Islamic Intellectual Theology Lesson 11

1. Islamic Intellectual TheologyLesson 11 Divine Justice Intellectual Decency and Indecency ELAHIYAAT [Summary] of Sh. Jaf’ar Subhani pg.156-162 Edited: Jan. 17, 2010 - BHD

2. Justice of God • God, by default, has to be perfect otherwise He is not God. • Since justice is a sign of perfection, then God has to be just. • All of creation indicates that God is well balanced in everything. • Theory of equilibrium: • Balance in nutrients, chemicals, pressure, temperature in the living creature.

3. Challenging God’s Justice If God is just, then • Why does He allow innocent civilians to die in wars? • Why does He allow natural disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes? • Why do some people have defects or handicaps like blindness, etc? • Why do most of God’s servants live in a worse condition than those who disbelieve? • Why do His punishments seem unjust? Is it just to cut the hand just for a crime of seconds? Or death for adultery? • Why God is testing me? I did not choose to be tested! All these and more will be answered in our coming sessions.

4. Topics discussed • Intellectual decency and indecency • Justice of God • Purpose-driven actions of God • Afflictions and wisdom of God • Human compulsion and human free will (Jabr & Tafweedh) • Knowledge of God and change of His decision (Badaa) • Decree and destiny (Qadha & Qadr) • Discussion on some of the attributes of God

5. Intellectual Decency and Indecency • Adl or the justice of God is that He refrains from the indecent acts and what ever is not suitable on Him, and that is one of the meanings of wisdom as well. He never does evil and bad. • The moderate ones (Adliyah) consider that there are acts which can be intellectually labeled decent and indecent without consulting religious resources. • Ashaaerah denied such intellectual comprehension of the decency and indecency and claimed such can only be comprehended by the religion. Therefore whatever its resources considers decent is decent and whatever is considered by it indecent is indecent.

6. Meanings of Decency (Hosn) and Indecendy (Qobh) Hosn literally means beauty, and Qobh ugliness , but the first will be indicated as decent and the second as indecent. There are two ways to interpret hosn and qobh: • Whatever repels human nature, such as fearful scene which repels a human, is indecent or ugly. A beautiful voice or tasty food, by this definition, is beautiful or decent. • Something’s decency is determined by how agreeable and disagreeable it is with the purpose and benefits. This can be specific (shakhsi) or general (nowee). For example, killing is generally viewed as bad (nowee), but if someone has killed your entire family, killing him would be seen as good (shakhsi).

7. Meanings of Decency (Hosn) and Indecendy (Qobh) 3. Complete and incomplete characteristic of human. Knowledge or bravery completes a human therefore it is decent, and ignorance or being cowardly fragments a human, therefore it is indecent. 4. Intellectual praise and condemnation. An act which garners intellectual praise is decent, while an act prohibited by the intellect is indecent. Point of Dispute: The first three criteria are indisputable, but the fourth point is disputed, as some reject the idea that the intellect is able to distinguish decency or indecency by itself.

8. Evidence of the Fourth Criterion Argument: If distinguishing the decency and indecency were intellectual, then morality, too, could be decided by intellect. Yet some things are morally ambiguous, while intellectual facts, such as 1+1=2 are indisputable. Response: Even some apparently “indisputable” things are subject to perception. For example, a blind person might not agree that sun has risen, yet he has intellect. Similarly, a person whose heart and soul are blocked by doing evil will not comprehend the ugliness of his crimes; perhaps he will enjoy it. Another example can be in math itself: a person who does not know any thing about mathematics might not understand that the one is half of the two, like a child who has not studied the concept of half or fractions. In short, everything is subject to perception unless one has complete knowledge. Only then can decency be decided by intellect.

9. Can Intellectual Concepts Convert? Argument: If decency (HOSN) and indecency (QOBH) were intellectual they could not be interchangeable. For example, if lying would save a life of a prophet from a tyrant and telling truth would cause his perish, a lie becomes decent and beautiful and truth becomes ugly and indecent. Does the intellect reflect these changes? Response: In this case the intellect perceives that saving a life is more decent than truth, and such does not require a religious approval to lie. A lie in general remains indecent and ugly, and truth remains decent and beautiful, but the intellect observes and comprehends the priority and the preference of the beauty of saving a life over the beauty of saying truth and commands to give up one beauty for the sake of more important beauty. In other words, there is an intellectual decision between the conflict in two decent acts, with the most decent prevailing.

10. Evidence of those who Support • If the decency were dependant on only on learning, then perceiving the truth of the Prophets (AS) would've been a difficult task, because who can tell that a prophet lied or not? If lying can be decent and good, the conclusion is that God supports a liar with miracle. Since that is not acceptable by intuition, then truth and falsehood must be distinguished not by learning, but by the innate intellect. • ROOZBAHAAN: A miracle did not support a liar not because lying is indecent intellectually and God never supports an intellectually indecent act, but He is not used to doing such.

11. The Question of the People of Adam and Nuh • How does one know what God usually does or does not usually do? • Knowing what God is used to requires history of God. Then what about the followers of the early Prophets (AS) Adam and Nuh? They never got an opportunity to learn what God’s usual traits are. How were they to infer whether their prophets spoke the truth?

12. Decent and indecent in the Quraan Justice and goodness exist before the command of God. اللّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاء ذِي الْقُرْبَى وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاء وَالْمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ [Shakir 16:90] Surely Allah enjoins the doing of justice and the doing of good (to others) and the giving to the kindred, and He forbids indecency and evil and rebellion; He admonishes you that you may be mindful. The indecent acts are known to be indecent before God. قُلْ إِنَّمَا حَرَّمَ رَبِّيَ الْفَوَاحِشَ مَا ظَهَرَ مِنْهَا وَمَا بَطَنَ وَالإِثْمَ وَالْبَغْيَ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ وَأَن تُشْرِكُواْ بِاللّهِ مَا لَمْ يُنَزِّلْ بِهِ سُلْطَانًا وَأَن تَقُولُواْ عَلَى اللّهِ مَا لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ • [Shakir 7:33] Say: My Lord has only prohibited indecencies, those of them that are apparent as well as those that are concealed, and sin and rebellion without justice, and that you associate with Allah that for which He has not sent down any authority, and that you say against Allah what you do not know

13. Command Towards Known Commands to what ever is known to be good (marouf) and prohibits from what ever is know to be denied by the intellectuals (munkar). الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ الرَّسُولَ النَّبِيَّ الأُمِّيَّ الَّذِي يَجِدُونَهُ مَكْتُوبًا عِندَهُمْ فِي التَّوْرَاةِ وَالإِنْجِيلِ يَأْمُرُهُم بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَاهُمْ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَيُحِلُّ لَهُمُ الطَّيِّبَاتِ وَيُحَرِّمُ عَلَيْهِمُ الْخَبَآئِثَ وَيَضَعُ عَنْهُمْ إِصْرَهُمْ وَالأَغْلاَلَ الَّتِي كَانَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ فَالَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ بِهِ وَعَزَّرُوهُ وَنَصَرُوهُ وَاتَّبَعُواْ النُّورَ الَّذِيَ أُنزِلَ مَعَهُ أُوْلَـئِكَ هُمُ الْمُفْلِحُونَ [Shakir 7:157] Those who follow the Messenger-Prophet, the Ummi, whom they find written down with them in the Taurat and the Injeel (who) enjoins them good and forbids them evil, and makes lawful to them the good things and makes unlawful to them impure things, and removes from them their burden and the shackles which were upon them; so (as for) those who believe in him and honor him and help him, and follow the light which has been sent down with him, these it is that are the successful.