Download `Evil` in Islam - Qur`an and Injil

Evil in Islam
Islamic concepts of evil share many themes with the corresponding thought of
Judaism and Christianity, but also show a number of distinctive trends. For Muslims,
God deals with evil by sending messengers and books to guide humankind.
Although the Qurʾān contains an extensive semantic field of ‘good and bad,’ the
words normally translated as “evil” are sayyiʾa and sūʾ. Occurrences of these terms refer
most frequently to evil deeds, their natural consequences and their future recompense.
God is said to forgive those who do evil in ignorance (S 4:17), or who repent of their evil
deeds (S 7:153).
The Qurʾān also claims the existence of Iblīs or Satan, who is an “enemy” to
humankind and who tempts, deludes and perverts humans beginning with his
encounter with Adam and Eve (S 2:36; 7:22, 27; 38:82). One school of thought within
Islam considers humanity capable of resisting Satan’s temptations through taqwā (S
91:7-10), while another school sees a corresponding base of carnal desire within human
nature itself in the “soul that commands to evil” (S 12:53). However, there does not
seem to be any suggestion in the Qurʾān, or in the writing of Muslim scholars, of sin as
‘power’ as developed by Paul for example in Romans 6 and 7.
Scholars of Islam have observed that while in Christian thought evil is both a
structural and an accidental element, in Islam evil is merely accidental. (Grunebaum:
119-20) That is, Islam neither gives evil a central place in human existence nor tells a
story of God implicating himself in grace and suffering in order to deal with evil.
Bibliography:
G. E. von Grunebaum, “Observations on the Muslim concept of evil,” Studia Islamica 31
(1970) 117-34.
T. Izutsu, Ethico-religious concepts in the Qurʾān (Montreal 2002).
F. Rahman, Major themes of the Qur’ān (Minneapolis 1994).
B. M. Wheeler, “Good and Evil,” EQ 2 (Leiden 2002) 335-339.