Here I present the first chapter. The second will follow soon, God willing. (Idrîs de Vos, Institut Imtiyaz)
Chapter I: ontological suffering
Chapter II: human suffering
I. Ontological suffering
We cannot say, without departing from the path of balance established by the Qur’anic text, that God suffers, or that God suffers in the individual’s place. We can, however, affirm on that same Qur’anic basis that God “knows what the individual’s suffering is”, for otherwise He would not be the One who is “Most Knowing of all things” (2:231). And between this experience and this knowledge, the difference is like the line of the horizon that separates sky and earth.
The Spirit
It is by virtue of a particular knowledge that God exposes the human being to suffering through his establishment upon the earth. And if we pay attention, two forms of knowledge merge in the account of Adam — that of God and that of Man — as though, through the Spirit, God were at once its provider and its legatee.
In His transcendent aspect, God shares no point of identity with His creation, for “Nothing is like unto Him” (42:11); in His immanent aspect, He excludes no point of nearness and presence to it: “We are closer to him than his jugular vein” (50:16); “Wherever you turn, there is the Face of God. God is All-Embracing, All-Knowing” (2:115). Whether the spirit be created or uncreated, in this aspect of immanence God remains the Witness in all things — intelligible or sensible, outer or inner: “We shall show them Our signs upon the horizons and within themselves, until it becomes clear to them that this is the Truth. Does it not suffice that your Lord is Witness over all things?” (41:53-54) — whether it be a good or an evil: “Whatever good befalls you is from God, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself. We have sent you to mankind as a Messenger, and God suffices as Witness!” (4:79).
Thus, through the evocation of the spirit, God subtly accompanies the human being. Here it is fitting to maintain the balance that allows us neither to fall into “anthropomorphism” (tashbîh) nor, on the other side, into the “negation of the attributes” (ta‘ṭîl).
The same holds for the Name “the Forbearing” (Al-ḥalîm), which some also render as “the Most Patient”: “A kind word and forgiveness are better than a charity followed by injury. God is Self-Sufficient, Most Forbearing” (2:263). It is also in this spirit that the following Qur’anic verse must be understood: “Those who injure God (or who do harm to God) and His Messenger, God curses them in this world and the next, and He has prepared for them a humiliating chastisement” (33:57). Note that many translators choose to render this passage as “Those who offend God”, but that is already an interpretation, for the term adhâ and its derivatives express harm in general and not mere offence, even if it is sometimes used in a context of verbal offence (see its various Qur’anic usages).
The divine Word and the narrative
It is well known that the sûrah al-Fâtiḥa, “the one that opens” the Book — or the divine Word — is called “the Mother of the Book” (ummu l-kitâb). It happens that the three isolated letters “Alif lâm mîm” that introduce the second sûrah (The Cow) form, in Arabic, the word “Alam”, that is, “pain” — as though the bringing-forth of the Book echoed the pain inherent in every birth: “We have enjoined upon man kindness toward his parents. His mother bore him in pain and gave birth to him in pain” (46:15). A parallel may be drawn here between the birth of the Qur’anic Word and that of the Christic word, for Jesus too is called, in the Qur’an, a “Word” from God.
The Word is therefore also this narrative in which God remains present: “We shall recount to them with full knowledge [what they did], for We were not absent” (7:7). And it is with Him that the narrative comes to a close: “It is We who shall inherit the earth and all that is upon it, and to Us they shall be returned” (19:40).
Note: The divine Name “the Most Patient” (Al-ṣabûr) appears in the most widespread list of the divine names. And even though this list comes from a ḥadîth considered of weak reliability, its meaning is attested by the prophetic saying held to be authentic by al-Bukhârî and Muslim (among others): “None is more patient (aṣbar) in the face of injury (adhâ) than God.”