Suffering in Sunnite Islam

Abstract

It has been noted by various writers that Islam, in contrast to Judaism and Christianity, has paid little attention to the problem of theodicy, understood as the problem of showing how the suffering of good men is to be reconciled with the love of God for men. One important strand of Old Testament thought is that God sends suffering as a punishment for sin, and this may be either the sin of the individual or of his society, or even of his ancestors. 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' The sufferings leading up to the Exile were seen by the prophets as due to the nation's worship of false gods in previous generations and to some extent still continuing. Job's friends insist that his sufferings must be the result of some sin which may have escaped his notice, and urge him to examine himself for this sin and to confess it. The conclusion of the book is that