200206 - Evil befalls you due to yourself paradox

Al'hakim

☝ The wise,

  • the possessor of knowledge, and the "meta" wisdom
  • the source of wisdom ⊃

[4:78] Wherever you may be, death will find you, even if you are in fortified towers. If any good befalls them, they say: "This is from God," and if any evil befalls them, they say: "This is from you!" Say: "All is from God;" what is wrong with these people, they barely understand any narrative!

This ayat shows that all is from God, the good, bad and ugly.

Yet,

[4:79] Any good that befalls you is due to God, and any evil that befalls you is due to yourself. We have sent you as a messenger to the people and God is enough as a witness.

and similarly,

[42:30] And any misfortune that happens to you is a consequence of what your hands have earned. And He overlooks much.

God is good. Ayat 4:79 is a citation to that effect. And certainly, error is not possible for God.

It's a little too dilute to say "cause" and "effect", however most folks seem to be caught up in that paradigm aren't incorrect. Certainly, if anything happens it could only have occurred due to God, in the sense that, no other entity could make existence happen.

However, here God is giving us a word of caution. That evil is not in the nature of God, and therefore evil that befalls one is "from Him" but not due to Him. Because God is literally saying, in English, the credit for evil is you, not Him, right? In other words, the evil is credited to the creation, not the creator.

I cannot yet get my head wrapped around this apparent contradiction. One obvious hypothesis is that there must be a sequence of events. If the entire spectrum of ones timeline is taken, it ought to show that God has provided enough runway for individuals to correct their courses, before ultimate destruction or ultimate bliss results.

No doubt God guides. And, no doubt, from some He withholds guidance.

[32:13] And if We had wished, We could have given every soul its guidance, but the sentence from Me has taken effect, that I will fill Hell with the jinn and ins all together.

The question is, when does God withhold guidance?

Al'hamdulilah.

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Updates

  • 200214 a few updates and citations

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