are labels which are derived from the primary labels and on the basis of which, actions are described as good or bad; for example, labels such as justice, injustice, honesty, lying, word of honor, breaking of promise, loyalty to one’s oath, disloyalty, and the like.

On account of being the origin of the actions’ descriptions as good or bad, these labels are also called muḥassin (bestower of goodness) and muqabbiḥ (evil-generator), and the intrinsic goodness and evil are related to these labels, and not to the primary labels. Therefore, rational good and evil implies that firstly, in terms of reason, the actions of conscious and independent agents have the quality of goodness or evil while considering their secondary labels.

Secondly, the human intellect can independently discern some of these good and wicked acts while others can be known through revelation and religion. Theoretical Reason and Practical Intellect ‘Aql (reason or intellect) is derived from ‘aqāl al-ba‘īr . ‘Aqāl al-ba‘īr is the camel’s shackle or the rope tied to the camel’s front legs to keep it in its place. Headband is called ‘aqāl . Therefore, intellect is the faculty which prevents the human being from digressing from the path of moderation.