Let me begin with a parable. There was a kind farmer who have a barn full of chicken. The farmer treats his animals gently and with great care thus he is caring, kind, generous and merciful. However, When a hen lay eggs the farmer take half of her children (the eggs) and sell them. The chicken mourn the loss of their children but thank the farmer as he knows better. To them there is no contradiction between killing their offsprings and stating the farmer as a merciful man. And so they love him and thank him for everything and with hope they tell themselves that these unfortunate incidents will not reoccur though it may happen because "it's the natural course of life". So they pray to the farmer to lessen the damage and beg for mercy.
While the chicken never realised the contradiction, most of religious people never realised the nature of definitions as limiters of behaviour. And for that I will tell you another parable.
A plant was bothered by the quality of soil and water it gets from its surroundings. It decided one day that it will move to another location and to do that it dragged its roots out of the soil and began to walk on its own. Then it died out because of water and nutrition shortage. The plant forgot that it has no legs and it is not an animal.
Being a plant, it has to get enough water (from water drops and water inside earth) and nutrition (by different means) and is characterised of having roots and the ability to perform photosynthesis to feed itself.
Which defines the plant's needs and the plant's traits and also explain that plants are not animals and limits the nature of plants to be unable of being animals (at least generally speaking).
And therefore, If definitions limit the defined entity and its behaviour And God is limitless, then God cannot be defined and can not be good nor evil because if God is good then he is limited by his goodness and his actions are unable to affect any person (or creature) badly. So the definition of God limits his power and makes him limited with his choices regarding his relation with man; and so does defining God as Evil.
God and man have an interactive relationship since the beginning due to the hypothesis of free will of man that leaves God without control over mankind yet he is all good, omnipotent, omniscient, immutable, and cannot be manipulated and free of needs.
But If God's names limit his actions and/or interactions toward the free will of man then God may be omnipotent but he is not limitless. And thus emphasises the inability to define a god through his actions, ideology, or through the creation of the universe and laws of nature.
Being a plant, it has to get enough water (from water drops and water inside earth) and nutrition (by different means) and is characterised of having roots and the ability to perform photosynthesis to feed itself.
Which defines the plant's needs and the plant's traits and also explain that plants are not animals and limits the nature of plants to be unable of being animals (at least generally speaking).
And therefore, If definitions limit the defined entity and its behaviour And God is limitless, then God cannot be defined and can not be good nor evil because if God is good then he is limited by his goodness and his actions are unable to affect any person (or creature) badly. So the definition of God limits his power and makes him limited with his choices regarding his relation with man; and so does defining God as Evil.
God and man have an interactive relationship since the beginning due to the hypothesis of free will of man that leaves God without control over mankind yet he is all good, omnipotent, omniscient, immutable, and cannot be manipulated and free of needs.
But If God's names limit his actions and/or interactions toward the free will of man then God may be omnipotent but he is not limitless. And thus emphasises the inability to define a god through his actions, ideology, or through the creation of the universe and laws of nature.
According to Islamic scriptures there are 99 great names of God; he who knows them all will be in paradise. And though there are several disputes among Muslim factions regarding what are the 99 names, Most of them were agreed upon by all Muslim scholars and they include the following names: The forgiving, The merciful, The generous, The Great, The wise, The just, The Giver (of bless, fortune, health, etc - pronounced as "Al RazzaQ"), and The Truthful.
And measuring by Islamic scriptures, Since God will close the door of forgiveness on judgement day, therefore God will change (not immutable)
This brings the radical contradictions of God's definitions as though God is merciful, sinners will burn in hell for eternity. Going along with this hypothesis, thus God's mercy does not include the afterlife. It is limited within certain conditions and is not absolute in nature. Such assumption leads to either disproving the immutability, forgiving nature and mercy of God or God's nature of overriding its own definitions.
Consequently, That means justice is above both mercy and forgiveness to be able for God to judge and punish who deserves punishment. This means justice overrides both mercy and forgiveness. However, Wisdom can, will, and is to discard justice in occasions and based on this perspective of facts or bliks (perspectives as described by professor R.M. Hare in a paper responding to professor Antony Flew's Theology and falsification paper), It's safe now to assume wisdom's leadership among previously mentioned definitions.
Let's generalise for both life & afterlife. God now is mutable, merciful, forgiving, and limitless within the boundaries of self-conditioning of self-defining its own entity (all of the assumptions are based in general Islamic ideologies and according to classic Islamic philosophy)
The boundaries are manifested by God and controlled by God but they are still there as God is a self-governing his boundaries in an arbitrary way in order to keep the definitions of his names valid. And thus Boundaries in wisdom limit all of the other characteristics inconsistencies of a god and makes God's definitions go altogether governed by wisdom.
However, The limiting of wisdom represent the paradox of the omniscient God that is unable of creating consistencies among his own definitions
For example; Famines and other monstrosities frequently happening on Earth leading to discard the mercy of God from life this is a disputed fact that this is not of God's concern to intervene in the sins of people before the judgement day or that this is not God's doing and was resolved in Islamic philosophy by the claim that all of the wrong and evil in the world is from man and that anything good is from God quoting below two verses stating this belief [Quran:Suret Al-Nesa':Verses 78,79]
This claim is a first of its kind to directly blaming humankind for all of the wrong doings and evil in the world which may represent the root of truth. However, giving all of the credit of all of the good things that may occur to anyone to God is something that can be overwhelmingly disputed and questioned; putting aside eight thousand years history of civilisation and developing good to humanity into the trash; Explaining why many Muslim scholars nowadays consider science as the science of knowing religion and scientist as people who have studied religion.
Indeed, some good comes from human inventions, however this is explained by another verse [Quran: Suret Al-Shams: Verses 6 to 10]
Which is in Islamic philosophies makes every good and bad returned to god (AKA Allah) and hence all of the great ideas that changed humanity's history was essentially "permitted" by god to be thought of by the great thinkers/scientists who have developed it and applied it; stating in a firm belief the godly interventions in humanity's life is possible and leaving more questions to answer regarding nature of god.
And by this I shall end part one of my article.
[to be continued]
And measuring by Islamic scriptures, Since God will close the door of forgiveness on judgement day, therefore God will change (not immutable)
This brings the radical contradictions of God's definitions as though God is merciful, sinners will burn in hell for eternity. Going along with this hypothesis, thus God's mercy does not include the afterlife. It is limited within certain conditions and is not absolute in nature. Such assumption leads to either disproving the immutability, forgiving nature and mercy of God or God's nature of overriding its own definitions.
Consequently, That means justice is above both mercy and forgiveness to be able for God to judge and punish who deserves punishment. This means justice overrides both mercy and forgiveness. However, Wisdom can, will, and is to discard justice in occasions and based on this perspective of facts or bliks (perspectives as described by professor R.M. Hare in a paper responding to professor Antony Flew's Theology and falsification paper), It's safe now to assume wisdom's leadership among previously mentioned definitions.
Let's generalise for both life & afterlife. God now is mutable, merciful, forgiving, and limitless within the boundaries of self-conditioning of self-defining its own entity (all of the assumptions are based in general Islamic ideologies and according to classic Islamic philosophy)
The boundaries are manifested by God and controlled by God but they are still there as God is a self-governing his boundaries in an arbitrary way in order to keep the definitions of his names valid. And thus Boundaries in wisdom limit all of the other characteristics inconsistencies of a god and makes God's definitions go altogether governed by wisdom.
However, The limiting of wisdom represent the paradox of the omniscient God that is unable of creating consistencies among his own definitions
For example; Famines and other monstrosities frequently happening on Earth leading to discard the mercy of God from life this is a disputed fact that this is not of God's concern to intervene in the sins of people before the judgement day or that this is not God's doing and was resolved in Islamic philosophy by the claim that all of the wrong and evil in the world is from man and that anything good is from God quoting below two verses stating this belief [Quran:Suret Al-Nesa':Verses 78,79]
أَيْنَمَا تَكُونُواْ يُدْرِككُّمُ الْمَوْتُ وَلَوْ كُنتُمْ فِي بُرُوجٍ مُّشَيَّدَةٍ وَإِن تُصِبْهُمْ حَسَنَةٌ يَقُولُواْ هَذِهِ مِنْ عِندِ اللَّهِ وَإِن تُصِبْهُمْ سَيِّئَةٌ يَقُولُواْ هَذِهِ مِنْ عِندِكَ قُلْ كُلٌّ مِّنْ عِندِ اللَّهِ فَمَا لِهَؤُلاء الْقَوْمِ لاَ يَكَادُونَ يَفْقَهُونَ حَدِيثًا
مَّا أَصَابَكَ مِنْ حَسَنَةٍ فَمِنَ اللَّهِ وَمَا أَصَابَكَ مِن سَيِّئَةٍ فَمِن نَّفْسِكَ وَأَرْسَلْنَاكَ لِلنَّاسِ رَسُولاً وَكَفَى بِاللَّهِ شَهِيدًا
Wherever you may be, death will overtake you, even if you should be within towers of lofty construction. But if good comes to them, they say, "This is from Allah "; and if evil befalls them, they say, "This is from you." Say, "All [things] are from Allah ." So what is [the matter] with those people that they can hardly understand any statement?
What comes to you of good is from Allah , but what comes to you of evil, [O man], is from yourself. And We have sent you, [O Muhammad], to the people as a messenger, and sufficient is Allah as Witness.
Indeed, some good comes from human inventions, however this is explained by another verse [Quran: Suret Al-Shams: Verses 6 to 10]
وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّاهَا
وَقَدْ خَابَ مَن دَسَّاهَا
And [by] the soul and He who proportioned it
And inspired it [with discernment of] its wickedness and its righteousness
He has succeeded who purifies it,
And he has failed who instills it [with corruption].
And by this I shall end part one of my article.
[to be continued]
