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We have a second question here, which is deep and philosophical one, and this is from

Sister Sophia.

She asks that, do we as Muslims believe that Allah Azza wa Jal has forbidden evil because

it is evil, or does it become evil because Allah has forbidden it?

Okay, the question once again is that, when Allah forbids something, does he forbid it

because it is evil, or does it become evil because he has forbidden it?

This is our sister's question.

Now I have a feeling that our sister is taking a philosophy class, and she is wanting

to ask this question from an Islamic perspective because this question is one of the fundamental

questions of Western philosophy.

And Western philosophy has spent a lot of time and a lot of their great minds have spent

many tombs and monographs and books and treatises on this discussion, and it is a very detailed

discussion that deals with the topic of moral epistemology.

How do we know what is morally right and wrong?

And this even goes back to Plato, and his dialogues, Socrates, with a person by the name

of Yuthifro, and Yuthifro is the person who is having this dialogue with Plato, and there

is an entire treatise in Plato's and Plato's writings, you can read this if you ever want

to do that.

And the question is that what is it that pleases the gods, again they believe in multiple

gods, is that is it pleasing, is good pleasing to the gods because it is good, or because

the gods love it, it becomes good.

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