Why the tests and punishment, God?

All praise belongs to God who is the source of everything that is good.

Of recently, I have come to realize the holistic positivity in death. God tests us with losses. Though for many, this begs the question, how can God--the Almighty--take the life of an innocent being who has done nothing but worship Him or is a mere infant. How can the Merciful Lord take a mother away from her child, or a husband away from his wife and young children? Such questions have been posed with much animosity and frustration. However, we often forget to ask the real questions. And the real question is; who's property are we? Are we the property of our children, of our family; or are we God's property and our families are nothing more than God's custodians for the time being. Does one ever complain when the owner takes his belonging back? The owner has reclaimed it therefore our conjecture that God has done something 'evil' is false.

So when people question, 'What kind of a God can see a child drown away in a flood or die of hunger and deprivation,' there is a greater mercy to this. The greater mercy is the compassion you and I feel towards that child. A child died--I am going to cry for that child. Allah says THAT'S IT. That is why I took the child away. How are we supposed to fully comprehend the value of life, if we don't see it go away? How can we understand the fragility of the human race if we don't experience loss? How can we understand the value of this Earth if it did not shake? How would we know?

When catastrophe occurs, we jump to label the event as being evil and treacherous, when in fact, they have simply mis-defined the term in itself. Evil is the willfull rejection of good. When a person rejects the idea of doing something that is good, that is evil. Any other way, is not evil. Meaning when I have free will, I can choose to do good and I can choose to reject good (which brings about evil). If a person murders someone but they did not intend to kill; we call it an accident. There is no evil in it, there is innocence (assuming that we can prove that the person did not willfully intend to commit the act, then such an individual is innocent). This is how atheism starts--when terminologies are mis-defined and you get stuck in a spiral of misunderstands.

The definition of evil has a direct connection with free will. If free will is removed from the equation then there is no such thing as evil. It cannot exist. Evil only exists with free will. Therefore a flood has no notion of evil because there is no question of free will present.

But we fail to realize that evil is actually a good thing! A common example to better understand this point are the lines on a basketball court. In a game, we have demarcations of good and evil. If we take those demarcations out, the sport ceases to function. These lines on a basketball court define evil and good. When we play the game, as long as we keep the ball inside the line, it's good. But once we hit the ball outside the line, it's evil--you lose the point. Experts in the field know how to keep the ball inside the line and they're good at it. Even if those lines are a distraction, they come in our way, we need those lines to be there because the more we struggle to keep the ball within the lines, the more we avoid losing the point and thus, the better we become at the game. This is how heroes are born. Evil needs to be present; the secret is that we must avoid it. The question is not whether it should exist or not, the idea is it that it must be avoided. And that is why evil is actually designed to enhance the good.

Allah says in this world, we're constantly going to struggle; it's a never ending struggle, and we're going to keep doing it until we die--because that is the design of Allah's system. When people struggle in this world their whole life and are finally released from this test, that release is a blessing. It is the end of the examination and there is comfort in knowing that it's finally over.

It's not very often that we thank God for releasing our loved ones from the pain and struggles of this world. Alhumdulillah, for the eternal life that will bring about harmony and contentment to those who deserve it the most.