What is your view of "evil" ?
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Personally, I think evil is the "lack" or willing lack of "good" similar to how cold is the lack of heat. I don't believe that something that is evil, in the traditional sense of the word, exists. >D What are your thoughts? confused
If I understood you well, I do not think evil is a passive behaviour. For example, not giving charity is not as evil as robbing the needy. Not robbing the needy is not a virtue either.
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If I understood you well, I do not think evil is a passive behaviour. For example, not giving charity is not as evil as robbing the needy. Not robbing the needy is not a virtue either.
Not robbing anyone is the presence of good, and not giving to charity is the lack of it. It doesn't have to be passive either. Killing someone is the callous disregard for justice or "good." Again to use the heat analogy, there are varying degrees of how much heat an object has. Of course there has to be an intent, like with all things, to do these deeds.
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Personally, I think evil is the "lack" or willing lack of "good" similar to how cold is the lack of heat. I don't believe that something that is evil, in the traditional sense of the word, exists. >D What are your thoughts? confused
This concept is an ancient one, used to delineate the distinction between hot/cold and light/dark by stating that cold is merely the absence of heat and the same for darkness.
Certain schools link this outlook symbolically to piety. Good is basking in the light of God while evil is being distant from God, thus being in darkness. There are schools of thought that link the analogy to heaven as the state of being close to God and hell as being further away, refuting a physical location.
Evil/darkness/cold being the absence of /good/light/heat ... for cold and darkness, you can measure them, so maybe it works in the physics of it all. But for good and evil, to make it work you would have to play a few moral puzzles, like the one Samia posted, and debate the philosophy of it, then decide on what you want to believe. I don't think good and evil can be defined so linearly.
I tend to see evil as purely subjective and a victim of semantics. People have been debating its definition for as long as they have been trying to define the mind. We know there are some phenomena out there that we can't grasp so we give them these general terms. I mean, how do you categorize what evil is?
Is it an emotion? There is cruelty, maliciousness, lust, avarice, envy ... are these emotions evil, or is acting upon them what is evil? Murder, rape, necrophilia ... are these acts evil, or is the perpetrator the evil one? Like a female that paralyzes her mate so she can feed on his head in nibbles while she pleasures herself on him, is she evil?
Evil, is it a feeling, a deed or a personality? Maybe combinations of all three? Well, all of those examples exist in the animal kingdom. Or can one believe that evil is inherent in the natural world?
Personally I think the concept of evil and good are not spiritual measures, more so a categorization for a society to distance itself from what it doesn't care for.
The arabic word attributed to the word "evil" is Shar, which can mean anything negative. One place it is used in the Reading is in chapter 997 - "And who soever does the smallest measure of ill shall see it."
Imho all things attributed to "evil" and what is negative in general is simply us giving into our animal instincts. Our Nafs, or spirit, drives us relentlessly, commanding us to feed it with endorphins from our hypothalamus for its drug habit. God calls this the Commanding Spirit, in the Reading. Our spirit, in its raw unbridled state, will compel us to do anything that feels good if we can get away with it. This Nafs al-Ammarah, however can be tamed, or tempered. From my understanding the stages it can evolve through are the
Nafs al-Ammarah - the commanding or compelling spirit
Nafs al-Lawwamah - the lamenting spirit
Nafs al-Mutma'innah - the spirit of contentmentI believe through Salah and Sawm we can learn to tame this spirit of ours which will probably then help to clear our mind ('Aql) and give more jurisdiction to our soul (Ruh) on our body (Jism).
Regardless of metaphysical philosophy or finding suitable definitions, we do know that by consistently remembering God and striving to purify ourselves, we will guard ourselves and others from what is devolving and we will incite progress around us.
So this is my view on "Evil the ultimate separation from all that is good and holy." There is no such thing, we just like to do what releases the drugs in the brain. For some, it is eating lots of candy. For others it is serial killing. And yet for others, it is being depressed or angry all the time. It is all about how the neurons have stabilized during a person's past and whatever conditioning or trauma or the lack thereof occurred during it. The good news is that neuron pathways that have fixated are not permanent and a person can recondition themselves to dislike certain acts or can condition themselves to enjoy things they haven't before. How? The best way is in the Reading. Controlling your Nafs, or rendering it content will not only give you control over your desires but it will also protect you from being manipulated unknowingly by external forces.
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Peace,
Respectfully.I think we must then define the word evil. It belongs in the Matrix.
I see war in Iraq and interests that banks deal with, as evil.
White House and the Pentagon and banks see it as good and part of life.God knows best.
Glory be to our God.
Peace. -
If I understood you well, I do not think evil is a passive behaviour. For example, not giving charity is not as evil as robbing the needy. Not robbing the needy is not a virtue either.
I agree. Evil comes from an evil spirit, who is evil by nature. Satan. Don't follow it. !
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Actually evil such as robbing, or rates, should be completely unecessary by the system of Islam.
And in modern times, that is fully implemented, by welfare systems, and so forth.