The Divine action in facing natural evil from the perspective of Mulla Sadra and process theologians

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology, Imam Sadiq University (AS) , Tehran, Iran

2 Kharazmi university, Karaj, Iran

10.22061/orj.2025.11881.887

Abstract

The issue of evil is an important battleground for monotheistic religions; because if God is infinite knowledge, omnipotence, and pure goodness, why has He not prevented the emergence of evil in His creation? Process theologians try to answer this question by denying complete agency, foreknowledge, and divine omnipotence. In their belief, God's only action in the universe is to place possibilities in beings and guide them toward divine order, harmony, and goals. However, beings choose the path of their actuality based on their creativity and free will, and God does not have the ability to force them toward order and harmony. Now, if the choice of beings is not in the direction that God encourages, natural evil will arise in the universe. Therefore, God is not responsible for natural evil in the universe,.
However, Sadra, by assuming prior knowledge and God's omnipotence, has proved God's agent by manifestation and does not consider evil in the world to be contrary to God's goodness and omnipotence.
On the basis of the principality of existence, he considers production to exist, and he considers evil to be nonexistent, and he does not consider it to be divine making.
Also, natural evil is necessary for the world of nature and does not conflict with God's complete effectiveness and self necessity
This article aims to evaluate their view and show that if we accept Sadra's view of divine agency, none of the objections they have to accepting divine omnipotence and omniscience will arise.

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