God & The Problem of Evil

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah while earlier

praising larivee to Allah, and his finest peace and blessings be upon His messenger Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his family in his companions and all those who tried his birth, we asked a lot of Lakota Allah to make all of our actions righteous and make necessarily for a Sikh and not allow any of his creation or share of our intentions. May Allah make this session and all the sessions in all of our skills of good deeds. The presenter is the listeners, the unsung heroes putting in the heavy lifting behind the scenes, we ask a lot to cure our sick and have mercy on our deceased and accept them among the martyrs for having fallen to this virus and all of our deceased

at large. We ask a lot to read this world of this pandemic and to make us of those who benefited most

from this ordeal and those who do not fall back into the heedlessness that we had before he humbled us

through this extended adversity a love moment. So the discussion is on the problem of evil and the problem of evil is a

a long,

essential discussion,

especially for our time in place. You know, in the

very popular atheistic worldview, the number one reason statistically why atheists say we refuse to believe in a God is the problem of evil, the problem of human suffering, and the dilemma of

evil in the world. And even in an extensive, diverse polling that happened among an array a diversified group of Americans, they asked them if you could ask God one question, and you knew that you would get an answer, what question would you ask? And the number one response to that prompt was why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? Why is the world so messed up?

So let's try our best asking Allah subhana wa tada said, our hearts and our tongues are right, and to illuminate our minds and purify our hearts and grant us understanding of him.

Grant as proper understanding of him, which is the foundation of all knowledge, and all understanding. So first of all, is the world all messed up? It is not, and it's important to begin there.

Don't believe the hype, don't

drink the Kool Aid, don't fall prey to emotional appeals. Think of a human being? Does he spend more time on average in his life? or her life sick or healthy? No, we have longer durations of sickness, of health contrast that with our sickness, you know, the vast majority of human beings? Are they fully functional? Or do they suffer? You know, some sort of impairment? Or handicap the vast majority of our, you know, pathways for blood in our bloodstream? Do they flow freely, in a streamlined fluid, salient fashion that makes life possible? Or is it more common that they clog up in a traffic jam and they they block our arteries, you know, look at a volcano does a volcano spend

more of its time dormant or spend more of its time erupting. And by the way, we'll come back to this even when it erupt, it hits the reset button in a way that is extremely healthy in the grander scheme of things for

reinvigorating the ecosystem and resetting the balance the ecological balance.

And so we we begin by that by setting the norm, the norm, the prevalent norm is that there is so much order, there is so much health, there is so much prosperity, there is so much good in the world, so much more so than there is evil.

And you know, by the way,

you know, that reminds us that there must be a god, even though the problem of evil does not have anything to do with there being a god or not being a god. It's just a matter of Is it a wise God? Is it a merciful God? But even if there was more evil,

than that still would not refute the existence of a god? Why can't there be out of a cruel God? Or why can't there be which is the case a wise merciful God, and that is why this exists as we will discuss. So the existence of God has nothing to do with the existence of evil or apparent evil or otherwise, but

the existence is more defined by good than evil. That's the first point and that reminds us

But there must be a god, you know, without getting too

geeky on on the audience or on myself. You know, in physics, they call it the law of entropy, right? The second law of thermodynamics, basically, that law establishes that any system, any system on its own, like an isolated system,

it will continue to spiral out of control will continue to fall apart, the system will always increase in chaos, irreversibly, without external interference without external agency, holding it together. In other words, blind forces, which is the atheistic worldview that we are the product of a, you know, a

Happy, happy, explosion, a fortunate explosion that set us in the right direction. Well, why is there more good than evil? Why is there a good to begin with, if this system just exists as an isolated system on its own, the law of physics says that the universe should be falling apart. And because blind forces can never, you know, maintain structure.

And so the fact that this universe is good, meaning it is livable, it is life sustainable, it's not life prohibitive, that means that there must be a god. But that's not the only benefit you get from realizing that in reality, besides the hype, there is more good than evil, it reminds you that there must be an explanation to the evil, or what appears to be the evil You see, only after you establish what is the rule? And what is the exception? Can you figure out what to do with the exception. And I'll give you a simplistic example, the example of a palace. You know, some philosophers, you know, suggest for us to think about you entering I want you to imagine entering a very, you know,

luxurious, you know, high tech palace, right? Every room you go into has amenities that you don't even understand how they work, you know, like moving couches and holograms and services. And, you know, whatever it is right? You just conclude after going from one room to another that the person who put this together this engineer was one of superior intelligence, really sophisticated, super wise, right? You find that the prevalent trend in the whole palace, then you get to one room, and the room is just like a rut. It is like,

you know, dusty and muddy, and just really ugly looking primitive. What would you conclude? Would you conclude that the engineers a fool, unintelligent, or there must be another explanation? No, there must be another explanation. Maybe it's not the engineers fault. Maybe the owner ran out of money with the last room, maybe the owner wanted it this way to remember his humble beginnings and not forget where he came from and became a big shot. Right. But the it does not, you know,

get held against the engineer, because it's the exception. And so the norm told me there must be another explanation. Likewise, when we

see that there's so much good, that's what the current policy reflects so much on the creation of a last gen see all of the blessing see all of the hate to see how this world was created with a perfect intricate equilibrium to sustain life and all of that, then you say there must be another explanation that I just don't understand as to why these evils are apparently evils exist.

In some kind of luck. Why are we taught to recite with a gift every Friday are often in the end, certain calf, you know,

like all the students of the foreign, you know, they are repeated in proportion to how often they are recurrent. They repeat in human the human experience. And those are the gaps. It mentions of word adventures, a story of Musa alayhis salaam and there were so many apparent evils musala salaam was unable to process was objecting to but they were in the grander scheme of things after disclosure was granted as soon as you know, the the greater good, he realized that his frame of reference was not enough to realize that this evil that he saw was just relative evil. And so that's what we believe as Muslims, that a lot. He is the most wise and we have endless proof for that. He

is the Most Merciful we are positive of that. for very good reasons, not wishful thinking, right. We know this beyond the shadow of a doubt. And so based on that, we believe, because he told us that evil he does not cause something to exist that is just pure evil. Evil as a matter of is a matter of perspective. Evil is relative meaning I'm not invalidating our suffering. No, we do suffer for sure. We're going to talk about that.

But the evil that we see as so evil is because we are looking at it from an incorrect lens or a limited lens and part of the test of life is to believe that God knows and I don't you know all throughout the Quran and Latina I'm no I'm you know solid hot among those who believe in do good deeds believe in the good deeds, not just how you behave, not just your good deeds to test that belief all the time as well. Am I gonna accept the fact that, you know, I am that and you know that think of the analogy of an ant on a carpet, you know, the end,

imagine anthem like in the middle of a carpet, it's in a jungle for the anthem, the jungle, would you see this like yellow strand going this way, this gold going that way, this rug, it's just, it's chaos, it mean, makes no sense. So random. So this organized.

But if the end, were able to step back a little bit, or if you think of the perspective of the carpet maker, this is a work of art, this is a tapestry.

Likewise, you know, we are just too close to entangled in the events to ever realize that they are a work of art, they are a divine tapestry for an ultimate wisdom that we cannot know, like to accept that us compared to God, there's a bigger difference between us and God than there is between that end, and a carpet maker. To accept to that is a huge test of humility, to accept that I will not be able to have all the answers, because how does that make sense? You know, all I can really see from the human perspective, is the pixel, as they say, whereas Allah subhanaw taala has the picture, that by my nature, by my very definition of what it means to be, you know, a human being, I'm gonna just

have to accept that certain evils will always remain at least on some level, you know, mysterious, that's a huge test of what of humility and faith.

And that is somehow law. The law says in the Quran, women in so many hours, the law, the law, the house, among humanity are those who worship God on edge. And I saw about nebby, once some good comes their way they're content with that.

And if a trial comes his way, and he he turns around, he leaves basically, he walks out on God, if you will, he incredible analogy about faces has to do with effort, and he misses out on this rather than the next. Some people are like that they trust the god conditional on the condition that God does good by them, then you don't trust God, you trust those good things to satisfy you. You don't trust God's decisions and choices for you over your choices for yourself.

You know, and also the Quran tells us that the angels who are the most intelligent creatures, right, they were completely satisfied, you know, with the answer that God knows, and they don't know.

You know, humility in front of his greatness and recognition of his superior knowledge, didn't they say, probably do, they didn't say hello to him, and you'll see that we have less frequent demand for the handicapped. And this will look, is that are you going to place on earth? Someone? Of course, they didn't say it's an objection. They were like, wondering how can this be the you're going to place on Earth, someone who's going to wreak havoc on earth and corruption and spilled blood? What did he say to them? He didn't say them, actually, some people are going to be so amazing, and you know, resist the urges and be them. The exception and No, he didn't say any of that color in the

hollow metal Mo. He said, I know that what you don't know. And that was enough for them.

You know, the fact that he said to them, I know. And you're going to need to trust me, basically.

And so how do we now that's the first point, why is the world so messed up? It's not messed up more good than evil, more good, so that we know it's the norm. And we can use the good to say the evil must be something just beyond us. There's the explanation about fully there, and a test of our faith and our humility. The second thing you want to say, or I want to say is that how do we make sense of all of what we perceive as evil, what we perceive as a suffering all around us not to say that it doesn't exist, but once again, to say that

it doesn't exist to the extent that we may think, number one,

five step process, okay? Just like a breakdown just for simplicity. Number one, God is the most wise case close. So number two, that means God's wisdom,

you know, has to be behind everything that exists. He always accidentally did twice, right? He's the most wise he accidentally that's wise.

And then, his wisdom necessitates that evil

must exist or something that has a degree of evil right must exist for profound benefits for outweighing benefits for profound reasons. That's how we make sense of it. That's number three. Number four, God's wisdom also necessitates that we cannot know the explanations

for every trial, because how would it be wise to give you an exam and hand you the answers at that moment that you're taking the exam? That's not wisdom, right? It's, it's nonsense.

He can't immediately disclose the answers to the people that are taking the exam while they're still under examination. So wisdom will also necessitate that.

Some of this remain mysterious, to actually test the faith and humility, right. Number five. The last point is that God's wisdom also necessitated disclosing some of the answers some of the wisdom like the main reasons, the high level reasons behind the evil existing to help brace people because a lot the most wise knows that we need a little help, right? We're human, and we need help to help people like be brace be supported, as they navigate the hardships of life. So what are they? What are some of the main reasons behind evil that Allah gave us to help us handle it? Number one,

to make life meaningful,

to make life, an actual staircase, and a value Ettore experience for our hereafter. You know, some people tried to shame like theists, people that believe in Gods you actually believe in a God, if there was really a God, then how could he let and it's called, you know, an appeal to emotion. And, you know, how could he let that little girl you know, and they just draw out this really gruesome scene to try to guilt or shame you into stepping down from your position. But

you know, they also they say a lot, which is very interesting, because it is very telling, they say, and don't tell me life is a test, okay? And that like you just the hereafter and all this nonsense, and they do this, right? This is usually coupled with it. Don't say here after? Why did they say don't sit here after? Because if there is a hereafter, the problem of evil evaporates.

And so we believe in a hereafter Don't worry. Once you leave in here after every injustice imaginable, even if it never exists, winds up existing. We know that Allah will treat this person who was a victim of injustice, not with justice, but with grace, if someone missed out on 100 years in this world,

and Allah gives them an exchange for it 100 years in a better world? Has he been fair with them? No, he's been more than fair with them. So what happens when he gives them a better world? Not for 100 years? Not for a million years? Not for a trillion years, but for effort?

That's it? what it what possible hardship Can you talk about when we're dividing it by infinity? All right, and unending life in engender, may Allah gather us and you safely there, so the unfairness of life, that concept, it totally disintegrates, it falls apart

with the factor of the asset, you know,

it is, you know,

the difference between whether you believe life is purposeless, or you believe life is purposeful, you know, you know, if life is meaningful, it is a bridge to the hereafter a tunnel to another world, right? Then that's it, okay. So be it. You know, when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, for example, that the example of this world compared to the Hereafter is like example of one of you and he dips his finger into the ocean and pulls it out, let him consider what he has retrieved or you know, removed from the ocean, meaning nothing. When the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, less salty, louder, salty, I had the complete gender

the place where one of you throws down his whip in Paradise is better than this world and all it contains, you know, that means by the way, Arabs right horses, camels, they have lips, right do you provoke the animal to get it to go? So when do you throw down the whip? When you arrive home?

It's an expression basically right? You get home you throw down your stuff to get off, you don't need to whip anymore your home. So he's saying your your mere arrival in Paradise is better than this world and all it contains all of its joys all of its pleasures, all of its what it all it can offer you.

You know, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in the third howdy that you know, Allah will bring on the Day of Judgment, the person that had the greatest luxuries ever from the people of the fire, dip them in the fire. Tell them Have you ever seen any luxury in your life, he'll say I swear by your mind, never seen any luxury, never experienced that in the least. And then I level bring the person that had the greatest hardship ever in

history of humanity from those that are bound for paradise and then dip them just sample paradise. Just have them dipped into paradise one dip and ask them Have you ever experienced any adversity, any affliction, he'll say, I swear by your mind, I have never experienced any hardship whatsoever. They're not lying, it's just the experience has caused them to totally forget it. So that's life life is meaningful. It is, you know, on route to the Hereafter, then that's it.

The problem of the oldest integrates, that's one of the main reasons this life has to have a point

and the point pokes.

So, I want to begin there. The second one of the main reasons why evil existing in the world is wise, is because Allah subhanho wa Taala loves to forgive us, and many times we foot drag in our pursuit of forgiveness. And so he offers us every prick of every Thorn, as the prophets of Allah to send them said, as an opportunity to be forgiven. And so as the Prophet Allah is supposed to have also said, Allah loves the people. He tries them, you know, a person can say, God can forgive us without putting us through these things. Yes, but he's also adjust God. And so it's part of the, you know, the,

the adjuster acquittal, that there is some sort of payment, right, there is some sort of retribution. And so that retribution happening here in the transient world in the passing world, is part of the the generosity of God, the graciousness of gods.

And also, by the way, you can say, what about the people that were not forgiven by their hardships like the nations that God destroyed? Well, those were sectors of society, or of humanity, that were destructive, they were going to destroy the entire human race. And so it was out of mercy in that sense, for the greater good, to eliminate them. Right, the same way you would except to remove a limb to save your life. So the body of humanity was at stake. And so it's also part of God's love to forgive people that he removed from them at times those who were

the greatest rebels against his prophets and his messengers. So he loves to forgive us and other main reason. And so these pricks and thorns and moments of adversity and affliction, our

stations of forgiveness and purification, number three of the greatest wisdoms of pain and suffering and evil existing in this world, is to help us build an awareness to wake us up to the insignificance of this world, the insignificant nature of this life. You know, CS Lewis was a great author.

He says, He says, he said, God, whispers to us in our pleasures,

and speaks in our conscience, and screams or shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone by which he arouses a deaf world. In other words, when you're, we don't pay attention to God, when we're pleased, he whispers in our pleasure, it's hard to hear the voice of God, right figure, it's really hard to hear the voice of God when you are enjoying yourself. And the voice may get a little louder in your conscience with if you're not in tune with your conscience, you know, you're not going to hear it. But then he shouts in our pain, that's when we really do recognize and return to God, that's just the way we are between a rock and a hard place. Sadly, that's our nature, right? That's

what we do. Though, we should be better than that, but that is the prevalent norm. So he says that pain is the megaphone, you know, by which he arouses he stirs up a deaf world.

You know, he, he interrupts he alerts he helps you not, you know, live for vanity for something that is not real, not fulfilling, not lasting. You know, I mentioned here the the story of Muhammad Ali, the famous boxer. You know, he caught Parkinson's at the end of his life, and it became very, very weak. And one of you know, he's much later interviews where he could hardly speak because of the disease. He said, I used to say, I'm the greatest carminati say, I'm the greatest, I'm the greatest. And he says, and then God gave me this the sea disease to remind me that he's the greatest. And like, think about Mohammed Ali, all he accomplished being you know, the hero being, you know, the,

also the people's hero for going to jail, losing his titles for not wanting to fight in an unjust war.

When draft time came around, all of that would have meant nothing.

Had he met a law with that arrogance in his heart what Allah gave him Parkinson's, before he died, to humble him in a way that insha Allah will secure his seat and unless pleasure forever rocking Oh, hold on. I love

mercy on him.

So that's another great wisdom for evil exists thing is that it awakens us there is in us this realization of how insignificant This world is how unworthy it is. And then here's the counterpart, number four of the wisdoms and profound benefits of evil existing is enjoying this world.

Like appreciating it being grateful for it. Because when you have a realization of its insignificance, you have lowered expectations of it, that's when you can enjoy it. You know, like, if I show up in a hotel room, or like a rest area, like these places of transit, and I bring the wood with me and the snails and the carpenters, and I start building out my house. You see, I'm crazy, like, you're gonna get forced out, why would you do all this? Why are you investing so much? Right? And so it's gonna disappoint you, the hotel room and the rest, they're gonna disappoint you if you try to build your house on it. Right? Your your kingdom, if you will, right. But if you

recognize them as just, they're just, you know, I'm just passing through. That's what oh, man, you know, like, this is not my point. My point is my destination.

And nice matches there. They got different kinds of coffee here. You get to enjoy it when you're you don't have great expectations of it. Right? And you get to value you know, the things you have while you're here, when you are not dependent on them for your happiness depended on them.

And that is why am Rahim Allah, He says that,

that pain is the bridge to pleasure. And he gives so many examples of this, but the time will not allow it right? He says do you think, you know?

There's any comparison between Adam and Eve allows first presence in paradise for his his his second entrance to paradise after he had to deal with the toil of this world? He said do you think there's any comparison between the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam his love for Mecca, you know, growing up there, and, and his feelings about Mecca when he entered at the end of his life, at the conquest of Mecca, there's no comparison.

So pain is the bridge to pleasure that is the son of Allah, you know, what is customary for him, and how he sets up pleasure for us.

You know, people that that see this world on a superficial level, they have this fantasy about the nature of this world.

They see everything they miss out on in this world as unwise and objectionable and they get resentful and stuff. But people that have more confidence, may Allah make us up to them right, more confidence in God's discretion, then their own discretion. They see this as a priceless treasure, they see pain and difficulty is a priceless treasure.

You know, you know, even the people facing adversity

you know, and,

and deprivation, they,

they even notice that they are more blessed than others who are not going through what

what they're going through. Because these other people have a much harder test, which is a test of gratitude for their blessings, right. And so I just have to endure patiently which most people will do anyway. Because you can't change it so you might as well endure it right. And, and this is you know, God awakens my relationship with Him through this whereas the much harder test is the test

of you know, being grateful and appreciative of the blessings while they're there. But at the same time at the same time flip that over and see the people that are enjoying blessings in this world like you know health wealth family that these things when they are taken away from them or a part of that is taken away from them they appreciate the blessing even more. That's what I'm trying to say. So it from every angle there's there's such benefits to be gained. You know, I mentioned that

the year before last while I was away it had one of my you know, my very close friends he lost his 19 year old daughter to a chronic illness that she had and she passed away. She was a half an hour beforehand Rahim Allah tala. And you know people like they shared with me I wasn't able to attend the gym as I was at Hajj. And they shared with me just like heart wrenching with very beautiful words that the father was sharing. You know, who's telling his daughter, don't be afraid, you know, you're going to a merciful God, who is more merciful with you than we are cares more about you than we do. And he says I'm and I thank you Allah.

He says, I thank you Allah for giving me my daughter

for 19 years, and I did not deserve a minute of them.

That is a profound point. That you know, you don't deserve your children. You don't deserve to be alive. You didn't ask to be alive, right. He brought you here before you asked to be here.

And so when you feel like I don't deserve any of this, you feel so grateful for having it. And many times, this is the point you will not be able to feel that, unless a little bit of a sacred, some of it is taken away from you. You realize the little things that overlook things are actually very big things. Sure, you can see someone that doesn't have what you have. So you feel a little bit grateful. But a lot of us miss miss the point. And as the Prophet alayhi salatu salam said they sell most work and why the one who is, you know, being told, is not like the one who sees it firsthand with his own two eyes. And you know, the story I mentioned, a lot of times, though, he's not a

Muslim, to our knowledge, but it is on point, the story of Arthur Ashe, Arthur Ashe, who was one of the greatest senate tennis players that ever lived in, you know, in the modern age, in our lifetimes, you know, when he had to get a heart surgery, and they gave him a blood transfusion, the blood transfusion somehow was infected, and he got HIV and he died eventually.

You know, he received like fan mail from all over the world, people sending him Get well soon, like, some people writing to him. Why? Why did God do this? Why did he do it to you, of all people in such a nice person? And why did he do it to you why you have to get this horrible disease, you get AIDS.

And, you know, he said to them,

he says 5 million kids in the world? Or is it 50 50 million kids in the world, try to learn to play tennis, and 5 million kids from the 50 million, 5 million eventually learned. And 500,000 of them go professional, like on some level.

And 50,000 of the 500,000 they make it to the circuit like they joined the big leagues, and they start you know, traveling around and stuff. He said 50,000 make the circuit and 5000 only make grand slam the big tournament. And 50 only make Wimbledon

Wimbledon cup, he says and only four of those 50 make the semis and only to make the finals. And so when I won, and I carried that Wimbledon trophy that cup on top of my head, I never for a moment thought or ask God Why me?

So right now, I'm not going to ask him about this disease, why me?

That is a very good answer.

And so that is a

that is another profound benefit that enjoying this world would not happen Allah knows it would not happen for us, were it not for the next in the scratches and the hurts and the pains of this world.

Number five, the last of the wisdoms I'll talk about just for the purposes of this talk here is that not just the blessings that we enjoy in this world, but the achievements that we relish in this world, the accomplishments in this world would be meaningless, where they're not a struggle on route to them, you know, put differently, if there's no possibility potential for failure, there is no such thing as triumph you haven't tried, you haven't achieved if there was never a chance that you are going to fail. Right.

And so suffering and, and, and problems, they serve as a spark, you know, for the good, the flames of good, if you will,

that were meant to kindle around us as well, you know, what makes a person so heroic in those times, where he's rescuing people's lives, his courage that he's, you know, going through the rubble during the earthquake or, you know, during the disaster or during the fight or whatever it is, it is the danger it is the parallel is the risk is the evil involved, that he faced and, you know, put the other, you know,

at a higher level of precedence and important than themselves, that is selflessness, right, they could lose themselves, and yet they still did it.

And

they could have failed or they could have died. So if there's no failure, then there's no sense of accomplishment.

You will not save for anything in life. Unless you also taste or can taste its bitterness.

You know, the people that are that are enslaved to luxuries, and the easy life. They don't know what it means to be human life is tasteless for them. All they know about humanity is like its outermost shell, its animal shell, if you will, like the physical human. The human being to them has no, you know, potential, but the potential of consuming, right. You know, why? Why do people when they retire get miserable?

Because there's no risk. There's no work you're not trying to keep your job. You're not trying like you just sit back, nothing to do no accomplishment, no end of month.

You're getting your pension, so on and so forth, right?

That is what makes life tasteless for so many of them. And you know, on the opposite end, you know, people that have high levels of insecurity, like the person that's an orphan, or the person that's homeless, or the person that's sleeping hungry, as unfortunate situations are so many people that were overachievers, you know, it was those difficult beginnings that carved in their personality, perseverance and resilience and toughness, that allowed them to now make a place for themselves, you know, earned them access to the making of human history. This is not like uncommon, this happens all the time. Right. And so a world without temptations, a world without choices, am I gonna do the

right thing or the wrong thing?

Here, that is a world where human excellence cannot thrive. You know, think of like, on a simplistic level, also, a prisoner who's been in prison for 10 years, do we praise them that they have not killed anyone, or drank any alcohol in those 10 years? Now, of course, we don't, because there was nobody in this element to kill, and there was no alcohol in the cell that he like,

kept his head back from It is only when you could have and you didn't, that you are praiseworthy for not.

And so,

that was the fifth one.

So just to review the making life meaningful, being forgiven by Allah opportunities to forgive, that we would not initiate had he not inserted them in our life, awareness of the insignificance of this world, and then subsequently enjoying this world because of

the disadvantages of it, and then enjoying our accomplishments, because of

the tenacious climb that we put into accomplish, and the risk of failure or the previous failures. That's what makes all this tasteful, and meaningful. The last point I want to make is that, as I alluded to earlier, the problem of evil has nothing for atheism, it is not a leg that atheism can, you know, philosophically stand its arguments on, you know, like we said, if there's evil, that has nothing to do with whether God exists or doesn't exist, there could be

a, you know, a non compassionate God, a cruel God. And there could also be what we are saying, a wise God, we don't fully understand his wisdom, but we have, you know, a general idea of what why we should be reassured that he certainly wise, you know, a merciful God will, His mercy does not play out as limited, us would imagine it should, and so on and so forth.

And, you know, atheists when they say, like,

God should have made us this way, and God should not have allowed evil in the world. But

they may not realize even asking for, like, atheists are essentially asking for a human being that lacks the capacity, the faculty of being human, which is what agency, the ability to choose. Like, if you cannot do right, if you cannot do wrong, then are you really doing anything, right? You're not doing it, you're more like, the clocks, gears, or the traffic lights, or the or they call those electronic dials, you're just a simulation. And so you're mechanically simulated in this ideal world without disadvantage. Like, you know, that means no disadvantage. That means there's going to be no sadness in the world. But if there's no sadness ever, then is there something what is joy? Right,

that means that, you know, there's no failure in the world. But then if no one ever fails, what is success? Like, if you're in sports, like I just thought it was just like really lousy example that I'm going to share anyway, cuz it's late at night, and it's my third lecture in a row, and I'm tired.

Imagine a basketball player that never ever, ever, ever misses. It would not even be fun to watch him anymore. Right? Like, no matter how you defend him, you know, even if you grab him, like in a headlock, he just drops the ball and picks it with his foot, it still goes in from half court, right? It's just like, I don't want to watch this. There's like no suspense. No, who's gonna win this and when that there's nothing there.

So there's no like failure for this person or for so there will be. That means nobody will be less beautiful than anybody else, which means everyone will be exactly the same. No one will ever be interested in discovering anything because no one's a disadvantage. We all know the exact same things. Right? No one will ever die. Because that's a disadvantage as well. It's like what are you talking about? Exactly? Like what kind of world is that? That's like a blind, deaf dumb. Normally, no one ever anticipate the future because we already know what's gonna happen.

You know, there's gonna be no differences in our

In our wealth and our beauty and our reputation, our intelligence, nothing at all. And like I said, the people living in the greatest luxury today actually have the most difficulty and you know, in their life because they have the smallest margin of adversity in their life. Their lives are alternately tasteless. And so this ideal world just to wrap up, void of all evil, which the atheist is demanding of God is actually the most unwise world you can imagine. Like, it's a world that's so tragic. That's so scary. You know, it is a world, you know,

that we think a lot only exists in the imagination of the atheists, that he didn't actually give us a world like that. As Dr. Sami Allah says, and so this imperfect world filled with evil, is actually the perfect world. It is the perfect world to fulfill the objective of this journey of this world. Because life in the divine plan in the plan of Allah is an uphill climb for the human being, where you ascend to greatness by

by just powering through traversing the thorny path, and struggling against your humaneness, struggling against your human weakness. And then a lot and I'll close with this soprano data regarding this uphill climb the pinnacle of his uphill climb, he says, In the levina, manual, how middle sided hard to relate to those who actually do this. May Allah make us over them who believe and work righteous deeds, they are the best of the creation of Allah. That means even better than the angels, because the angels did not have temptations did not have diversity did not have the problem of evil. That's why they asked that question earlier in that verse, because they don't

understand patience, because they never had to be patient against anything. And so the fact that we have to be subjected to this is why we, if and when in sha Allah we passed that test. We are superior to the angels and that is why the verse says best of creation. That is also why you find the verse in another song so arrived, where Allah says the angels will come around entering the people on the people of Paradise from every door, saying salaam aleikum Bhima sabato Peace be upon you for the patience you exhibited. they admire your celebrity to the angels because you did what they don't

have the capacity to do for near Morocco but doubt how excellent is this final outcome this final home for you? May we be the recipients of this announcement.

And being the company of the angels and the one who created them from light, and our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam more or less entered humanity engine kind as a guiding light a lot of money is like a lot later on. I'll stop here. So panic alone.