Before to start my argumentation I would like to address the definition of objective morality. Objective morality refers to the moral and ethical principles which we human beings do not establish them rather they are constructed outside the scope of our personal feelings,thoughts or knowledge. In other words they are not subjectively created but merely we accept them as facts and not based on our opinions otherwise it would be called subjective morality.
Henceforth some honest atheists admit that there is no objective morality because if it was then it would necessitate God. However,I would start my conception by saying that Without God there is no objective morality. If anyone claims the opposite then I would assume he/she is committing a logical fallacy because any ethical Principle which we or society would make would be subjective and based by social consensus . An atheist would assert that we take our moralities from social consensus or biological evolution which both ways are refutable . Under biological changes we humans have different mutable psychological and physical features which would contradict the moral principles and furthermore how a non-rational process would give you the knowledge of what’s good and what’s bad. If anyone is in favor of subjective morality then I would object that we human beings have distinctive attitudes and personalities so if a person likes to rape a child then it would be normal under the worldview of this atheist who claims for his/her subjective morality in the absence of objective morality established by a divine wisdom because that person desires to rape a child or kills an innocent human being. Moreover they would have this objection that the majority of people in a society would dislike these evil acts and would debunk them;considering them as immoral. Now I would say that what about Nazi’s society in 1940 they committed anti-Semitic acts which killed millions of Jews according to the subjective morality of this atheist it should be okay because majority of people that time were anti-Semitic. So atheist absurdly makes false and shallow claims against the existence of objective morality. Whenever they talk about morality we should consider them as their subjective views otherwise if they claim it to be objective then we ask where did you get it from and how ?.
We Muslims believe that objective morality has come from God’s divine knowledge and commands and his commands shall never contradict his pure nature. He showed us what’s good and what’s evil. We human beings have limited reason and knowledge we can never establish an objective sets of moral principles. We also have moral duties which are owed to God how we can have these moral duties if our ethics are based by social conventions or biological changes.
The problem of Evil and suffering
A strong objection nowadays by any atheist or those weak theists is that if God is all good and all powerful then why he did create evil and suffering or why he does not stop this suffering of humans ? Or why he does not feel compassion when he witnesses the suffering of a toddler being slayed or tortured by a cruel terrorist? Then it’s objected that all these acts contradict his nature which God Claims he is most Merciful and all-powerful
First of all I would like to review the defects of this objection which is that here God is presumed to be only Merciful and all-powerful. In Islam God has numerous names and attributes he is not only the most merciful and all-powerful he is also Al-Hakeem which means The wise. So the transcendent God with his pure nature has the divine wisdom which he created or does not stop the evil and suffering. We human beings do not have access to divine wisdom of God to know everything.
Imagine this example a toddler wants to eat a lot of sweets and he/she loves to eat it everyday. Now the parents scold and censure him/her and do not give what the toddler wants every time. Now in the mind of the toddler the parents are cruel and merciless but the innocent child does not have access to the wisdom of his/her parents for what’s the reason they do not allow him/her to not consume sweets excessively because it’s harmful to their health. Now if the human beings do not have access to the divine wisdom of God they shall never understand the reasons and purposes behind all these sufferings. By now I would face too many objections for this claim of mine which I am going to address all of them.
First of all Life is a test from God which it’s mentioned in Quran as well. If there was not evil then everyone will do good which the test from God will be trivial. Objection will be risen that why God needs to test us and why he doesn’t take us directly to paradise instead of imperiling us in wickedness of this evil. Well as I aforementioned above we don’t have access to his divine wisdom and secondly imagine in an exam all the answers will be given to the students which shall make them pass then what’s the use of test, don’t you think the test will be so futile and don’t you think it will be so unfair to not differentiate between those who study hard and those who don’t. The same applies to the test of life; in order to appreciate the goodness we need evil as well. I put it this way if there was no evil then there must be no good as well because how would you recognize and appreciate the good for instance how would you feel the compassion and generosity in you and how would you appreciate it if there was no destitute or wretched person in this world. In order to appreciate and recognize the good one should suffer to some extents,or those are sick;Allah enjoins human beings to go and visit the sick,the wretched and deceased ones. Our beloved prophet says there is no suffering on a human being which the victim of it would be recompensed and rewarded in the hereafter or this world as well. Sometimes there are temporary sufferings which due to this later on the afflicted person might turn to be more pious,religious and more gentle. Because now he/she appreciates more the healthiness and wealthiness or being well-off. The exalted Allah will ask his servants in the day of resurrection that I felt sick did you visit me ? I felt hungry did you feed me? then the servant will utter how you can have these features whilst you are transcendent. He responds that my servant was sick, hungry he/she needed you but you ignored him. So let us be frank and do not put the blame on God bur rather on ourselves which we become ruthless and despotic that we forget those are victims of war,illness and hunger.
Some might say that what about those never ending sufferings of some fellow humans, but let me utter that God will reward them with eternal bliss in hereafter. In fact the beloved prophet Muhammad pbuh says those who die of natural disasters or collapses are deemed to be martyrs and the reward of martyrs are splendidly large. However our task in this world is to obey by his command and never neglect the reward of any pains which we encounter as there is a prophetic saying that even a thorn which pricks the body of a human he/she shall be recompensed for that, how overwhelmingly mercy and compassion of God is befalling us but alas we are always ungrateful to his bounties and blame him for all these sufferings which we don’t even know nowadays what’s good for us due to excessive consumption of us from this world that we forgot ourselves. Instead of sitting and complaining for all these affliction let’s turn to Allah and do not forget the needy ones, those severely afflicted of us with unending illnesses since we are given a free will so we might choose to do wrong or right which is quite compatible with the existence of evil and suffering.
By Mohammad Abid Bahrami
