meelash · April 21, 2019 18:31
diff --git a/gistfile1.txt b/gistfile1.txt
 Ok, so you mentioned: 

 "There are so many good people in the world who are not Muslim. How can a god that is merciful say that those who do not believe in Islam will ultimately (most of them at least) go to hell, discounting the goodness that is in such people? I don’t understand how a greater entity can function this way."

 The main assumption you are making here is that "goodness" of a material sense matters at all with respect to hell, heaven, and the hereafter, which are things in the non-material world. An analogy will help to understand why this is irrational:

 Consider a person playing a video game in which it is possible to kill people, rob people, steal cars, burglarize, shoot, stab, create mayhem, etc. It is also possible, in this video game, to give charity, build buildings, plant flowers and trees, help little old ladies across the street, etc. Now, would it be correct to make assumptions about that person’s goodness or badness "in the real world" based on that person’s actions in the video game? Let’s say, even, that the person was afflicted with some mental issue that caused them to confuse the video game with reality- such that they actually thought they were doing those things in reality. Even in that case, would anyone be willing to recompense such a person in the real world, for example, pay them for something good that they did in the video game or punish them for killing people in the video game?

 As long as the person is doing things in-game without any intention connecting to the outside world; just killing time or for relaxing the mind, getting some psychological buzz or other temporal intentions or any intention that is confined to the reality of the video-game, his actions good or bad have absolutely no consequence in the outside world and, even making any kinds of psychiatric judgements on the person would be a questionable endeavor. There are people who kill thousands of video-game human beings and other creatures over the span of their lifetime, but we don’t consider there to be anything wrong with them.

 Now consider a slightly different scenario- The person is still playing the video game, but this time it is multi-player and playing with him in the same game is someone he knows in the real world, say his friend or significant other or someone. Now, if, in the game he makes nice gestures towards his friend, helping him to do different things (regardless of whether those things are "good" or "bad" in the reality of the game- let’s say they’re playing a killing video game, and he assists her in killing a lot of people); now his actions in the video game will have real-life good consequences, because they have become "real" by having an intention that ties them to the person with him in the real world. His actions in the game become meaningful, even though, physically speaking, they are still meaningless and not causally connected with their consequence in the real world.
 On the contrary, let’s say he’s angry with his friend, or he’s just an annoying person and he decides to annoy his friend, he kills him in the video game, as soon as he restarts and rejoins he does it again and again. Or he thwarts whatever he is trying to do just to annoy him and bother him. Now his actions in the game would have real-life bad consequences of her becoming angry with him, wondering why he is annoying her, etc (although, in the game reality, maybe he was stopping killing and mayhem). So, on the basis of his intention being rooted in the outside-of-the-game consciousness, his actions within the game have outside consequences. Or, in today’s world, let’s say a person is playing a violent video game with the intention of preparing himself for a real attack on the outside world- now his actions are not just mindless entertainment. Someone else might be playing a flight simulator with intention of learning to fly so he can be a pilot- now his "fake" actions are praiseworthy in the "real" world.

 Please don’t understand me- by means of this analogy, my purpose is not to say the real world we’re living in is also a kind of simulation (a la Elon Musk or "Harun Yahya"). That’s not my intention- the real world is, in fact, "real;" it’s physical and the other people in it are real consciousnesses, claiming anything else just on the basis of conjecture is absurdity. However, I do contend that as an analogy, this analogy is applicable in every scenario where the actions a person takes in one reality are finite and limited to that reality (which is itself finite and limited) and has no direct causal connection to another reality in which consequences would be felt.

 And that is the point- the material good that you are observing people doing, no matter how great it seems, only seems grand and great to you because you are viewing it in the prism of your own finite and extremely limited reality. In fact, even materially, the material good that the very "best" person you can think of in all of history or all the "good" people have done all together is completely meaningless in the grand scale of even the material world. Some billion years from now, does the earth, humanity, all their collective works and consequences of good and bad even exist materially? What is the point of "good" or "bad" that we all know has not even any material consequence in the end? The physical body doing the "good" and the one the "good" is being done to are both perishable and extremely short-lived. (Not to mention "good" actions having unintentional bad consequences down the line, as often happens because of human kind's poor foresight).

 Furthermore, the reality is that even the "grand scale of things" in the material world is less than nothing when compared to the reality of the infinite hereafter and God himself. In the hereafter, the person having opened his eyes to a different reality, will himself realize the insignificance and small-ness of this entire reality, which is the meaning of the verses wherein it is stated that the person in the hereafter will think that he just stayed for a part of a day, or an hour in the world. This is a theme that is repeated again and again throughout revealed guidance; for example:

 >The comparison of this world (including its billions of years of history and potential future and billions of light-years of distances) to the hereafter is like if one of you dips his small finger into the ocean and pulls it out again- then see how much water he comes back with. (The scholars write that this is actually just an example for our limited minds that can’t comprehend infiniteness, otherwise even that ratio obviously can’t compare to anything finite vs. something infinite)

 >If this world and all that is in it were even as valuable to Allah as the wing of a mosquito, he would not have given a disbeliever even a drop of water to drink.

 You can find plentiful such narrations about the reality of this world and the hereafter in the "chapter on the softening of the hearts" (كتاب الرقائق) that is generally found in the books of hadith. Not to mention similar themes being discussed countless times in the Qur’an.

 Now, let’s assume, theoretically, that we had some metric (or any right, for that matter) to judge the "mercifulness" of God according to our moral values. In reality, even making such a judgement is placing God on a kind of equal plane to us, it is a type of anthropormophism of the divine; the reality of our relationship with God is actually more like the owner and the owned, and he has full freedom and power to do with us what he wills regardless of our notions of justice or mercy- like the owner of a teacup is not accused of injustice or oppression if he takes the teacup he owns and throws it on the ground, smashing it. This is not withstanding our consciousness and the rights that might come along with it, because the level of our consciousness compared to Allah’s consciousness, which is limitless and incomparable, is much, much less than the level of the teacup’s consciousness compared to our consciousness. But let’s make the assumption for the purpose of this argument; even in that case, God rewarding people in the reality of the hereafter on the sole basis of material goodness in this realm doesn’t just have nothing to do with mercy, it is not even justice, it would be an act of insanity- like paying the video game player for service rendered in the reality of the video game. That is, of course, unless the "good" actions performed in this world were performed with the consciousness of their insignificance and reality and with the intention of divine pleasure in the hereafter by means of such symbolic gestures as these good deeds, knowing that they don’t physically carry any significance in the reality outside of this temporal world.

 Having mentioned "intention," that brings to mind another perspective on this question; philosophically, I guess it might be just another way of stating the same thing, but it is another way of looking at it. Everything a purpose does is with some intention either consciously or subconsciously. The best reward a person can hope for or expect is whatever they were intending by that action. In your question, if the "good people" in question themselves are not in pursuit or wanting the reward or to be saved from hell by means of their deeds, then who are we to be making a claim on their behalf? So, if a person donates a large sum of money to an institution or research with the intention of getting recognition as being a generous person, having their name on a plaque on the building, etc.- then what right or rationale do they have to expect from God anything other than what they intended? Also, is it really "good" to trade some money, time, effort and get rewarded for it in name and fame? That’s just a transaction, it doesn’t make you a "good" person. You might say, some people do good things secretly, "selflessly." But even those people, unless they are conscious of God and the hereafter are doing those things because in doing them they get emotional and mental satisfaction and pleasure. They get that feeling you get when you do something that you consider good and worthwhile. They feel "good" about themselves. So when they are getting that pleasure and satisfaction and feeling that they are intending by their action, why would they or anyone else expect them to get anything beyond what was the reason they were doing it for?

 Now, in spite of all that has been mentioned above with respect to the reality of (a) our relationship with our creator, (b) the worthlessness of "good" actions even in the material world, (c) the lack of any inherent causal connection between actions in this world and reward and punishment in the hereafter, and (d) the rational requirement for actions to be rewarded according to their intention, the theologians have actually still discussed the question of how Allah rewards non-Muslims for their good actions such that his characteristics of justice and mercy (that he has informed us of without our having any inherent right to be shown those things) are still manifest in their condition also. They have come to the conclusion that the justice of Allah is so complete that even those good actions of non-Muslims will not go unrewarded, one way or another- but their rewards will necessarily be on the magnitude and in accordance with the reality for which those actions are intended. We don’t know all the details of the "how", but some possible ways such actions can be rewarded might be: giving them whatever recognition, money, fame, honor, peace of mind, self-satisfaction, comfort etc. they intended; giving them some other good of this world in place of what they intended; removing some material calamity that otherwise would have befallen them; giving them guidance towards the reality of this world and the hereafter in exchange of some very sincere action of theirs; and other possibilities have been mentioned.


 Finally, all we have discussed so far addresses the question of "good" people not being rewarded for their actions in the material world unless those actions are accompanied by the necessary "tie" to the reality of the hereafter. It also addresses the punishment of people who, while knowing of the reality, choose to act only for the material and worthless "now" and purposely neglect to orient their behavior for that reality. But what about the case of people who are the equivalent of the video game player with the mental problem, causing them to confuse the reality of the video game with material reality; that is to say, people who are unaware or unconvinced about the existence of God, messengers, hereafter, etc.? Wouldn’t punishing them for that be the equivalent of punishing a person with a debilitating mental health issue, and therefore unjust?

 This is actually somewhat of an open question amongst the scholars of Islam, in that, what we know for certain is that Allah will be just because he has said of himself that he is just. However, exactly what *form* that justice will take? Some scholars said that, in reality, there isn’t anyone who fits this definition, one way or another Allah ta’ala, at some point in each person’s life has gotten the message to them; it’s not necessary that we know of that, but on the day of judgement, that person will acknowledge as such. Some said that such people will be suspended in the hereafter and face some test there that will determine the fitness for heaven or hell. Some said that with regards to certain aspects such as the existence of God, no one is excused; this is because a person of his own accord can ponder the world around him and come to the conclusion of the existence of God. This is supported by the innate recognition that every person has of the existence of God due to their being asked in the aalaam-e-arwaah, before creation: "Am I not your rabb?" and their having replied "Definitely." So, due to the instinctual knowledge which exists in every individual because of that incident (in spite of not remembering it specifically) every human being if he puts aside biases and arrogance, etc. and introspects will come to the correct conclusion. However, with regards to other aspects that require the reaching of the message, then if a person didn’t receive the message, they might not have to answer for that specifically (like accepting Prophethood and Islam, specifically, for example). Whatever the case may be, this much we can say for certain, no person will be treated unjustly and all the variables and individual circumstances will be taken into account on that day.


 As far as I can think, perhaps just one question remains- and that is a question that we do not have the answer to. That is, having understood that the reward and punishment are not causally related to the actual physical actions of people in the material world, that what is their cause? In other words, WHY will God reward and punish based on a person’s recognizing him or not, respectively? Even having rationally accepted that the recognition of Allah and the hereafter’s reality is *more important*, relatively, than everything else in the material world, the question remains why or how is it *SO important* that it justifies eternal punishment or bliss in the hereafter?

 As I said, this question is not one to which we have the answer. We can say, again, that there *is* a reason, surely, because God is not unjust. We also know that we will become aware of this reality to a sufficient extent in the hereafter, as evidenced by the disbelievers in the hereafter acknowledging the appropriateness and justice of their punishment. But, in this world we do not know the why. Probably, the reason we can’t know the why has a lot to do with the fact that not having any experience or inkling about that reality, it is impossible for us to understand causality in it.

 Personally, (and this is one area of this answer where I am merely stating, by way of explanation, what strikes me as a possibility, as opposed to a principle of established Islamic doctrine) I think our inability to understand the significance of the causes of reward and punishment in the hereafter, is in large part due to our fundamental inability to understand "free will." Free will is actually a very strange thing (similar in some ways to "true randomness"). It is something supernatural (by definition, because it is non-deterministic), which is why, in reality, most of the atheists, believers in scientism, etc. do not actually believe in free will. They will say they believe in free will for fear of the visceral reaction of the general public to being told they do not have free will, while in fact what they are defining as free will is just an algorithm of sufficient complexity and sufficiently large number of initial conditions and inputs that the output resembles free will. Exactly what they are attempting to approach through the ever-increasing complexity of AI. However, being deterministic, this is not truly free will as we define it and as most people actually understand it.

 So, apparently, it would seem that there is some quality of the soul (which we do not understand the nature of) that manifests in the choices taken by free will (which we also do not understand the nature of) which makes it deserving and appropriate for reward or punishment depending on its choices. And in the hereafter we will recognize and acknowledge that justice and appropriateness.
	Ok, so you mentioned:

	"There are so many good people in the world who are not Muslim. How can a god that is merciful say that those who do not believe in Islam will ultimately (most of them at least) go to hell, discounting the goodness that is in such people? I don’t understand how a greater entity can function this way."

	The main assumption you are making here is that "goodness" of a material sense matters at all with respect to hell, heaven, and the hereafter, which are things in the non-material world. An analogy will help to understand why this is irrational:

	Consider a person playing a video game in which it is possible to kill people, rob people, steal cars, burglarize, shoot, stab, create mayhem, etc. It is also possible, in this video game, to give charity, build buildings, plant flowers and trees, help little old ladies across the street, etc. Now, would it be correct to make assumptions about that person’s goodness or badness "in the real world" based on that person’s actions in the video game? Let’s say, even, that the person was afflicted with some mental issue that caused them to confuse the video game with reality- such that they actually thought they were doing those things in reality. Even in that case, would anyone be willing to recompense such a person in the real world, for example, pay them for something good that they did in the video game or punish them for killing people in the video game?

	As long as the person is doing things in-game without any intention connecting to the outside world; just killing time or for relaxing the mind, getting some psychological buzz or other temporal intentions or any intention that is confined to the reality of the video-game, his actions good or bad have absolutely no consequence in the outside world and, even making any kinds of psychiatric judgements on the person would be a questionable endeavor. There are people who kill thousands of video-game human beings and other creatures over the span of their lifetime, but we don’t consider there to be anything wrong with them.

	Now consider a slightly different scenario- The person is still playing the video game, but this time it is multi-player and playing with him in the same game is someone he knows in the real world, say his friend or significant other or someone. Now, if, in the game he makes nice gestures towards his friend, helping him to do different things (regardless of whether those things are "good" or "bad" in the reality of the game- let’s say they’re playing a killing video game, and he assists her in killing a lot of people); now his actions in the video game will have real-life good consequences, because they have become "real" by having an intention that ties them to the person with him in the real world. His actions in the game become meaningful, even though, physically speaking, they are still meaningless and not causally connected with their consequence in the real world.
	On the contrary, let’s say he’s angry with his friend, or he’s just an annoying person and he decides to annoy his friend, he kills him in the video game, as soon as he restarts and rejoins he does it again and again. Or he thwarts whatever he is trying to do just to annoy him and bother him. Now his actions in the game would have real-life bad consequences of her becoming angry with him, wondering why he is annoying her, etc (although, in the game reality, maybe he was stopping killing and mayhem). So, on the basis of his intention being rooted in the outside-of-the-game consciousness, his actions within the game have outside consequences. Or, in today’s world, let’s say a person is playing a violent video game with the intention of preparing himself for a real attack on the outside world- now his actions are not just mindless entertainment. Someone else might be playing a flight simulator with intention of learning to fly so he can be a pilot- now his "fake" actions are praiseworthy in the "real" world.

	Please don’t understand me- by means of this analogy, my purpose is not to say the real world we’re living in is also a kind of simulation (a la Elon Musk or "Harun Yahya"). That’s not my intention- the real world is, in fact, "real;" it’s physical and the other people in it are real consciousnesses, claiming anything else just on the basis of conjecture is absurdity. However, I do contend that as an analogy, this analogy is applicable in every scenario where the actions a person takes in one reality are finite and limited to that reality (which is itself finite and limited) and has no direct causal connection to another reality in which consequences would be felt.

	And that is the point- the material good that you are observing people doing, no matter how great it seems, only seems grand and great to you because you are viewing it in the prism of your own finite and extremely limited reality. In fact, even materially, the material good that the very "best" person you can think of in all of history or all the "good" people have done all together is completely meaningless in the grand scale of even the material world. Some billion years from now, does the earth, humanity, all their collective works and consequences of good and bad even exist materially? What is the point of "good" or "bad" that we all know has not even any material consequence in the end? The physical body doing the "good" and the one the "good" is being done to are both perishable and extremely short-lived. (Not to mention "good" actions having unintentional bad consequences down the line, as often happens because of human kind's poor foresight).

	Furthermore, the reality is that even the "grand scale of things" in the material world is less than nothing when compared to the reality of the infinite hereafter and God himself. In the hereafter, the person having opened his eyes to a different reality, will himself realize the insignificance and small-ness of this entire reality, which is the meaning of the verses wherein it is stated that the person in the hereafter will think that he just stayed for a part of a day, or an hour in the world. This is a theme that is repeated again and again throughout revealed guidance; for example:

	>The comparison of this world (including its billions of years of history and potential future and billions of light-years of distances) to the hereafter is like if one of you dips his small finger into the ocean and pulls it out again- then see how much water he comes back with. (The scholars write that this is actually just an example for our limited minds that can’t comprehend infiniteness, otherwise even that ratio obviously can’t compare to anything finite vs. something infinite)

	>If this world and all that is in it were even as valuable to Allah as the wing of a mosquito, he would not have given a disbeliever even a drop of water to drink.

	You can find plentiful such narrations about the reality of this world and the hereafter in the "chapter on the softening of the hearts" (كتاب الرقائق) that is generally found in the books of hadith. Not to mention similar themes being discussed countless times in the Qur’an.

	Now, let’s assume, theoretically, that we had some metric (or any right, for that matter) to judge the "mercifulness" of God according to our moral values. In reality, even making such a judgement is placing God on a kind of equal plane to us, it is a type of anthropormophism of the divine; the reality of our relationship with God is actually more like the owner and the owned, and he has full freedom and power to do with us what he wills regardless of our notions of justice or mercy- like the owner of a teacup is not accused of injustice or oppression if he takes the teacup he owns and throws it on the ground, smashing it. This is not withstanding our consciousness and the rights that might come along with it, because the level of our consciousness compared to Allah’s consciousness, which is limitless and incomparable, is much, much less than the level of the teacup’s consciousness compared to our consciousness. But let’s make the assumption for the purpose of this argument; even in that case, God rewarding people in the reality of the hereafter on the sole basis of material goodness in this realm doesn’t just have nothing to do with mercy, it is not even justice, it would be an act of insanity- like paying the video game player for service rendered in the reality of the video game. That is, of course, unless the "good" actions performed in this world were performed with the consciousness of their insignificance and reality and with the intention of divine pleasure in the hereafter by means of such symbolic gestures as these good deeds, knowing that they don’t physically carry any significance in the reality outside of this temporal world.

	Having mentioned "intention," that brings to mind another perspective on this question; philosophically, I guess it might be just another way of stating the same thing, but it is another way of looking at it. Everything a purpose does is with some intention either consciously or subconsciously. The best reward a person can hope for or expect is whatever they were intending by that action. In your question, if the "good people" in question themselves are not in pursuit or wanting the reward or to be saved from hell by means of their deeds, then who are we to be making a claim on their behalf? So, if a person donates a large sum of money to an institution or research with the intention of getting recognition as being a generous person, having their name on a plaque on the building, etc.- then what right or rationale do they have to expect from God anything other than what they intended? Also, is it really "good" to trade some money, time, effort and get rewarded for it in name and fame? That’s just a transaction, it doesn’t make you a "good" person. You might say, some people do good things secretly, "selflessly." But even those people, unless they are conscious of God and the hereafter are doing those things because in doing them they get emotional and mental satisfaction and pleasure. They get that feeling you get when you do something that you consider good and worthwhile. They feel "good" about themselves. So when they are getting that pleasure and satisfaction and feeling that they are intending by their action, why would they or anyone else expect them to get anything beyond what was the reason they were doing it for?

	Now, in spite of all that has been mentioned above with respect to the reality of (a) our relationship with our creator, (b) the worthlessness of "good" actions even in the material world, (c) the lack of any inherent causal connection between actions in this world and reward and punishment in the hereafter, and (d) the rational requirement for actions to be rewarded according to their intention, the theologians have actually still discussed the question of how Allah rewards non-Muslims for their good actions such that his characteristics of justice and mercy (that he has informed us of without our having any inherent right to be shown those things) are still manifest in their condition also. They have come to the conclusion that the justice of Allah is so complete that even those good actions of non-Muslims will not go unrewarded, one way or another- but their rewards will necessarily be on the magnitude and in accordance with the reality for which those actions are intended. We don’t know all the details of the "how", but some possible ways such actions can be rewarded might be: giving them whatever recognition, money, fame, honor, peace of mind, self-satisfaction, comfort etc. they intended; giving them some other good of this world in place of what they intended; removing some material calamity that otherwise would have befallen them; giving them guidance towards the reality of this world and the hereafter in exchange of some very sincere action of theirs; and other possibilities have been mentioned.


	Finally, all we have discussed so far addresses the question of "good" people not being rewarded for their actions in the material world unless those actions are accompanied by the necessary "tie" to the reality of the hereafter. It also addresses the punishment of people who, while knowing of the reality, choose to act only for the material and worthless "now" and purposely neglect to orient their behavior for that reality. But what about the case of people who are the equivalent of the video game player with the mental problem, causing them to confuse the reality of the video game with material reality; that is to say, people who are unaware or unconvinced about the existence of God, messengers, hereafter, etc.? Wouldn’t punishing them for that be the equivalent of punishing a person with a debilitating mental health issue, and therefore unjust?

	This is actually somewhat of an open question amongst the scholars of Islam, in that, what we know for certain is that Allah will be just because he has said of himself that he is just. However, exactly what form that justice will take? Some scholars said that, in reality, there isn’t anyone who fits this definition, one way or another Allah ta’ala, at some point in each person’s life has gotten the message to them; it’s not necessary that we know of that, but on the day of judgement, that person will acknowledge as such. Some said that such people will be suspended in the hereafter and face some test there that will determine the fitness for heaven or hell. Some said that with regards to certain aspects such as the existence of God, no one is excused; this is because a person of his own accord can ponder the world around him and come to the conclusion of the existence of God. This is supported by the innate recognition that every person has of the existence of God due to their being asked in the aalaam-e-arwaah, before creation: "Am I not your rabb?" and their having replied "Definitely." So, due to the instinctual knowledge which exists in every individual because of that incident (in spite of not remembering it specifically) every human being if he puts aside biases and arrogance, etc. and introspects will come to the correct conclusion. However, with regards to other aspects that require the reaching of the message, then if a person didn’t receive the message, they might not have to answer for that specifically (like accepting Prophethood and Islam, specifically, for example). Whatever the case may be, this much we can say for certain, no person will be treated unjustly and all the variables and individual circumstances will be taken into account on that day.


	As far as I can think, perhaps just one question remains- and that is a question that we do not have the answer to. That is, having understood that the reward and punishment are not causally related to the actual physical actions of people in the material world, that what is their cause? In other words, WHY will God reward and punish based on a person’s recognizing him or not, respectively? Even having rationally accepted that the recognition of Allah and the hereafter’s reality is more important, relatively, than everything else in the material world, the question remains why or how is it SO important that it justifies eternal punishment or bliss in the hereafter?

	As I said, this question is not one to which we have the answer. We can say, again, that there is a reason, surely, because God is not unjust. We also know that we will become aware of this reality to a sufficient extent in the hereafter, as evidenced by the disbelievers in the hereafter acknowledging the appropriateness and justice of their punishment. But, in this world we do not know the why. Probably, the reason we can’t know the why has a lot to do with the fact that not having any experience or inkling about that reality, it is impossible for us to understand causality in it.

	Personally, (and this is one area of this answer where I am merely stating, by way of explanation, what strikes me as a possibility, as opposed to a principle of established Islamic doctrine) I think our inability to understand the significance of the causes of reward and punishment in the hereafter, is in large part due to our fundamental inability to understand "free will." Free will is actually a very strange thing (similar in some ways to "true randomness"). It is something supernatural (by definition, because it is non-deterministic), which is why, in reality, most of the atheists, believers in scientism, etc. do not actually believe in free will. They will say they believe in free will for fear of the visceral reaction of the general public to being told they do not have free will, while in fact what they are defining as free will is just an algorithm of sufficient complexity and sufficiently large number of initial conditions and inputs that the output resembles free will. Exactly what they are attempting to approach through the ever-increasing complexity of AI. However, being deterministic, this is not truly free will as we define it and as most people actually understand it.

	So, apparently, it would seem that there is some quality of the soul (which we do not understand the nature of) that manifests in the choices taken by free will (which we also do not understand the nature of) which makes it deserving and appropriate for reward or punishment depending on its choices. And in the hereafter we will recognize and acknowledge that justice and appropriateness.