Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Ebrahim Ghodrati ¹
• Mohammad reza Adli ²
• Abdolhossein Tarighi ²
• Bakhshali Ghanbari ³

¹ PhD Candidate in Religions and Mysticism, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, Department of Religions and Mysticism, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

³ Associate Professor, Department of Religions and Mysticism, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to study the issue of evil from the perspective of Ibn Maimon in Judaism and Imam Muhammad al-Ghazali in Islam. Ibn Maimun does not consider evil to be issued from God because he believes that anti-existence has no actuality and all evils are non-existent to which no act belongs unless the matter has existed by its nature and therefore matter causes corruption and evil. With Ibn Maimon, he considered evil to be material, and God free from evil, and always considered God to be pure good, and he considered the world to be good and the evil in which man is placed to be due to human existence. Al-Ghazali also emphasizes that good and evil are from God and he who does not know evil from God is ignorant. In the sense that God does not create evil for evil, and God's purpose in creating evil is actually to achieve a greater good. According to Ghazali, the ambiguity about the compatibility of God's mercy and the existence of evil is due to a misunderstanding of the true meaning of mercy. The conclusion is that Ibn Maimun considers evil to be non-existent and considers the principle of its existence to be due to factors such as ignorance and the limited power of man, and considers evil to be due to the human nature of individuals; Al-Ghazali, on the other hand, considers God to have created evil and good together and considers the principle of evil to be a factor in achieving greater and unknown good.

Keywords

• Evil
• Creation
• Ibn Maimun
• Al-Ghazali
• Islam
• Good