Okay, so in the gap in posting this response I hope time was spent in reviewing the video playlist shared earlier for Why Islam Is True. Sh Karamali does a great job breaking this down so I won't try to cover that part too much which is a solid overview of the Kalam Cosmological argument (based on Imam al-Ghazali's work Tahafut al-Falasifa). It sufficiently covers the existence of God by logically using first principles to define God as the necessary being and all other creation being contingent beings.
What I want to dive into is the second question you brought up which is the one about injustice or evil. You question could be rephrased as this:
How could a good and just God permit evil and suffering?
The logical breakdown of this is:
- God is omnipotent (all powerful, not limited).
- A perfectly good and just God would eliminate evil, so if such a God exists he would want to do so and would do so.
- But evil exists, meaning:
> God is not omnipotent
> God is not perfectly good
> or, God does not exist
This is often called the "atheist" argument but really all theists have to address this one way or another. Christian, Jew, or Muslim, we all must respond to this.
I'm just going to note this right now and get it out of the way, but all non-wahid understandings of God must place conditions on God by definition (ie. Trinity - Polytheism). Nearly all Christians end up turning God into a contingent being which opens them up to a metaphysical doom loop.
God is the necessary being who remains non-conditioned. Anything is possible with God. What does "anything" mean? Well, it is important to note that logical contradictions like a triangular cube are not things. They are as meaningless to speak of as it is to speak of God creating such, and have nothing to do with God's capacity or lack thereof. God is capable of unrestrictedly acting in any and all non-contradictory ways.
Good and bad are also not exclusively subjective terms. An example is that a rotten watermelon is objectively bad. It has failed at being food. Good and bad have to do with a things essence. Good or bad in humans must be contingent of volitional (free-will) acts (change/time are part of free-will). Thus good actions lead to transformation of the human soul from potentiality to actuality in the realization of human flourishing, in contrast to bad actions which hamper and frustrate this transformative movement/process. Badness or evil involves a failure to actualize latent and implicit potential essence of the nature of a thing.
- Goodness is related to presence or existence
- Badness is related to absence or non-existence
All things other than God are a mixture of potency and act. God is pure actuality without potentiality, God is absolute.
What follows is that divine omnipotence is not logically inconsistent with the existence of evil in the world as struggle and hardship constitute the efficient cause for the latent potencies
To eliminate all evil from the world, free-will would also have to be eliminated. The resulting human would be one devoid of moral responsibility. For such a creature there would be no meaningful notion of divine reward and punishment. However, with free-will the human's nature is not one that is inherently evil (like the Christian errors to assume). Humans mistakenly fall into evil when they fail to actualize their innate potential for good. Furthermore, God provided guides (the prophets and the books of scripture) in order that examples of true goodness might be clearly known and remembered.
Mercy and forgiveness can only be exercised toward another who has committed a wrong against you. Patience and forbearance can only be realized in the face of hardship and adversity. Courage and fortitude are only possible in the face of danger to life, or property, or status or the like. Compassion and empathy cannot be realized without those who have suffered misfortune. Sacrifice is not possible without the loss of that which one holds dear.
I'll cut straight to the conclusion. The fact that we recognize evil in the world is testament to our intellect remembering the goodness of God. This is why forgetfulness is not a sin, but heedlessness is. Yes, humans can shed blood and that is horrifying, but at the same time we are greater than so much more goodness than even angels can imagine as our state is loftier than theirs. And what a beautiful reminder is that of our existence and that this existence being contingent on our Creator, because in the absence of that remembrance is the gravitation toward nothingness. We are spiraling always toward either nearness in remembrance or loss in absence of the divine presence. So do not be afraid of evil because in Truth it has no power over you.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'Alamin!
