It has been pointed out that the Qur’an suffers from no less than 11 contradictions. We have dealt with five of them in the previous issues. In this issue we deal with a few more of the supposed contradictions.

Contradiction 7: EVIL AND GOOD: Where do they come from?
While one verse says that both Evil and Good issue from Allah, the very next verse says only Good comes from Allah!

(4:78)
“…. If some good befalls them, they say “This is from Allah”. But if evil, they say “This is from thee” (O prophet). Say: “All things are from Allah…..”*

(4:79)
“Whatever good, (O man!) happens to thee, is from Allah. But whatever evil happens to thee, is from thyself” 

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* Interestingly, the remainder of this verse goes like this: “But what has come to these people. That they fail to understand a single fact?” Can anyone understand what God says here? The fact that both Good and Evil are from Allah or only Good is from Allah?

Contradiction 9. Who has to be blamed for the wrongs done?
From verses 35:8, 16:93, 74:31, 2:142, we learn that it is Allah who has to be blamed for all the misguidance. While other verses hold man himself responsible for the wrongs done (30:9, 4:79).

(35:8)
“Allah leaves stray whom He wills and guides whom He wills”

(30:9)
“It was not Allah who wronged them, but they wronged their own souls” 

Answers to objection Nos. 7 and 9:

Since contradictions 7 and 9 are similar, we have combined the answer.

It is asked, “Can anyone understand what God says here?” The answer is, anyone can understand what God says here, only if he will give up being arrogant before a Book which is a Revelation meant for people with profound minds and noble souls.

The question that is dealt with in the first verse (4: 78) is that of the Prime Cause. Who causes things to happen? Did Prophet Muhammad have any say in what happened to the people, good or bad? The pagans alleged that the cause of good things that happened to them was Allah, but the cause of evil things was Prophet Muhammad.

In actual fact, what they were trying to say is that although God was pleased with them, ready to send down good, and good, and more good, it was Prophet Muhammad who had spoiled the situation by causing evil things happen to them. In short, they were trying to say that he was an evil omen, if not evil himself.

The Qur’an corrected them – at this point – only about the powers of Muhammad, ignoring the surrounding insinuations, because, in the scheme of Guidance, Tawheed (Oneness of Allah) comes first. It informed them that Allah alone was the Prime Cause. Muhammad had no say in the affairs.

In this connection, the question that arises is, (and which the pagans actually put forth, as stated in another part of the Qur’an), if Allah is the Prime Cause, then, He must take the credit for all that happens, meaning, if some people are unbelievers, worshippers of snakes, cows, stones or sun and moon, (add: dollars or credit cards), the credit goes to God. He caused it. If they are unbelievers in Muhammad and his Message, is it not because God so willed it? Isn’t He the Prime and Final Cause?

The question is a clever maneuver: “If we are unbelievers,” the pagans were saying, “and you don’t like it, ask God why. Think about it. God is the cause of all, as you claim; and God cannot cause evil. Therefore our worship of stone deities is not evil. It has God’s approval. So are you not contradicting God? He is so open, but you are so closed?”

This is the reason why the very next verse demolished this argument by saying, ‘Yes, God is the Prime Cause, but some of what He causes (in this case, evil) is occasioned by what you do.’

To clarify: If good things happen to you, or evil, what occasions them? Is the system arbitrary? But God is All-wise. He cannot be arbitrary. So, listen to the rules: God’s sending down of the good is occasioned by His own Kindness and Mercy. His kindness is not caused by anything except His Attributes. He sends down the good because He is Good. He grants in abundance because He is the Generous; and so on. His grant of the good things is not hinged on to how the humans behave. He feeds the good as well as the evil, the oppressed as well as the oppressor, believers in Him as well as the unbelievers.

So, what about evil? What causes it to descend? The answer is, “It is God who causes it to descend, but it is the acts of you humans which occasions it. Human action is the immediate cause while Allah’s is the Final Cause.”

What happens when the humans act badly? Two situations arise with respect to the consequences: either Allah should step in between the physical and spiritual reactions and responses, so as not to let any evil happen, or He should not. Most of the time He does come in between the evil consequences of evil actions of the humans, and prevents them from taking effect. So that, to give a simple example, when men smoke, He comes in between its effects and they escape cancer. This is what happens most of the times. This is the demand of God’s mercy. But at other times, He allows the reactions to evil actions take place. He does not come in between. To go back to the example of smokers, a few get cancer. So, what caused cancer? The answer is man’s own evil action – that of smoking, although it can be attributed to Allah since He did not intervene. This explains the words, “Whatever good, happens to you, is from Allah. But whatever evil happens to you, is from yourself.”

Another verse of the Qur’an says (42: 30): “And whatever of evil strikes you, is by what your hands have earned, although He forgives a lot.”

The Prophet further strengthened this point by reporting His Lord, in a long report, as having said (in a hadith of Muslim): “My slaves, it is your deeds that I reckon for you and then compensate for them. Therefore, if someone finds good, he may thank Allah, while he who finds other than that, may blame none but himself.”

When it is said in the above Hadith, “If someone finds good, he may thank Allah,” it is implied that although your deeds are not good, but Allah prevents adverse reaction and hence, let the men say thanks to their Lord.

How pertinent it is of the Qur’an, therefore, to end the verse 78 quoted above by saying (4: 78): “What then is the matter with these people that they come nowhere near to understanding the discourse.”

8.  Who has to be blamed for BELIEF AND DISBELIEF ?

(6:12)
“It is they who have lost their own souls, that they will not believe”

(10:100)
“No soul can believe except by the will of Allah” 

No explanation required for this contradiction!

Answer to contradiction No. 8:

Perhaps in the light of the explanation offered above (for objection nos. 7 and 9), no explanation is required for objection no. 8.

Yet, to add: whether a soul would believe or not is its own decision. When a soul (the inner self, the mind) has decided on disbelief no one can make it believe.

The decision to believe or not comes ex tempore. Sometimes, the truth is brought, but the man immediately rejects it. Why is it so? Well, there can be many reasons; but one of them is that some people are given to material and animal pleasures: of this life, they mere desire wealth, power, food and sex. They are poor in relationships with others, withholding from the poor and oppressing those over whom they have power. They form gangs, guilds, corporate organizations, consortiums, clubs and leagues of their own kind of men and women, in order to draw the best advantage of the system they design for the proletariats. They do not understand any language but that of money, guns, prisons, tortures, shares and stocks. They will mow down any number of people, to achieve their targets. They are lost souls.

When Truth is shown to them, in first instant they realize that it threatens what they have been working on for generations, and so “they will not believe.”

The second verse that has been quoted, “No soul can believe except by the will of Allah,” expresses another fact, a Law, viz. all power is in the Hands of Allah, and so no soul can believe unless Allah wills. Accordingly, when a man has decided to believe, it is Allah who grants him the permission before the man can spell out his belief.

That’s His Power and Control. They can be characterized as total, comprehensive and complete.

But so is His love of man. When a man decides to believe, God is happy with his decision and helps him on. If he moves an inch towards Him, He comes forward by a foot. He is too ready to forgive and facilitate belief.

But most men decide to disbelieve.