RKUD 3020 : ISLAMIC ETHICS KIRKHS, IIUM

1. God’s Justice

2. • -ethical rationalism
• -the autonomous of human capacity as well as
the justice and wisdom of God
• -that the intrinsic good or bad of action can be
establish on purely rational ground

3. • -they argued that God cannot will evil for
• 1-it is apart from being rationally repugnant
• 2- it entails uselessness on the part of God
• -in addition, to induce man to desire evil and
be disliked by the good contradicts the desire
–as the urge to will the good and of revulsion,
as the urge to avoid evil will deny the
opportunity of man to earn the reward

4. • -God is capable of wrongdoing, but does not
do wrong, by virtue of His wisdom and mercy
• -it follows that it was the duty incumbent of
God to act in accordance with the universal
precepts of wisdom

5. • -there are 3 test cases of this thesis
• 1-whether God had created mankind for a
reason
• 2-whether God could demand what is
intolerable
• 3-whether God could torture the innocent,
without any reward

6. • -for the 1st
question,
• -God has created mankind for a positive
reason
• -however, is not compelled, by reason of His
essential goodness, to create this world at a
specific time

7. • For
• -the knowledge of the good of the object by
the agent does of the agent does not entail its
production necessarily, but simply the
possibility of choosing it for that reason,
accordingly his choice would be good for that
reason

8. • -motives do not necessitate the action, but
only that its choice is more justifiable than any
other
• -for the 2nd
question,
• -that God could not demand the intolerable
from His creation

9. • -the concept of obligation, as well as the
imperative of grace or benevolence, logically
entailed that God’s demands be rationally
tolerable

10. • -for the 3rd
question
• -God cannot torture children and other form
of suffering on mankind
• -for good or bad of action was independent of
the status of the agent or his relationship to
the action
• -it is intuitively known by reason

11. • -we should, however, in determining the
moral quality of a painful action, overlook the
many aspects of the action, which, though
prima facie evil, may in reality be good

12. • -ethical voluntarism
• -justice means
• -is the type of action one is empowered to do
• -is the type of action which is conformity with
the God’s command

13. • -injustice means actions improperly done or
done in violation of God’s command
• -it follows from this double definition that
justice and injustice should be determined in
terms of the relationship of the agent or his
action to God, and that accordingly those 2
terms have no application to God whatsoever

14. • -in fact, what God does is by definition just;
what he refrains from doing or prohibits is
unjust

15. • -if accordingly it is asked whether it is
permissible for God to made to suffer or to
demand from His servant the intolerable
without any reward or advantage

16. • -Yes, for this would be just, if done by Him and
permissible and praiseworthy as far as His
wisdom goes

17. • -if is asked whether God, who is at liberty to
act so ruthlessly in the world, can commit a
falsehood

18. • -No, it is not because such commision is
morally reprehensible but rather becoz the
attribute the attribute of truthful is one of the
essential attributes of God and He cannot
therefore without contradiction be said to lie

19. • -in short, all action insofar as they are
contingent particular occurrences in the
world, fall within the purview of God’s all
comprehending will, and are ordered towards
the universal good and order of the world
which is the pure good