does evil actually exist? an evaluation of the views of avicenna and thomas aquinas

From the earliest times, the relationship between god, who is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good, and the existence of evil has been a subject of debate in islamic and western thought. theodicy, which argues that there is no logical contradiction between god s necessary essential attributes and the existence of evil in the world and that both can be rationally reconciled and counterarguments, which claim that god with absolute attributes and the existence of evil cannot be reconciled, have been developed. in islamic thought, avicenna, following the neoplatonist tradition, addressed the issue of evil at the ontological level in the context of his doctrine of metaphysics and cosmology. in the context of his understanding of providence, which he developed with reference to the theory of emanation, he identified goodness with existence by stating that what is essential is goodness and identified evil with non-existence by stating that the essence of evil is non-existence. he distinguished between per se evil (al-shar bi al-dhāt) and accidental evil (al-shar bi l al-ʿarad) in order to justify that evil has no absolute reality. evil per se is the lack of perfection in the sublunar realm and the lack of a form it can take. accidental evil is that which occurs outside of the nature of things and is to be found in the natural active causes that prevent the perfection of things. avicenna s thesis that goodness is essential and predominant in the world, while evil is accidental and deficient, was also seminal for thomas aquinas. like avicenna, he dealt with good and evil at the ontological level. following augustine and avicenna in the neoplatonic tradition, aquinas argued that the evil experienced in the world does not have an existence of its own. accordingly, evil is merely the absence of goodness and a means to the knowledge of goodness. in aquinas words, good is known through evil, just as light is known through darkness. goodness, which is essential, and evil, which has no absolute reality, should therefore be explained within god s grace. aquinas attempt to explain the existence of moral evil in terms of free will was similar to that of avicenna. in this study, i will compare avicenna and aquinas understanding of whether the evil observed in the world has an essential reality and whether it can be explained in a way that is consistent with the existence of god with absolute qualities.