Allahu Ta’âlâ doesn’t torture his slaves

Allahu Ta’âlâ doesn’t torture his slaves
Question: An atheist writer talks bad about Allahu Ta’âlâ despite denying His existence, saying it’s unjust that we have earthquakes. What he’s driving at are the children that lost their lives. “If this is your mercy, we don’t want it!” he says. Could you answer him?
Answer: What is justice? The word itself means to put everything where they belong. Justice is a leader acting within the law he made to run a country. Injustice is when he breaks the law. Allahu Ta’âlâ, ruler of the rulers, is the real owner and the only creator of everthing. There is no superior to Him or owner of Him to hold him under the law. Therefore, it doesn’t make any sense to say “This/that thing that Allah does is not just”.

Another definition of the word “justice” is to use things that are in the possession of one’s self. Injustice is the disturbance of somebody else’s possessions. Since the whole universe and everything within were created by Allahu Ta’âlâ (and there’s no creator to anything other than Him), and nobody actually owns anything; what He does is never disturbance of others’s posessions. So, again, it wouldn’t make sense to say any action he does is “not just”. He’s the eternal possessor of everything, and he can use it however he’d please. Nobody has the right to question Him. How would one not choke up before Him? We cannot do anything but surrender to Him.

Naturally, some people lost their lives, and some became disabled or poor after the earthquake. However, a Believer must be content with his fate. If he isn’t, he’ll argue that what he has is too little when he’s poor. And if he gets rich, he’ll still be unsatisfied, and want more. Then he’ll spend what he has on things that are haram (forbidden by Islam). Both the wealth and the poverty of a person like this will be the destruction of him in this world and the afterlife. 

Whether it’s good or bad for somebody to be blind, crippled, or other disabilities depends on the person. Some people earn heaven and it’s countless blessings because they comply with their fate which is decided by Allahu Ta’âlâ; while others don’t comply with it and have hell’s infinite punishment coming their way. One cannot  simply know if it’s good or bad for them to be disabled. A person might want a top model car desperately, not knowing they’ll have an accident and the car will be the grave of him and his family. Or one might want a big fancy house and then die in it with his family during an earthquake. The point here is, we should always want/ask for what’s best for us, not what we want desperately.

It’s not his sin/fault of a child born with a disability to be that way. If he’s this way on account of his parents fault, the sin lies with them. A person who can’t see could’ve chased after evil things and so ruin their afterlife if he hadn’t been blind. On the other hand, of course there are some other blind people who aren’t content with the Creator’s decree, which causes them to incur eternal disaster. Meanwhile a sightless Muslim will go to heaven. The purport of a Hâdith-i Sharîf is as follows, “If a sightless person endures it patiently, Allah grants him Paradise.” (Bukhârî)

People with other impairments as well as those who are blind, will go to Paradise without experiencing any suffering when dying, when in grave, and when at the place of Mahshar, if they put up with those impairments patiently. And there are no impairments in Paradise. However, a disbeliever’s place will be hell eternally no matter if he’s healthy or disabled. 

We shouldn’t look for anyone to blame but ourselves after an earthquake or any other painful event. Because the purports of two Âyahs (verses of Qur’an al-Karim) declare, “Whatever affliction befalls you is because of what your own hands have committed.“ (Sûrah ash-Shûrâ, 30).

“Whatever good befalls you is from Allah and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself.” (Sûrah an-Nisâ, 79).

No evil befalls an innocent person unless it’s for a reason like for them to have a higher degree. Everyone stews in their own broth. 

Sometimes there are also other reasons why a disaster happens to all of the people whether they’re guilty or not. The purport of a Hadîth is as follows, “If an evil deed is not prevented [by those who can], Allahu Ta’âlâ punishes them all.” (Hakîm).