Is it God’s wrath? Is it punishment? Or is it God’s failure? Or is it cruelty committed by God?

Is it God’s wrath?

Is it punishment?

Or is it God’s failure?

Or is it cruelty committed by God?

These are the doubts, questions, and accusations that arise when people die suddenly — whether in groups or individually — when they are killed in accidents, when they are brutally attacked and beaten by enemies, or when poverty, disease, and misfortune befall them…

Islamically speaking, there is nothing anywhere that allows one to describe sudden death — whether collective or individual, death in accidents, or the coming of poverty, disease, and misfortune — as God’s wrath, as punishment, as God’s failure, or as cruelty committed by God.

No one has ever made such a claim Islamically, and no one ever will. Because the concept of God and the belief that Islam presents is of this nature: that “Qadr (destiny): both the good and the evil in it are from Allah.”

The common people know and understand only the smallest, minimal form of destiny — like a seed. They do not know, and cannot understand, the elasticity of that seed or the extent of that elasticity. No one knows or can understand how large that seed called destiny can become at its maximum, using its elasticity — what all it can become. No one knows or can understand the tree, the garden, the forest contained within the seed.

The seed-form of destiny is the smallest possibility of destiny. The point that is the seed of destiny has an immense potential for expansion. That seed of destiny, sprouting with its potential for expansion, will develop into a tree, a garden, a forest, a universe.

Therefore:

The name Rabb belongs to Allah — the very cosmic consciousness/power. What is Rabb? Rabb means “the one who nurtures/raises.” To nurture also means cause to evolve/transform. Growth and evolution mean that nothing remains in the state in which it is seen. The Rabb — who nurtures and causes to evolves — does not let anything remain in the state in which it is seen.

In growth there is evolution, and in evolution there is growth. The one who filled growth with evolution and evolution with growth is Rabb. In growth and evolution there is also destruction, and in destruction there is also growth and evolution. This means the universe and life are continuously growing and evolving even while decaying, weakening, and breaking down. The universe and life are continuously decaying, weakening, and breaking down even while evolving and growing.

The universe, life, life-forms, and states as we see them now are not the final word. Rather, they are things that are growing, things destined to transform through evolution. This is why many things — collectively or individually — may seem to cease to exist, seem to perish, seem to be killed.

Rabb is the one continuously nurturing the universe and life — in the form He intends.

“Mā shā’a Allāhu kāna wa mā lam yashā’ lam yakun” — “What Allah willed came to be; what He did not will did not come to be.” This is the meaning behind why Muslims say “Mā shā’ Allāh” upon seeing or hearing something.

Even the seed and the sprouting plant do not fully comprehend the maximum potential of growth and evolution. A spoken word does not itself know its own meaning and purpose — what the speaker intended, or what the listener understands. But the Rabb, who sprouts and nurtures the maximum potential of growth and evolution, knows. That is the knowledge of the Determiner of Destiny (Qadr). That is the firm belief in destiny — that both good and evil in destiny come from the Determiner of Destiny.

God is the one who, in whatever way, caused to evolve and created not just human beings but everything, and who sustains and guides them. Because of this, when we view that same God only in a human-centered way, when we evaluate God using human thought and intellect, when we attribute to God the very same intellect, thought, and emotions that humans have — there lies the problem in making the accusations and judgments mentioned above against God.

God is not merely a human-centered or earth-centered God. What is said and done centered on humans applies to humans — but that does not mean God is one to whom only what humans say applies, exactly as humans say it.

God is the Creator and Sustainer of the mosquito, the elephant, the rat, the cat, the microbe, and the insects as well. It is not only humans who die suddenly, collectively or individually, or who are killed in accidents — mosquitoes, flies, microbes, and insects too. The “why” and “for what” of all these becomes understandable only when seen from a larger vantage point, a bigger canvas.

”‘Asā an takrahū shay’an fahuwa khayrun lakum, wa ‘asā an tuḥibbū shay’an fahuwa sharrun lakum” — “Perhaps you dislike a thing which is good for you, and perhaps you love a thing which is bad for you.” (Qur’an)

“The One who causes death” (Al-Mumīt) is also a name of Allah — not only “the One who gives life” (Al-Muḥyī). “The One who arranges causes” (Al-Musabbib) for things to happen is also a name of Allah.

That those destined to die, die in whatever manner — that they are caused to die in whatever manner — is not cruelty. Calling death or being killed “cruelty” is merely the prejudgment of one who does not know what life is or what it is for. One should only complain if life is not moving toward what it truly is, toward what it is truly for. To know and say that requires viewing life from a larger canvas — not necessarily just from the narrow plane in which one finds oneself trapped.

A spoken word does not know its own meaning and purpose, but the one who uttered it — and mostly also the one who reads or hears it — knows its meaning and purpose. If there is one who gave life, who arranged it, who created it, and if that one gave some meaning and purpose to that life, then it must be understood and evaluated in relation to that. Whether the meaning of the uttered word has been fulfilled is something to be known and determined by the one who uttered it — the word itself cannot know this on its own.

How can one understand that dying or being killed means that the meaning of that word — or of you — has been erased, is being erased?

Cruelty, right, wrong, joy, and anger exist only within our own level of emotions and thoughts. For the One who moves things from the small toward the greater, none of this applies — even if it may seem so, or not, to the one being moved and to those like him around him.

Allah — this God — has given no teaching or instruction suggesting that this life here is permanent, or that one should do anything and everything to cling to this life here, for the sake of this life here. The only instruction is to do what needs to be done, as it should be done, for as long as one lives.

For those who hold the belief in God and the Hereafter — that this life is merely the path to the next stage — how then can they say that the deaths and accidental deaths occurring here are God’s wrath, punishment, failure, or cruelty?

You have gone wrong — or rather, you have chosen to go wrong.

Like the phrase Muslims say when calamities occur — “Innā lillāhi wa innā ilayhi rāji’ūn”:

“Indeed we are from the Real, and indeed to the Real we are returning.”

And like the meaning of the words Muslims say when burying the dead, casting the final handful of earth onto the body:

“Minhā khalaqnākum wa fīhā nu’īdukum wa minhā nukhrijukum tāratan ukhrā” —

“From it We created you, and into it We return you, and from it We will bring you out once again.”