In Justice I Speak

A talk with a friend about God and belief enticed me to write this topic, hoping that written ideas are clearer than spoken. This topic is Justice, more specifically God’s Justice.

Justice is one of those topics that are taking me away from the idea of a supernatural creator because simply I don’t think that things are as crisp as prophets taught us. Islam is simple when it comes to justice, implement God’s laws and your societies will be intact, crime rates will be very low, and you will go to heaven. In short, you will be happy if you implemented God’s laws in your societies and afterlife. However, this is probably too simple for the real world.

To feed the purpose, let’s examine the origins of crime. Criminals were raised with different values from ours. If I were raised the same way Saddam Hussain was raised, wouldn’t I make the same decisions he made? If not, then there is something hereditary, a Criminal Gene. That means Saddam Hussain had little to change in his behavior, he is the result of his society, aka environment, or Genes after all, and he was not free in his actions. If we learned that this is the case, how would he, Saddam, be sentenced to hell or heaven by God if God chose what takes him to either? Given that God created everything, Genes and Environment, and capable of changing them even if we assumed “God created free well”.

Imagine yourself as a king walking with your servants in a forest. While walking around enjoying the sunlight and quiet breeze you noticed that a hand was hanging on top of a well. Somebody is in danger of falling in the well; he is shouting asking for your help that you know you are capable of doing. Instead you decided that you are going to leave him to the test of helping himself by himself; thinking that if he succeeded you will make him the leader of your military, otherwise he will drown to his fate in the well. The question here is: if he died are you responsible? Let’s assume YOU put him in that situation to experience his strength, would you be responsible for his death?

If I was raised in a house that disrespects women, how can I respect women? If I was raised as a idol worshipper, believing that Hobal or Zeus is the truth and nothing else is, how do you want me to see the truth Mohammed or Jesus are delivering? If I was raised a Muslim, how can I see the light of Jesus Christ? If I was raised a Christian, how can I believe in Mohammed’s message?

If I had little to do with my action, belief, and ethical standards how can God judge me? Isn’t he the one who said in Quran “God orders no impossible “is it possible to be what God wants you to be, when he himself created your environment and therefore your every belief, behavior, and ethical standard?.

I took Saddam Hussain as an example but it is true to substitute him with Hitler, Yazeed, Stalin, Moses’ pharaoh, or any so called “Tyrant”.

I don’t rule out the Criminal Gene, however even this possibility would make hell and heaven unfair because we have no control over our Genes. God created our hereditary characteristics, just like he decided our environment and therefore the values we bear. I lean toward the environment rather than the Criminal Gene; however that means that I, you and everybody else is responsible for all criminals in our society. Because we are the society, furthermore we are the strong cycle in the society because of the education and the ability of critical thinking we wear on our faces. Are we punishing criminals because we don’t want to assume responsibility; because we want to blame somebody for OUR mistakes?

The more I think about this the more I question God’s capability for ultimate Justice… Again, I am either so blind that I can see no light, or so enlightened that I cannot believe a lie, the lie of God’s justice.

Radi Alzayer 4/16/2011

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