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Spirituality

Why Does God Allow Illness and Suffering?

Simon Ward | Oct 3, 2018

PART 2 IN SERIES The Way the Creator Sees Us

The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the authoritative views of the Baha'i Faith.

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Simon Ward | Oct 3, 2018

PART 2 IN SERIES The Way the Creator Sees Us

The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the authoritative views of the Baha'i Faith.

I work voluntarily with the sick, and some of them have serious illnesses. Quite understandably, many patients and their loved ones suffer considerable anxiety.  

It must be a huge shock suddenly to go from leading a normal life to your entire future being in doubt. If the patients and families I work with have religious beliefs it is common for them to be severely tested by illness, especially if, for example, the patient is young or has children.  

They all ask: “If there is a God, how could He allow such a thing to happen? How could He let my loved one suffer so much?” Many of them follow that question with this one: ”Maybe there isn’t a God after all—if there is a God, does He care, or is He vengeful and capricious?”

These heartfelt, important questions deserve answers.

The Baha’i writings offer many perspectives on the themes of tests, trials and suffering, especially about the tests from disease or illness, both physical and mental. Life can seem random and brutal when people suffer as a result of these things. Abdu’l-Baha gave us a useful explanation as to the reasons for tests:

The trials of man are of two kinds. (a) The consequences of his own actions. If a man eats too much, he ruins his digestion; if he takes poison he becomes ill or dies. If a person gambles he will lose his money; if he drinks too much he will lose his equilibrium. All these sufferings are caused by the man himself, it is quite clear therefore that certain sorrows are the result of our own deeds. – Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 49.

This explains some of our tests, for example, when bad lifestyle choices have an impact on health.  But he then goes on to talk about suffering endured through no fault of the person in question:

(b) Other sufferings there are, which come upon the Faithful of God. Consider the great sorrows endured by Christ and by His apostles!

Those who suffer most, attain to the greatest perfection.

Those who declare a wish to suffer much for Christ’s sake must prove their sincerity; those who proclaim their longing to make great sacrifices can only prove their truth by their deeds. Job proved the fidelity of his love for God by being faithful through his great adversity, as well as during the prosperity of his life. The apostles of Christ who steadfastly bore all their trials and sufferings—did they not prove their faithfulness? Was not their endurance the best proof? These griefs are now ended. – Ibid.

Interestingly, Abdu’l-Baha refers to the Old Testament story of Job, which will be familiar to many. Job was a good and righteous man whose faith was severely tested when he suddenly and brutally lost his family, his livelihood and his health—but refused to curse or blame God, and was rewarded in the end. So it seems that in one sense at least, suffering through illness can be part of our journey towards perfection in this earthly life which, to a Baha’i, is just the beginning of our eternal existence. Through it we can develop our faith in God. It may seem unfair that some, on the surface at least, seem to enjoy trouble-free and healthy lives while others get ill or have terrible accidents.   But later in that same passage Abdu’l-Baha gives us the following assurance:

Tests are benefits from God, for which we should thank Him. Grief and sorrow do not come to us by chance, they are sent to us by the Divine Mercy for our own perfecting. – Ibid.

So in a strange kind of way, we’re told to regard tests such as illness as a blessing, the very opposite of what they seem to be. We may think we’d struggle to attain to that sublime state of mind, but   Abdu’l-Baha tells us that God will help those who turn to him. He went on to say:

While a man is happy he may forget his God; but when grief comes and sorrows overwhelm him, then will he remember his Father who is in Heaven, and who is able to deliver him from his humiliations.  Men who suffer not, attain no perfection. The plant most pruned by the gardeners is that one which, when the summer comes, will have the most beautiful blossoms and the most abundant fruit. The labourer cuts up the earth with his plough, and from that earth comes the rich and plentiful harvest. The more a man is chastened, the greater is the harvest of spiritual virtues shown forth by him. A soldier is no good General until he has been in the front of the fiercest battle and has received the deepest wounds. – Ibid.

In a letter to a woman whose husband was evidently unwell, Abdu’l-Baha assured her that although we may grieve over health challenges, in fact, there is no such thing as a perfect, untested life, and that all of us need tests in order to refine our characters and prepare for the next world. In reality, those of us who believe in God can seek consolation and peace in Him, knowing that in the end the physical limitations of this earthly life will pass:

Anybody can be happy in the state of comfort, ease, health, success, pleasure and joy; but if one will be happy and contented in the time of trouble, hardship and prevailing disease, it is the proof of nobility. Thanks be to God that that dear servant of God is extremely patient under the disastrous circumstances, and in the place of complaining gives thanks.

Verily I am pleased with both you and [your husband], and I ask God that you may find pleasure and ease in another world—for this earthly world is narrow, dark and frightful, rest cannot be imagined and happiness really is non-existent, everyone is captured in the net of sorrow, and is day and night enslaved by the chain of calamity; there is no one who is at all free or at rest from grief and affliction. Still, as the believers of God are turning to the limitless world, they do not become very depressed and sad by disastrous calamities—there is something to console them; but the others in no way have anything to comfort them at the time of calamity. Whenever a calamity and a hardship occurs, they become sad and disappointed, and hopeless of the bounty and the mercy of the Glorious Lord. – Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith, p. 363.

So in reality, although some people may seem to be blessed with happy and healthy lives, in fact no one in this earthly life is free from sorrow and calamity. Does that mean that we should passively submit to illness and take no action? Absolutely not. We have been given this life in order to prepare ourselves for the next, and so need to make the most of it. The Baha’i teachings advise us to seek the help of medical professionals, and also to pray for healing:

There are two ways of healing sickness, material means and spiritual means. The first is by the treatment of physicians; the second consisteth in prayers offered by the spiritual ones to God and in turning to Him. Both means should be used and practised. – Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 151.

The Baha’i Writings contain many beautiful healing prayers. If we pray and ask God to heal us or a loved one, will that prayer be answered? Not always. Abdu’l-Baha explained why:

The prayers which were revealed to ask for healing apply both to physical and spiritual healing. Recite them, then, to heal both the soul and the body. If healing is right for the patient, it will certainly be granted; but for some ailing persons, healing would only be the cause of other ills, and therefore wisdom doth not permit an affirmative answer to the prayer. – Ibid., pp. 161-162.

Finally, returning to the idea of grief and sorrow being, in reality, a blessing, this is nothing new.  Rumi, the thirteenth century mystical poet put it like this:

I  saw grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out,  

“It tastes sweet, does it not?”

“You have caught me,” grief answered,

“and you have ruined my business.”  

“How can I sell sorrow, when you know it’s a blessing?”

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Comments

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  • Etta Rainer
    Mar 6, 2021
    -
    This was really a teaching moment for me. But I have learned growing up raised by my Grandma my mom's mother, Always Trust God never ask Why! What is Bahai and what do it teach. Is it not False teachings?
  • Linda Sinclair
    Aug 2, 2020
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    As someone who suffers daily from chronic pain and all the fear and humiliation that comes along with it, none of these answers are satisfactory to me. I would have thought that God could have come up with a better way to refine my character than allowing me to suffer on a daily basis. I also believe there’s some victim blaming going on in the aforementioned article. Yes, we need to care of ourselves but some of us are born with disease. Most of this time this question is answered by people with good health so I can’t see how ...they could possibly understand the torture of living with chronic disease. This is the one thing that keeps me from loving God fully because I often wonder if I love Him more that He loves me.
    Read more...
  • Riley Wilson
    Jun 17, 2019
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    I really do not wish to be the anti-believer here, but this article just riled me up with even more questions about it. Firstly, how in the world can a god allow suffering to let us perfect ourselves? For instance, an innocent child from Syria has to endure the horrors of war in order to perfect himself? I dont understand the logic to that, and secondly we must endure these griefs and sufferings in order to "blossom"? Does this means the majority of the poor, sick, disabled, innocent. etc etc etc, people need to endure a hell of a life ...in order to achieve a heaven thereafter? Because in reality most of them endure suffering their whole life, ending with death. So how can the logic of this god work by the opposite of basic moral values?
    Read more...
    • Simon Ward
      Jun 18, 2019
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      Hi Riley, you make very valid points and are right to raise them as it will help us all on the journey in the search for truth. I do not pretend to know the answers as these are, perhaps, some of the biggest questions that man-kind has always wrestled with. For me it is a question of going back to some of the above quotes and others, and accepting as a matter of faith that I cannot hope to understand everything, just like the child in the mother's womb may question aspets of its existence. In time, ...maybe not until the next world, things will be clearer and the justice of all these things will, I hope, be evident. That may or may not help but thank you for commenting.
      Read more...
  • Simon Ward
    Oct 6, 2018
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    Hi Paul, i guess it depends which environment / role you are in as to whether you would mention prayer or faith matters but as you say empathy etc goes a long way (e.g. Carl Rogers three "core conditions" of empathy, respect and congruence are used by practitioners in many fields)
  • Gopal Krishnakumar Menon
    Oct 5, 2018
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    God loves us indeed.Rest of the karmic credited n debited are all our making
    • Simon Ward
      Oct 13, 2018
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      thanks for your comments
  • Steve Eaton
    Oct 4, 2018
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    Thank you for the article and for these fine responses! Aside from the struggle to know why God allows suffering, it is confusing to welcome it but avoid harm to ourselves and others. The Baha'i scriptures obviously say not to resent or flee all suffering in itself, but they forbid asceticism, namely extreme self-inflicted discomfort. That moderation and wisdom is basic to the famous "Serenity Prayer", too.
    • Simon Ward
      Oct 6, 2018
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      Thank you for your comments
  • Rosslyn and Steven Osborne
    Oct 4, 2018
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    This article is well written & covered all aspects of the 'why' we suffer. I must admit that I too have wondered to my worth in the eyes of God, with the hardships & trails we have had to endure over the the past years. Again my test came 'flying' back at me whilst nursing my beloved husband to his death alone in a very remote rural area with no hospitals or doctors within 300 miles. My point is that I did this with the help of Baha'ullah's strengthening me at the time of was so exhausted & thought I ...couldn't keep going. A calm flow of love & energy hugged my shoulders & I felt revived after 48 hours of no sleep. I am terribly alone at the moment & often shed tears yet I am blessed daily, that I have a phone & my faith.
    Read more...
    • Simon Ward
      Oct 4, 2018
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      Thanks for sharing your experiences and for your kind comments
  • Haleh Ighani-Rabani
    Oct 3, 2018
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    In regards to this quote "The trials of man are of two kinds. (a) The consequences of his own actions. " I believe the trials we suffer from our own actions can only be considered a blessing if we learn from them and change our actions to overcome the shortcomings that have caused the trials. Otherwise, to keep going on the same path and acting the same way that has caused our sufferings from our own actions is an ignorant way of living that will be the result of more and more "mad made" suffering. Hence, it's important to understand ...and decipher where our sufferings come from and use our wisdom and courage to take the necessary actions to remedy them.
    Read more...
    • Simon Ward
      Oct 6, 2018
      -
      Haleh thanks for your comments
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