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Hundred Questions - Why are there Difficulties in the World?
Why are there Difficulties in the World?
Q66 If God, the Holy, is Beneficent, Merciful, Bountiful and Generous, why are there so many difficulties in this world? Why are there poverty, destitution and sickness among children? Why are there wars?
A66
- No matter how much we praise the attributive names of God, it is not enough. For they encompass the entire divine knowledge and wisdom, and the entire law of nature as described in detail in the Qur'an. Regardless of the difficulties found in the world of humanity, they do not negate the beauties of His essence and attributes, nor are they contrary to Qur'anic wisdom.
- Leaving adults aside you have raised the question of the poverty, destitution and sickness of innocent children, lest we evade answering the question concerning the suffering of adults that is the punishment of their sins. Your question is valid, but it should be remembered that suffering does not always come because of sin, but because of some other expedience also. Think of the pure lives of the Prophets. Were they not more pure and innocent than children? Were they (God forbid) being punished for their misdeeds committed in their previous birth? Why did they suffer more than other human beings? You should think carefully in this respect.
- It should also be remembered that according to Qur'anic wisdom one thing has several names. For instance, from the worldly point of view, when some cash or kind is taken from someone, it can be a fine or a penalty as well as a gift. Whether it was a gift or a fine is known to the individuals or parties concerned. Similarly, suffering or affliction is not necessarily a punishment, but can also be a bandagi or a sacrifice in some cases.
- There is a king of both the worlds, Who is [called] God. There is and has to be everything in His Kingdom and Godhead. If we observe with the eye of wisdom we will come to know that neither suffering nor sickness are meaningless, nor are all those wars which take place naturally. This does not mean that sickness should not be cured or we should not use reason and wisdom to avoid suffering. Nor should we consider wars `ibadat in all cases. On the contrary, it is necessary to continue to try to eradicate suffering and tribulation. If this is not possible we should regard them as natural calamities, and believe that [divine] wisdom and expedience lie in them.
- Human life is a wonderful and marvellous thing. It has very many aspects. For the human being lives not only within himself but also in others. In a limited sense he lives a personal and individual life and has a somewhat small separate world of his imagination, thoughts, words and deeds, whose account, in a way, is separate and personal. However, it is an undeniable fact that he also has a homely and family life, the condition of which is such that sometimes he suffers because of his family members and sometimes they give him great joy. Why should there be wonder in this, for this is the unity and integrity of the family and the members of the family are like the limbs and parts of each other. In wise people's view this same example is applicable to that life which he lives with the people of a town, city and country. This means that he cannot remain indifferent to and disinterested in the problems of the collective life of any stratum, nor can he remain isolated from the results and consequences of the collective good or bad of his country and nation.
- Similarly, every follower of a faith also has a communal and a religious life, and the final and greatest life of all kinds of people is the one towards which they have to return, willingly or unwillingly (3:83), which is such a universal life that in it all the souls of the people found from pre-eternity to post-eternity live as a single soul (31:28). As God says: "Your creation (in pre- eternity) and your resurrection (in post-eternity) are but as one soul (i.e. the Universal Soul)". That is, all of you are one in the Universal Soul. If you create the eye of certainty in yourself you will see how, despite your being a single drop of soul, you are one in the ocean of the Universal Soul.
To sum up the above elaboration, both from the worldly and the religious points of view, the meritorious deeds of the individual and all sorts of the collective lives of man cannot be accomplished without difficulties. For the greatest happiness and the greatest pride for man in this world and in the hereafter is in enduring the hardest difficulties and sufferings in the path of God and in offering the greatest sacrifices for the sake of His creatures. Therefore, although the heavy punishment of not recognising God is valid in its own place, yet finally a time has to come in which the people of all religions have to gather together in God's infinite mercy.
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