Muslim theologians on evil: God’s omnipotence or justice, God’s omnipotence and justice

Belief in a flawless and perfect character of God is one of the basic tenets of Islam. The existence of different forms of evil in life is usually seen as one of the basic challenges to the logical correctness of this belief. Theologians of almost every religion have had to address questions such as the following,‘How can we understand the presence of harmful and painful things given that God–the Compassionate, the Merciful–has control over this universe?’Responses provided by Muslim theologians to questions such as the above have led to a highly sophisticated and diverse body of literature.
Despite the diversity of opinions expressed by Muslim theologians on this point, one basic point is generally recognised–any possible explanation for the existence of evil in life should never come at the expense of the belief in a perfect and flawless character of God. In other words, no defect or deficiency can be attributed to God in order to develop a logical explanation for evil in life. It follows that Muslim theologians addressing the issue of evil have been confronted with the challenge that no human catastrophe may call into question the omnipotence and all-embracing will of God, or his justice, mercy and solicitude for the welfare of humankind. These beliefs remained sacrosanct–any violation would amount to a transgression.