Everyday when we read the newspaper or watch TV, we come to know about many different kinds of human miseries and mishaps. We also see people around us miserably suffering with chronic diseases, hunger, and poverty. We also hear about many catastrophic natural disasters such as earth quake, floods, hurricanes, tornado, cyclone, storms and droughts killing millions of people and leaving millions of widows, orphans, and handicaps.
A question arises that when God is All-mighty i.e. capable of controlling anything and everything and God is also all-knowing i.e., He knows everything that happens anywhere in the universe, then why such dreadful events occur.
This is a very important question. Many atheists use this question as a valid reason to deny the existence of God. This question also disturbs many ignorant Muslims. It is therefore essential for all Muslim students to have a satisfactory answer to this question.
This question does not have one simple answer as there are many different causes of human suffering and afflictions.
Some of the major causes of calamities and sufferings are as follows:
G Reaction of our action and Divine punishment.
G Warning and reminder to turn back to God.
G To energize and stimulate human spirit and to intensify his efforts.
G Examination.
G Divine system.
Reaction of our action.
The major cause of our all sufferings and miseries is our deeds. i.e., in most of the cases we suffer because of our wrong doings. Quran has disclosed this law of God. "Then it shall be said to the wrongdoers: Taste the everlasting torment; Shall you be rewarded except according to your deeds" (10:52)
i.e., You receive the payment of what you earn. This law of God has also been discovered by Isaac Newton in Nature which we teach in Physics. i.e., every action has an equal reaction. If we sincerely study and analyze our sufferings and miseries we will really know that in most of the cases our sufferings are the outcome of our own actions or attitude. Let us see this categorically.
Hunger and poverty
The most common kind of suffering and infliction are hunger, poverty and diseases. Let's analyze the causes of these infliction one by one.
Poverty is the lack of enough income and resources to live comfortably. It is one of the world's main social problems. In both developing and developed countries, millions of people are suffering because of poverty. Poverty is the most common social disease.
Many of the poor people in the world cannot buy the food, shelter, clothing, and medical care that they need. This creates frustration, hopelessness and lack of interest in life. In the late 1980's, it was estimated that I billion people, about a fifth of the world's population, were so poor that their health and lives were endangered.
But what is the cause of poverty and who should be held responsible for all that suffering ? Man or God ?
Poverty has variety of causes. Some of them are being mentioned here.
a- Lack of education, skills and aptitude to do work. Many people don't want to do work. They suffer due to their laziness or less interest in work. Some people think that Allah Subhanahu taala is our sustainer and He has taken the responsibility of our basic needs. It is true, but still a lot of effor ts are needed to take our share from the Divine warehouse. So in many cases poverty is due to the under utilization of human potential and natural resources.
b- Inflation also significantly contributes to pover ty. Inflation means increasing the price of goods which affects a certain group of the society. We experience this problem now and then. This is a man-made cause in which human selfish nature works to get as much as possible without considering anything.
c- Some countries are poor because of lack of exper tise and equipment needed to produce adequate food supplies for most of their people. It is also due to the lack of involvement in science and technology.
d- Many women become poor after they are divorced or separated from their husbands. It is also a personal reason.
e - In some cases poverty also results from natural disasters such as floods, droughts or poor harvests. This can also be the indirect cause of our wrongdoing which we shall discuss later.
Thus in most of the cases we find that the hunger and pover ty are mainly either due to the improper distribution of amenities or under utilization of natural abilities and resources Divine Punishments It is important to know more about the Divine punishments. Quran has described the Divine punishments in detail. However, it is not easy for an ordinary person to identify the Divine punishment and more importantly its actual cause.
Diseases and epidemics
Disease is also a major cause of sufferings. It is said that diseases have killed or disabled more people then all the wars ever fought. Each year, tens of millions of people die from different kinds of diseases. In the United States alone, diseases kill nearly 2 million people each year and leave many people permanently disabled.
Apparently it seems that God is solely responsible for all kinds of diseases as He has created the viruses, bacteria which cause many different kinds of diseases. But this is not tr ue. Medical experts say that almost all diseases are caused by ignoring the standard laws of nature. i.e., our life-style, habits, living conditions and physical environment nur ture diseases. Let's take malaria, the most common disease of the third world countries.
Malaria is caused by protozoan called plasmodia and is transmitted by the bite of the female anopheles mosquito. It is true that Allah Subhanahu taala has created the mosquito and plasmodia which infect us with malaria. But Allah has also instructed mosquitoes to live in dir ty water and filthy environment. thus, by creating a dir ty environment, we invite mosquitoes, houseflies, rats, and other germs carriers in our home to deliver diseases.
Similarly AIDS, the most dangerous and incurable disease, which has killed millions of peoples, is a disease sponsored by criminals. The cause of AIDS is HIV virus, undoubtedly created by Allah, but who transfer it into the human body ? Allah or the patient himself /herself. At least in this particular disease doctors have honestly acknowledged that the only source of this disease is the patient himself / herself as he or she is the one who has acquired it. That is why they have named it Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
Even those innocent people who get this disease from blood transfusion or blades are due to the human negligence.
Thus in most of the cases, the sufferings due to the chronic disease that makes the life miserable, are the result of our own deeds. Black Death.
As mentioned above, not always but in most of the cases, the cause of the disease is one's bad deed or negligence of Divine orders. Sometimes the whole nation is punished by epidemics. Scientists say they don't yet know, how all of sudden a particular epidemic disease grows and spreads widely killing millions of people and then goes away itself without any human efforts. For example, outbreaks of plague have been repor ted in different periods of history that have killed hundreds of millions of people.
In 542 AD an epidemic of plague struck Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) and killed half of the population.
In 1347, one of the most disastrous plague burst out in Europe which killed 40,000,000 people - about a fourth of the European population at that time. This pandemic plague is called Black Death in history.
In 1800's a third epidemic appeared suddenly in China and spread like a fire. It killed more than 20 million people.
Scientists have tried to guess some of the probable causes of these epidemics but are puzzled by their mystified origin. For instance, they can not answer such questions, how a particular cause develops that spreads plague, and why it has developed at some par ticular time and not at any other time, and how it stops itself without any apparent reason.
To cite an instance, consider the apparent known cause of the second epidemic - Black Death, which killed 40 million people in Europe. It is said that the source of this epidemic were Black Rats which carry a particular species of flies called Xenopsylla Cheopsis. But the origin from where all these rats who arrived to spread the epidemic is still a riddle. More surprisingly, why the same rats did not spread the disease where they were living before.
Further to their surprise, it was found that the Brown Rats, which are rare in Europe, came from China and killed the Black Rats which were spreading the disease.
Those who do not believe in God and in His planning, such epidemics will remain a myster y. But those who read Quran can understand, why the Black Rats brought the disease in Europe and who sent the Brown rats to stop the epidemic.
Natural Disasters
The natural disasters such as earth quakes, storms, floods, and droughts, which bring different kinds of miseries are also sometimes due to our bad deeds. Quran has described in details that how these many kinds of natural disasters have wiped out many nations in the past when they disobeyed Allah and crossed the Divine limits.
Quran mentions different kinds of natural disasters which were caused by the wrath of Allah Taala.
"Each one of them We seized for his crime. Of them, against some We sent a violent tornado: some were caught by a (mid-night) blast, some We caused the earth to swallow up ( powerful earthquake or major volcano eruption), and some We drowned (in water).
It was not Allah Who injured (or destroyed) them: they injured (destroyed) themselves."(29:40) In surah HUD, it is mentioned with all details that how the nations of the following prophets were punished one after the other because of their sins and rebellious nature.
1 - Prophet Nuh (as) - FLOOD
His whole nation except his companions was perished by a great flood. Huge flow of water welled out from the earth and from the sky and all were drowned except few believers. (11:21-49)
2 - Prophet Hud (as) - A DREADFUL EXPLOSION His whole nation, named Aad was destroyed by a horrible natural disaster except those who obeyed him. (11:49-59)
3 - Prophet Saleh (as) - A MIGHTY BLAST His whole nation, named Thamud, except his true followers, was smashed by a dreadful explosion that rang along with a powerful storm. (11:61-67)
4 - Prophet Lut (as) - A MOST POWERFUL EARTHQUAKE His whole nation, except his true followers were destroyed by turning the whole town upside down, followed by a rain of baked clay layer on layer. (11:77-82)
5 - Prophet Shu'ayb (as) - A POWERFUL BL AST His whole nation, named Madyan, except his few followers, was killed by a powerful Explosion (Earthquake). (11:84-94), (29:36)
6 - Prophet Moosa (as) -THROWN INTO THE SEA Pharaoh, his Chiefs and the whole army were drowned into the River Nile.
After giving all details of crimes and punishments, Quran very clearly tells the cause of such dreadful natural disasters in the following verse.
"These are some of the stories of communities which we have told you --- It was not WE that wronged them: They wronged their own souls". (11:100) Thus, these verses of the Holy Quran have explained that one of the major cause of natural disasters is Divine punishment. However, we can not say for sure that each and every natural disaster is a Divine punishment. But the natural disaster do occur as in the past with hor rible results. Hundreds of natural disasters of high intensity have been recorded in the histor y. Here, we present just few of these many natural disasters that terribly hit various nations in last one thousand year.
The Holy Quran has identified the root cause of many of such kinds of natural disasters, as mentioned above, in the following verse; "Verily, Allah does not deal unjustly with man in any way: it is man that does unjust to his own soul." (10:44)
Divine warnings to turn back to our Lord
If we study carefully the painful incidents of our life that occurred in some specific circumstances and judge them in context of our behavior, we can realize that most of these painful events were the milestone of our progress. Many times it has happened that a sudden shock or blow in our life becomes the turning point. These mild punishments are just to discipline us in order to save us from severe punishments.
Those who are mindful they take the advantage of such occurrence and change their behaviors, but those who are not watchful they just cry and complain and finally meet even more severe consequences of their heedless attitude.
We find many people who have very smooth and comfortable life forget their Lord and a sudden undesirable event wakes them up from their deep sleep. A plain and easy living is just like driving on smooth highways in a pleasant night. If the driver is not warned in time by a slash, he will certainly face a dreadful accident. This is why in modern highways engineers fix artificial light barriers at regular short distances just to prevent sleeping during the long driving. Thus ups and downs and hardships in life also serve the same purpose and keep us attentive to escape deadly events.
The Holy Quran rejects such heedless people who do not take lessons from their sufferings.
"We afflicted them with calamities and misfortunes so that they might humble themselves, but their hearts were hardened ..... (6:43)
Thus hardships and painful events can have many different causes and it is not fair to consider them punishment without proper identification. Moreover in most of the cases there are many blessings of Allah in our sufferings as they energize and stimulate our spirit and intensify our efforts.
Even the natural disasters such as earth quakes, droughts, floods, wars bring many significant changes in our physical world and society.
A poisonous snake seems to be a very dangerous enemy of mankind, but its poison which can kill a careless person, is used as a medicine to save the lives of thousands of people.
Source
A question arises that when God is All-mighty i.e. capable of controlling anything and everything and God is also all-knowing i.e., He knows everything that happens anywhere in the universe, then why such dreadful events occur.
This is a very important question. Many atheists use this question as a valid reason to deny the existence of God. This question also disturbs many ignorant Muslims. It is therefore essential for all Muslim students to have a satisfactory answer to this question.
This question does not have one simple answer as there are many different causes of human suffering and afflictions.
Some of the major causes of calamities and sufferings are as follows:
G Reaction of our action and Divine punishment.
G Warning and reminder to turn back to God.
G To energize and stimulate human spirit and to intensify his efforts.
G Examination.
G Divine system.
Reaction of our action.
The major cause of our all sufferings and miseries is our deeds. i.e., in most of the cases we suffer because of our wrong doings. Quran has disclosed this law of God. "Then it shall be said to the wrongdoers: Taste the everlasting torment; Shall you be rewarded except according to your deeds" (10:52)
i.e., You receive the payment of what you earn. This law of God has also been discovered by Isaac Newton in Nature which we teach in Physics. i.e., every action has an equal reaction. If we sincerely study and analyze our sufferings and miseries we will really know that in most of the cases our sufferings are the outcome of our own actions or attitude. Let us see this categorically.
Hunger and poverty
The most common kind of suffering and infliction are hunger, poverty and diseases. Let's analyze the causes of these infliction one by one.
Poverty is the lack of enough income and resources to live comfortably. It is one of the world's main social problems. In both developing and developed countries, millions of people are suffering because of poverty. Poverty is the most common social disease.
Many of the poor people in the world cannot buy the food, shelter, clothing, and medical care that they need. This creates frustration, hopelessness and lack of interest in life. In the late 1980's, it was estimated that I billion people, about a fifth of the world's population, were so poor that their health and lives were endangered.
But what is the cause of poverty and who should be held responsible for all that suffering ? Man or God ?
Poverty has variety of causes. Some of them are being mentioned here.
a- Lack of education, skills and aptitude to do work. Many people don't want to do work. They suffer due to their laziness or less interest in work. Some people think that Allah Subhanahu taala is our sustainer and He has taken the responsibility of our basic needs. It is true, but still a lot of effor ts are needed to take our share from the Divine warehouse. So in many cases poverty is due to the under utilization of human potential and natural resources.
b- Inflation also significantly contributes to pover ty. Inflation means increasing the price of goods which affects a certain group of the society. We experience this problem now and then. This is a man-made cause in which human selfish nature works to get as much as possible without considering anything.
c- Some countries are poor because of lack of exper tise and equipment needed to produce adequate food supplies for most of their people. It is also due to the lack of involvement in science and technology.
d- Many women become poor after they are divorced or separated from their husbands. It is also a personal reason.
e - In some cases poverty also results from natural disasters such as floods, droughts or poor harvests. This can also be the indirect cause of our wrongdoing which we shall discuss later.
Thus in most of the cases we find that the hunger and pover ty are mainly either due to the improper distribution of amenities or under utilization of natural abilities and resources Divine Punishments It is important to know more about the Divine punishments. Quran has described the Divine punishments in detail. However, it is not easy for an ordinary person to identify the Divine punishment and more importantly its actual cause.
Diseases and epidemics
Disease is also a major cause of sufferings. It is said that diseases have killed or disabled more people then all the wars ever fought. Each year, tens of millions of people die from different kinds of diseases. In the United States alone, diseases kill nearly 2 million people each year and leave many people permanently disabled.
Apparently it seems that God is solely responsible for all kinds of diseases as He has created the viruses, bacteria which cause many different kinds of diseases. But this is not tr ue. Medical experts say that almost all diseases are caused by ignoring the standard laws of nature. i.e., our life-style, habits, living conditions and physical environment nur ture diseases. Let's take malaria, the most common disease of the third world countries.
Malaria is caused by protozoan called plasmodia and is transmitted by the bite of the female anopheles mosquito. It is true that Allah Subhanahu taala has created the mosquito and plasmodia which infect us with malaria. But Allah has also instructed mosquitoes to live in dir ty water and filthy environment. thus, by creating a dir ty environment, we invite mosquitoes, houseflies, rats, and other germs carriers in our home to deliver diseases.
Similarly AIDS, the most dangerous and incurable disease, which has killed millions of peoples, is a disease sponsored by criminals. The cause of AIDS is HIV virus, undoubtedly created by Allah, but who transfer it into the human body ? Allah or the patient himself /herself. At least in this particular disease doctors have honestly acknowledged that the only source of this disease is the patient himself / herself as he or she is the one who has acquired it. That is why they have named it Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
Even those innocent people who get this disease from blood transfusion or blades are due to the human negligence.
Thus in most of the cases, the sufferings due to the chronic disease that makes the life miserable, are the result of our own deeds. Black Death.
As mentioned above, not always but in most of the cases, the cause of the disease is one's bad deed or negligence of Divine orders. Sometimes the whole nation is punished by epidemics. Scientists say they don't yet know, how all of sudden a particular epidemic disease grows and spreads widely killing millions of people and then goes away itself without any human efforts. For example, outbreaks of plague have been repor ted in different periods of history that have killed hundreds of millions of people.
In 542 AD an epidemic of plague struck Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) and killed half of the population.
In 1347, one of the most disastrous plague burst out in Europe which killed 40,000,000 people - about a fourth of the European population at that time. This pandemic plague is called Black Death in history.
In 1800's a third epidemic appeared suddenly in China and spread like a fire. It killed more than 20 million people.
Scientists have tried to guess some of the probable causes of these epidemics but are puzzled by their mystified origin. For instance, they can not answer such questions, how a particular cause develops that spreads plague, and why it has developed at some par ticular time and not at any other time, and how it stops itself without any apparent reason.
To cite an instance, consider the apparent known cause of the second epidemic - Black Death, which killed 40 million people in Europe. It is said that the source of this epidemic were Black Rats which carry a particular species of flies called Xenopsylla Cheopsis. But the origin from where all these rats who arrived to spread the epidemic is still a riddle. More surprisingly, why the same rats did not spread the disease where they were living before.
Further to their surprise, it was found that the Brown Rats, which are rare in Europe, came from China and killed the Black Rats which were spreading the disease.
Those who do not believe in God and in His planning, such epidemics will remain a myster y. But those who read Quran can understand, why the Black Rats brought the disease in Europe and who sent the Brown rats to stop the epidemic.
Natural Disasters
The natural disasters such as earth quakes, storms, floods, and droughts, which bring different kinds of miseries are also sometimes due to our bad deeds. Quran has described in details that how these many kinds of natural disasters have wiped out many nations in the past when they disobeyed Allah and crossed the Divine limits.
Quran mentions different kinds of natural disasters which were caused by the wrath of Allah Taala.
"Each one of them We seized for his crime. Of them, against some We sent a violent tornado: some were caught by a (mid-night) blast, some We caused the earth to swallow up ( powerful earthquake or major volcano eruption), and some We drowned (in water).
It was not Allah Who injured (or destroyed) them: they injured (destroyed) themselves."(29:40) In surah HUD, it is mentioned with all details that how the nations of the following prophets were punished one after the other because of their sins and rebellious nature.
1 - Prophet Nuh (as) - FLOOD
His whole nation except his companions was perished by a great flood. Huge flow of water welled out from the earth and from the sky and all were drowned except few believers. (11:21-49)
2 - Prophet Hud (as) - A DREADFUL EXPLOSION His whole nation, named Aad was destroyed by a horrible natural disaster except those who obeyed him. (11:49-59)
3 - Prophet Saleh (as) - A MIGHTY BLAST His whole nation, named Thamud, except his true followers, was smashed by a dreadful explosion that rang along with a powerful storm. (11:61-67)
4 - Prophet Lut (as) - A MOST POWERFUL EARTHQUAKE His whole nation, except his true followers were destroyed by turning the whole town upside down, followed by a rain of baked clay layer on layer. (11:77-82)
5 - Prophet Shu'ayb (as) - A POWERFUL BL AST His whole nation, named Madyan, except his few followers, was killed by a powerful Explosion (Earthquake). (11:84-94), (29:36)
6 - Prophet Moosa (as) -THROWN INTO THE SEA Pharaoh, his Chiefs and the whole army were drowned into the River Nile.
After giving all details of crimes and punishments, Quran very clearly tells the cause of such dreadful natural disasters in the following verse.
"These are some of the stories of communities which we have told you --- It was not WE that wronged them: They wronged their own souls". (11:100) Thus, these verses of the Holy Quran have explained that one of the major cause of natural disasters is Divine punishment. However, we can not say for sure that each and every natural disaster is a Divine punishment. But the natural disaster do occur as in the past with hor rible results. Hundreds of natural disasters of high intensity have been recorded in the histor y. Here, we present just few of these many natural disasters that terribly hit various nations in last one thousand year.
The Holy Quran has identified the root cause of many of such kinds of natural disasters, as mentioned above, in the following verse; "Verily, Allah does not deal unjustly with man in any way: it is man that does unjust to his own soul." (10:44)
Divine warnings to turn back to our Lord
If we study carefully the painful incidents of our life that occurred in some specific circumstances and judge them in context of our behavior, we can realize that most of these painful events were the milestone of our progress. Many times it has happened that a sudden shock or blow in our life becomes the turning point. These mild punishments are just to discipline us in order to save us from severe punishments.
Those who are mindful they take the advantage of such occurrence and change their behaviors, but those who are not watchful they just cry and complain and finally meet even more severe consequences of their heedless attitude.
We find many people who have very smooth and comfortable life forget their Lord and a sudden undesirable event wakes them up from their deep sleep. A plain and easy living is just like driving on smooth highways in a pleasant night. If the driver is not warned in time by a slash, he will certainly face a dreadful accident. This is why in modern highways engineers fix artificial light barriers at regular short distances just to prevent sleeping during the long driving. Thus ups and downs and hardships in life also serve the same purpose and keep us attentive to escape deadly events.
The Holy Quran rejects such heedless people who do not take lessons from their sufferings.
"We afflicted them with calamities and misfortunes so that they might humble themselves, but their hearts were hardened ..... (6:43)
Thus hardships and painful events can have many different causes and it is not fair to consider them punishment without proper identification. Moreover in most of the cases there are many blessings of Allah in our sufferings as they energize and stimulate our spirit and intensify our efforts.
Even the natural disasters such as earth quakes, droughts, floods, wars bring many significant changes in our physical world and society.
A poisonous snake seems to be a very dangerous enemy of mankind, but its poison which can kill a careless person, is used as a medicine to save the lives of thousands of people.
Source
