Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Masoud Zeinolabedin ¹
• Amirhossein Mansouri ²
• Arefeh Poushyan Jouybarie ³
• Eynollah Khademi ⁴

¹ PhD Candidate of İslamic philosophy,, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Iran. Tehran

² PhD Candidate of İslamic philosophy, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Iran. Tehran

³ M.A. of philosophy, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Iran. Tehran.

⁴ Professor of philosophy, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University. Tehran

Abstract

The pains and afflictions caused by the covid-19, are a kind of cognitive evils, and are an existential thing. cognitive evils are in conflict with God’s wisdom and justice and knowledge and the goodness of the creation. here is a question that, if cognitive evils are not in conflict with these divine qualities, why they are created by God, and why not have God created a world without evils. There are some responses to this question based on God’s wisdom: Evils are necessary in creation of world and have some benefits. We consider them evil, because of their relation with us. Too, evils are not because of God’s creation but they are belonging to corporal aspects of the world and its weakness and abilities. The goodness of world is very much as evils. Too, the evils are necessary for human free will. Human science is based to fixed laws and the stirring of emotions and goodness depends on the presence of evil. then we can justify the existence of evil without resorting to non-existence. and we can say that cognitive evils of covid-19 did not conflict with divine wisdom. Now we have opportunity given by covid-19 to think about a better world after coronavirus.

Highlights

Introduction

Muslim philosophers and thinkers such as Ibn sina, Suhrawardi, Ghazali and

Mulla Sadra believe that evil, refers to the non-existence. But This theory violated with cognitive evils. Pain is the perception of things that are against human nature. This kind of evil is not non-existence but is an existential thing. The pains and afflictions caused by the covid-19, are a kind of cognitive evils and are an existential thing. Here, we will discuss how to face covid-19 according to belief in God. 

The encounter of Muslim philosophers and thinkers with cognitive evils

Fakhr Razi and Davani believe that cognitive evils are an existential thing. Mulla Sadra in asfar and mafatih-ol-gayb says that evils are related to the non-existence. He Arguments in asfar against Davani but we believe that his arguments are not true. cognitive evils are existential thing. His opinion is changed later and he says in his explanation of osul-alkafi, that cognitive evils are existential thing.

Now we ask that if pains are cognitive evils and they are existential thing, why God created these things? Is it incompatible with the goodness of the world?

Encountering with cognitive evils according to some Divine attributes

God has attributes such as Scholar, wise, just, disciple, creator. These attributes are the most perfect and he has not any defect. The problem of evil conflicts with these attributes and we will discuss this:

knowledge of God one of the divine attributes which are related to the problem of cognitive evils of covid-19, is divine knowledge. God is absolute and creation is based on his knowledge. Now here is a question that, if perceptual evil is an existential thing and lies below the divine knowledge, is God satisfied with the creation of this evil?

Mulla Sadra in the seventh volume of the asfar responds that knowledge is an inherent attribute of God and it is free on any defect and possibility and complexity. God created the world based on this knowledge and he does not the creator of these evils.

According to this, what is based on the knowledge of God is good, and evils are related to substance, nor existence. They are due from the corporeal and material world. We consider these things as evils, in relation to us and in our minds.

1. The goodness of the world

In the opinion of the Muslim scholars, what is created by God is based on the good system, and if a better world could create, God will create it. this world is better, and there is not any evil. 

1. Divine justice

Justice is the same goodness and God does not any act that is not good. It is the meaning of justice. According to Mulla Sadra, all the qualities of God return to a single attribute and that is the ‘necessity of existence '. Science, life, power, and other qualities of god are aspects of existence. if God is just, we can conclude that all that God’s creation was based upon goodness, and the perfections of everything is given to its capability. 

Some of the evils benefit according to divine wisdom

wisdom means that the act has strength, stability, and is perfect. According to this, God grants everything that is needed. wisdom is due to God's knowledge of all causes, and that knowledge is the cause of things and the will of their creation. in this regard, what we consider evil is evil merely in our relationship:

1. All evils have some benefits.

Mulla Sadra in his works describes the wisdom of the world and says that everything, and every evil, has benefits. Everything has goals that cannot be achieved simply. For instance, when animals eat themselves, we consider it as evil. but when we look more precise, it is found that if animals do not feed on each other and only die with natural death, the bodies of those are useless and cause general corruption.

although the death caused by covid-19 cause pain, it has some benefits that maybe we don’t know it yet. After the coronavirus a lot of things changed; people think about the purpose of creation and the existence of a transcendental source for the universe more than ever, the inability of material to provide spiritual and mental needs and social protection has emerged. Perhaps, in the future, with more human understanding of the virus, benefits have been made to it, and, for example, the coronavirus has been vaccinated against a more dangerous group of diseases, affecting the immune forces of the body and the development of antidotes.

1. Evils are not created by god essentially

Mulla Sadra says in asfar that evils are not created by God. his creation was based upon goodness and evils are related to nature, nor existence. the existence of natural objects is good for themselves and objects compatible with them. Because of the defect and weakness of things, they cannot accept all of the perfections, and evils are due from it.

1. Evils are requisites for human authority

Richard Swinburne in Providence and the Problem of Evil believes that you can't have a special good without special evils, so that, if you want to make other surprises, you will be as specific as possible. in his other work; The Existence of God, He introduces the theory of divine justice based on authority. he provides two reasons for it.

The first argument is that without evil, the value and importance of authority will be permanently lost. natural evil provides opportunities for valuable and arbitrary response types. The best goodness, which is an emotional response to the suffering of others

The second argument is based on the necessity of knowledge. The virus has to follow a constant pattern like other family members over the past 60 years so that humans can build it. in this interpretation, the divine wisdom is required to impose a fixed policy on the phenomena of the universe in order to reach the nose and develop the sciences and techniques for the right confrontation with nature. If there were not such a fixed order.

Conclusion

 it seems that the pains of conid-19 and its cognitive evils are justifiable according to the above contents. The world after coronavirus will be different and governance, human relations, economy, industry, culture, etc will be changed.

Keywords

• cognitive evil
• coronavirus
• Covid-19
• evils
• pain
• belive
• . GOD