Page 16 - The Silent Language Of Evil

GOOD AND EVIL ACCORDING

TO THE QUR'A N

Good and evil are probably concepts that people have talked
and thought about the most. Most individuals try to be "good", ac-
cording to their own standards, and to protect themselves and their
loved ones from the evil actions of others. It's indeed most impor-
tant to behave in such a way as to avoid evil. But many who expend
great efforts to do so may have never thought about how close evil
lies to them. Some have never considered the facts presented to
them in the Qur'an, and think that evil is evil only when it is openly
seen or and clearly experienced. For example, everyone knows that
revenge, anger, jealousy, selfishness and lying are evil. They recog-
nize that a person is vindictive when they see his anger, and a liar
when they hear him telling lies.
Besides this, when the word evil is mentioned, actions generally
accepted as wrong come to mind: murder, theft, treating others un-
fairly and other breaches of basic behavioral norms. Because they
avoid such behavior and criticize it in others, they may therefore re-
gard themselves as far removed from evil in general. However, evil
has insidiously hidden aspects that cannot be clearly seen—and

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