Both good and evil from Allah  GF Haddad Q. I have a book of Prophetic Invocations, in it is a du'a that goes like this: In the Name of Allah (swt), all praise belongs to Allah, both good and evil are by the will of Allah. Bismi' Llah, wa'l humdu li'Llah, wal khayru wa'sh-sharru bi mashi ati 'Llah I understand that good and bad both comes from Allah, but to what extent does that go. I mean obviously some bad thoughts and things are from Shaytan. How do we know the difference. And how is Evil from Allah?

Evil is by will (irada) of Allah Most High but without His good pleasure (rida). At the same time we attribute only good to Allah. Evil is attributed to Shaytan, Nafs, or Hawa.

As for moral responsibility, it belongs squarely to creatures and is the basis on which they are judged.

Christians and the Mu`tazila - an Islamic sect - believe that Allah cannot possibly create evil. The logical conclusion is that there is another creator - possibly several - besides Allah Most High which is absurd and impious.

This is a topic related to Qadar - Divine Foreordainment, which was explained most succinctly and brilliantly by Dr. Muhammad Sa`id Ramadan al-Buti in a talk available on the net under the title:

 "Foreordained Destiny, the Inefficacy of Material Causes-and-Effects, and the Servant's Earning of Deeds Created by Allah."

Was-Salam,

Hajj Gibril
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GF Haddad