Why Is There So Much Suffering in This World - Corrected Lecture
By Yasir Qadhi | 2026-01-07T17:57:28.299497+00:00 | Topic: Trials
Why Is There So Much Suffering In This World?
Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi
Opening Supplications
الحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ سَابِغِ النِّعَمِ وَخَالِقِ الإِنْسَانِ مِنْ بَعْدِ العَدَمِ، فالحَمْدُ ثُمَّ الحَمْدُ ثُمَّ الحَمْدُ لَكَ حَمْداً كَثِيراً طَيِّباً يَا رَبَّنَا، أَعْطَيْتَنَا خَيْراً كَثِيراً رَبَّنَا سَتَرْتَ عَنَّا كُلَّ الوَرَاءَ عُيُوبَنَا، ثُمَّ الصَّلاةُ بَعْدَ وَالتَّسْلِيمُ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ المُصْطَفَى الكَرِيمِ
Alhamdulillahi sabighin ni'man, wa khaliqin insani min ba'di al'adam, falhamdu thumma alhamdu thumma alhamdu lak, hamdan kadheeran tayyiban ya rabbana, a'taytana khayran kadheeran rabbana, satarta'ana kullin wa ra'ayyubana, thumma al-salatu ba'du wa al-tasleem, ala al-nabiyyi al-mustafa al-kareem
الله أكبر
Allahu Akbar
The Context of Gratitude Through Understanding Suffering
How can we truly thank Allah for our blessings without appreciating the blessings we have by mentioning those that are not as fortunate as us? How can we truly understand how blessed we are unless and until we connect with those who are not as blessed and we feel their pain, we feel their suffering, we take on their cause?
And so today I wanted to just go into a bit of a tangent because my whole day has just been thinking about this sad reality that subhanAllah here we are living a very good life by and large and the Islamophobia that we face in America is utterly trivial compared to what people are facing in Burma with the Rohingya refugees, in Syria with the 7 million refugees and a million and a half dead, in Palestine for the last 75 years. And so forgive me for diverting the topic away but I felt that it is actually very pertinent for us to understand what it means to be thankful by thinking about what it means to be in pain and suffering and by appreciating as Allah says in the Qur'an:
"The one who has given them enough food so that they're not hungry and the one who has saved them from fear so that they're not in civil war, they're not in distress."
For two big blessings He has given the Quraysh in this ayah and us extended by this ayah. So the biggest calamities in this world are two. Number one, the calamity of not having enough food and shelter and number two, the calamity of civil war and strife. Who cares if you have food if there are bombs dropping on your head? Who cares if you have water if there are soldiers shooting at you?
These two are the biggest blessings that Allah gives in this world and Alhamdulillah by and large Muslims living here, we have these blessings.
The Crisis of Faith Among Youth
And you know brothers and sisters, this whole issue of struggling, of calamities, of strife, what is happening now is that it's leading so many of our youth, so many of our young men and women to wonder, why is this going on? Why is our ummah in so much suffering? No day goes by except that another tragedy takes place. No week goes by except that we hear of some major massacre.
The situation in Palestine literally since before I was born, then since my earliest memories, we've been hearing things about Palestine. And of course the Palestinian crisis is 75 years old. The Rohingya, Syria, Kashmir, and the list goes on and on and on.
And I've had young men come to me, I've had sisters come up to me and they ask this question, how do we understand as Muslims that Allah is causing this much to the ummah? And this is a dual question. At the one level, religious folk are struggling with why our ummah is in so much pain, especially the Muslim ummah. Why is our blood the cheapest in the world? Why is our dignity the lowest on the scale of all civilizations? Are we not the ummah of Allah? Are we not the ummah of Rasulullah? Are we not the ummah of the Qur'an? So at one level, Muslims are struggling with why Islam?
And yet at another level, which in some ways is even more difficult to answer, people that are struggling with faith itself, not just Muslims, Muslims and other faiths, they're asking, how could any all-powerful, almighty God allow such pain and suffering around the world?
The Rise of Irreligion
Last week, Pew survey released the statistics on the rise of religions in North America. And it should not be a surprise to anyone of us, but the largest growing demographics in terms of religion is not Islam. It used to be 20 years ago. The largest demographics in terms of religion is lack of religion. The largest demographics that has spurted up to almost 35% in this country are people who saying they don't believe in any God. This is in America. In some European countries, the statistics are double, this 70-75%.
And one of the taboo topics that most of us do not like to talk about, but it needs to be discussed, is that these statistics don't just happen in other faiths. They don't just happen in our Christian and Jewish and Buddhist neighbors. They're happening in our own households as well.
The sad fact of the matter, I guarantee you almost every one of you sitting here knows someone in your extended family or relatives or friends who has now doubted Islam and left the faith. It is now becoming a trend that is recognizable and visible. There are movements, the ex-Muslims of North America and this and that that are now very public and visible touring college campuses trying to sow more doubt in the seeds of Muslims.
And they raise many things, but one of the main issues that they raise is exactly how I started this talk. And that is, how do you, oh Muslims, explain the concept of your Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim? How is Ar-Rahman so Rahman when children are dying of starvation, when Palestinians are being killed, when the Rahim are being raped, when Syrians are being executed en masse? Where is the Rahma? How could a divine God who is merciful and all-powerful allow this to take place?
And this is the number one argument that is being used by the people who are the self-appointed prophets of atheism and agnosticism. People like Sam Harris, people like Bill Maher. These are mainstream names. And they are, they call themselves, we are the prophets of no religion. We are calling the people to leave faith. And the number one argument that people like Sam Harris use is, explain to me why there is so much pain. What is the wisdom of this suffering that takes place?
The Theological Framework for Understanding Suffering
And so today, allow me to go on the topic of thankfulness by talking a little bit of a tangent but it is still related. And that is the topic of suffering and pain, of evil. How do we as Muslims understand and appreciate the concept of an all-powerful God? The concept of a merciful God who still allows so much evil and pain in this world. What is the theological explanation for this?
Now obviously I only have 15 minutes and the topic is one that goes to the very beginning of humanity. In fact, to be brutally honest, every philosopher since pre-Socrates has attempted to discuss this problem. Every theologian, every Christian or Jewish or Muslim intellectual, thinker, philosopher has attempted to bring forth this understanding. How do we reconcile? What is the purpose of pain and suffering? So I'm not gonna do justice in 10 minutes to what philosophers have been discussing for 10,000 years. But I will shed some light from the Qur'an and Sunnah.
The Angels' Question About Human Creation
And I wanna begin by simply pointing out that this topic of trying to understand evil, of trying to understand how Allah could allow so much evil and pain, this topic is not even something that humans themselves brought up. Actually this topic was first brought up the very second that Allah said to the angels, I'm creating a new species. I'm creating a new entity.
Allah announced to the angels, I'm creating a new form of life called humans:
Wa idh qala rabbuka lil-mala'ikati inni ja'ilun fil-ardi khalifah
"And when your Lord said to the angels, 'Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority.'" (Quran 2:30)
And as soon as Allah explained this new creature to the angels, what was the question that the angels asked Allah? Even the angels could not understand. Oh Allah, the Qur'an tells us, the angels said:
Qaloo ataj'alu feeha man yufsidu feeha wa yasfiku'd-dimaa'a wa nahnu nusabbihu bihamdika wa nuqaddisu lak
"They said, 'Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?'" (Quran 2:30)
Oh Allah, why would you create a new species that is killing one another and shedding blood? That is gonna cause so much evil. Why would you do that? When we are so pure, we are so holy, we don't do any harm. All we do day and night is praise you and thank you. Why would you create a species that's gonna see so much pain and suffering? Even the angels could not understand.
The angels had never seen the types of wars and bloodshed and evil that we are immune to and used to. And even the angels challenged. No, they didn't challenge, they asked. They did not challenge, that's not the right word to use, but they were inquisitive. Why, Oh Allah, would you do that? What is the wisdom behind doing this?
Allah's Response: Trust in Divine Wisdom
And here is the beauty that we as Muslims need to understand. When the angels asked this question, how could this evil be taking place? Why would you do this? Allah did not answer the question from a intellectual or a philosophical or a rational manner. He did not even attempt to explain his wisdom. He simply said, what did he say? Oh Muslims, all of you should know. What did he say?
Qala inni a'lamu ma la ta'lamoon
"He said, 'Indeed, I know that which you do not know.'" (Quran 2:30)
Basically, you're gonna have to trust me. My knowledge is more than yours. And I know what you can never understand. So even the angels, and the angels are more intelligent than us. They're more pure than us. They're more worshiping of Allah than us. Even the angels were not told the secrets. And they were essentially told, you shall have to trust me. I know what you do not know.
The Foundation of Our Response
So as Muslims, we begin the answer to this question by saying, we will never have an answer to the question. That is how we begin the answer to the question. We shall never have a watertight foolproof answer because Allah Himself was asked the question. And Allah Himself said, you're gonna have to trust me.
And here is the irony brothers and sisters, people like Sam Harris, like the ex-Muslim Association of North America. These groups, they reject Islam, they reject the Qur'an, they reject Allah, for some reasons one of them being, how do you explain evil? But here is the irony, by rejecting God because they don't understand evil, it's not as if they have understood evil anymore. They've tried to come to a conclusion, and that conclusion is there cannot be a God.
Okay, fine, you got rid of God. What then is the solution? How do you understand evil? And you see by eliminating God, these people have created a much more longer series of far more complex questions. Where is life coming from? What is the purpose of life? Where are we here? Where are we going? What's gonna happen after death? By rejecting God, not only did they not solve the problem of evil, they ended up creating an infinitely more complex series of problems that they don't have any answer to.
And they don't see the irony of that. As for us, we say, we know where we came from, we know the purpose of life, we know what's gonna happen after death, we know why we're here, we know what to do. It's just that we don't understand Allah's wisdom, we don't understand Allah's knowledge, and guess what? It is fully rational to say, my rationality is not divine. It is fully logical to say, my limited logic cannot understand the logic of God. That is logical and rational. But to end up denying God is irrational and illogical because you still haven't discovered the mystery of life, the mystery of death, the mystery of why we're here.
So we say to these people that even the angels asked, and Allah said to them, you're gonna have to trust me.
Quranic Insights into the Wisdom of Suffering
However, the Qur'an does mention some points, and I'm just gonna mention 4 or 5 of them, and then inshaAllah ask us to think about these points. The Qur'an does mention some points about the wisdom of why there's pain and suffering.
First Wisdom: Evil Leads to Remembrance of Allah
And of the greatest points that Allah mentions in the Qur'an is that the purpose of evil is not intrinsically to punish or to hurt or to harm. No. Allah says in the Qur'an:
Ma yaf'alullahu bi'adhabikum in shakartum wa amantum
"What will Allah gain by punishing you if you are thankful to Him and believe in Him?" (Quran 4:147)
My talk was about shukr, and Allah mentions punishment and shukr as opposites. If you believe in Allah and are thankful to Allah, what will Allah gain by the pain and suffering that you have? Which means brothers and sisters, one of the main purposes of pain is for a higher cause. And the higher cause is for us to recognize Allah and to turn to Allah and to worship Allah.
In other words, one of the greatest wisdoms of anxiety, of mental grief, of physical pain, is so that we rediscover the importance of Allah, and of prayer to Allah, and of dua to Allah, and of calling out to Allah.
If you think about it, subhanAllah, when is your dua the most powerful and strong? When do you raise your hands with the utmost khushu' and humility? It is when you are in grief, when you're in tragedy, when you're in pain, when your loved one is sick, when some grief and calamity happens, that's when your hand raises up to Allah, and from the depths of your soul, you make dua to Him. Guess what? That is the purpose of the pain and suffering. That's the purpose of the grief.
Because sometimes, living the life, our bodies become so luxurious, we forget the needs of the soul. Living the good life, we forget the higher calling. Living the good life, we don't think of death. But what happens when a pain afflicts us? When a loved one is sick, all of a sudden, we start thinking of the akhirah, of Allah. And therefore, our ruh, our soul, reaches out to Allah.
As the Qur'an says, when a calamity touches mankind:
"And when affliction touches man, he calls upon Us, whether lying on his side or sitting or standing." (Quran 10:12)
He starts praying to us, standing, sitting, and lying down. He makes dua to us. As the Qur'an says, when they're about to drown in the ocean, they remember us, and they make dua sincerely. As the Qur'an says, when any type of grief hits mankind, He remembers us. When the grief goes away, He turns away and forgets about us. Over a dozen verses in the Qur'an, over a dozen verses, that when you are in calamity and tragedy, you turn to Allah.
Now I wanna be very clear here, listen to this carefully. Allah never criticizes turning to Him at times of tragedy. Allah criticizes neglecting Him after the tragedy is over. Allah never criticizes making dua at times of tragedy. That's not a criticism, that's not a problem. So if one of you rediscovers Allah when you're sick, when your child is sick, when you're going through a financial crisis and emotional loss, and you're making extra dua to Allah, don't feel guilty. That is the reason why you're in pain and suffering.
Allah, just like the doctors giving you the shot for a greater goal, there's a greater purpose. There is pain, but the pain will protect you from a bigger pain. So the purpose of that smaller pain is so that you rediscover the pleasure of worshipping Allah.
Ibn al-Qayyim, the famous scholar, he remarked that sometimes Allah afflicts a person with a tragedy. And because of that tragedy, the person starts making dua to Allah, praying to Allah, invoking Allah, and he discovers a new level of relationship with him and Allah that he never had before. He discovers the sweetness of waking up for tahajjud. He discovers the sweetness of praying to Allah sincerely. And he enjoys that sweetness so much that he would rather that sweetness continue than the tragedy be lifted up. Because he knows when the tragedy goes, then that level that he has with Allah, the connection that he has with Allah will also go.
So secretly, he actually likes to have that connection more than he wants that tragedy to be taken away. And this here is the benefit and blessing of that pain and suffering.
Second Wisdom: The Test of Our Response
Of the wisdoms as well brothers and sisters that Allah mentions in the Qur'an, why there is this tragedy going on, is that at some level every one of us is being tested. You see, we look at our brothers in Palestine, our sisters in the Rohingya, we look at our Muslims around the world, the non-Muslims, all of us. And we feel, oh my God, how much pain and suffering, how Allah is testing them. True, Allah is testing them.
But realize, Allah is testing me and you right here and now in this hall. We are all being tested in different ways. Their test is more apparent. It's more blatant. Their test is the test of pain, of fear, of tragedy. Our test is the test of our response. What are we going to do? Allah is testing us with our surplus wealth, our surplus time, our energies, our efforts. We can help them out. We are being tested. Are we doing our job to help them out? So our test is different. And we don't want to be tested that way. We don't want civil war. We don't want guns bombing on us. We don't want the violence. We don't want to be living in hunger and poverty.
But we are being tested nonetheless. And our test is the test of ease and comfort. It is the test of surplus and money. Are we helping others out?
Third Wisdom: Allah Loves the Good That Counters Evil
And this leads me to my next point, brothers and sisters. And that is that of the wisdoms of why there is so much pain is that Allah does not love the pain or evil. But He loves the good that is generated by the evil. He loves the good that is generated to counteract the evil. Allah says in the Qur'an:
"Allah does not love evil." (Quran 2:205)
Allah says in the Qur'an:
"Allah is not pleased with kufr." (Quran 39:7)
Allah does not love evil. But what does Allah love?
"Allah loves the righteous." (Quran 3:76)
"Allah loves those who are patient." (Quran 3:146)
Question, how could you be patient unless you were suffering from an evil? Question, how could you give money unless there were people you had to give money to? Question, how could you sponsor the orphan unless there were orphans to sponsor? How could you feed the hungry unless they were hungry to feed? How could you show your generosity, your iman, your taqwa, unless there were opportunities for you to show that good?
Brothers and sisters, evil exists not because Allah loves evil, but because Allah loves to see the good that we will do to counteract that evil. Because Allah loves to see the good that we will have to do in order to try our best to eliminate that evil.
Allah does not love evil, but Allah loves the good that is generated to counteract that evil. And it is in that good, brothers and sisters, that we attain our salvation. Our deen and our dunya, this world and the next, our heaven and hell, they are decided by our reaction to those evil. They are decided by what we choose to do.
We could sit back and ignore the pain and suffering. We could sit back and say, nafsi, nafsi, myself, myself. Let me take care of myself. Let me live the good life. Let me just have a fat paycheck and have a nice house and have good food and ignore everybody. So then we would have failed the test. Or we can say, I have a higher purpose in life than just eating and drinking. And alhamdulillah, Allah has blessed me to
live in a land where I have surplus, I have extra, I have extra food, extra money, I have influence, I have power, I have social media at my disposal. And I can influence others and directly help those in pain and in suffering.
And so, we use that evil, brothers and sisters, to bring about a higher purpose in our lives. One of the greatest wisdoms of the suffering of others is to make us realize that this life is not the end. That I have a higher purpose to help other people. That is my purpose, to worship Allah by helping other people. To eliminate as much as I can the pain, the poverty, the suffering, any calamity. And in that is my salvation. And in that is my Jannah. And my levels of Jannah will be decided.
The Prophetic Teaching on Alleviating Suffering
And the theme of this conference is sharing Islam by serving humanity. This is one of the wisdoms of pain and suffering. When we see that pain, we have to share Islam and serve humanity. When we see the pain, anywhere it might be, whether it's Muslim or non-Muslim, our job as Muslims is to help other people through the preachings and teachings of Islam.
And one of those ways is to minimize that evil. As our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said:
(Sahih Muslim 2699)
"Whoever alleviates any pain from his Muslim brother and sister in this world, Allah will alleviate his pain on judgment day." (Sahih Muslim 2699)
Whoever feeds the hungry in this world, Allah will eliminate his hunger in the akhirah. Whoever gives clothes to the naked person, Allah will give him clothes in the akhirah. This is the wisdom of evil. It's not to see the evil and then to ignore it. It is to try our best to fight against that evil, to eliminate it. Even if we realize we cannot perhaps eliminate it 100%. But whatever we can do, Allah is watching us.
The Ultimate Answer: Paradise Without Evil
We will never ever be able to eliminate 100% evil in this world. But see here's the point and on this I conclude. These people who reject Islam, who reject God, because they don't understand this concept of evil. They say, why isn't the world a perfect place? They say, why is there pain and suffering? I don't believe in a God in which there's a world of pain and suffering.
We say to this person who's acted very foolishly and arrogantly, we too believe in a God that will create a world with no pain and suffering. We too believe in such a God. But that world is called Dar as-Salaam. And Dar as-Salaam means the abode of no evil. We too believe in a place called Jannah. We too believe
there shall be a world where there is no hunger, there is no misery, there is no coldness and nakedness and wars and bloodshed. There is no death. We too believe that God must create such a world.
The only difference between us and you, you in your arrogance feel entitled to that world right here and now. You want it right here and now. You say, God give it to me now. Because I don't have Jannah, I shall reject you. That is his arrogance. And we say to this foolish person, in your arrogance by rejecting God, you have automatically rejected the very world you desire.
If you believe in God, worship God, counteract evil, that is your salvation. And you shall enter that abode where there is no evil. But in your irony and in your arrogance, you have rejected the very source that is going to give you that Dar as-Salaam.
Closing Supplications
So brothers and sisters, it is true. It is true that there will never be a full understanding to why there is evil. But the Qur'an tells us that for those who believe, for those who have Iman in Allah, there are wisdoms that any one of us can grasp. And of those wisdoms is that we find a purpose in life. We contextualize ourselves and have a higher goal.
May Allah help our brothers and sisters in Palestine. May Allah alleviate the pain and suffering and oppression that they've been facing for the last 75 years. May Allah help the Muslims of Rohingya, the Muslims of Syria, the Muslims of Kashmir, the Muslims of China, the Muslims of Eritrea, the Muslims around the globe.
May Allah allow each and every one of us to be utilized to combat evil to the best of our abilities. May Allah make all of us shining examples of what it means to be a Muslim in this world, in this time, in this place. May Allah utilize us for every good. And may Allah avert us away from every evil.
Jazakumullahu khairan, wa salla Allahu wa sallam wa barak 'ala nabiyyina Muhammad wa 'ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'een "May Allah reward you with good, and may Allah send peace and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and all his companions."
Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu
الفاتحة
Al-Fatiha
Conclusion
In conclusion, let us strive to embody the teachings of the Quran and the Sunnah in our daily lives. May Allah guide us to the straight path and grant us the strength to overcome our shortcomings. Let us remember that the pursuit of knowledge, coupled with sincere intentions and righteous actions, is the key to success in this world and the hereafter.
May Allah accept our efforts, forgive our sins, and grant us jannah. Ameen.
"Ameen"
May Allah shower His blessings upon Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), his family, his companions, and all those who follow in their footsteps until the Day of Judgment.
Jazakum Allahu Khairan for joining us on this enlightening journey. May Allah reward you abundantly.
"May Allah reward you with goodness."