The Holy War — Page 227
Proceedings—Debate 2 June 1893 227 Almighty is absolutely Self-Sufficient, but He is only free up to where all His attributes unanimously permit. Thus, if He should desire to be unjust to someone, then the attribute of Justice must prohibit it. Or if He should be moved to be pleased with unjust suffering, then His attribute of Goodness must prevent this. And so on. He has many blessed attributes that can work being inclusive but cannot do so exclusively, just as when one attribute works, all the other attributes unanimously work together to aid it, even though the actual manifestation is of the original attribute which is in operation. And if one attribute is functioning, then it cannot be said that it is singular and no other attribute works with it. And it is not suitable for two attributes to—God forbid—contradict one another in any way. Fourteenth: In the first instance, you continually demon- strate a lack of knowledge regarding the differentiation of the two attributes: Mercy and Goodness. The difference is that Mercy is shown after being held accountable or after some suffering, while Goodness is only shown to keep the related people happy. Just like when a person is stuck in a problem, the attribute of Mercy delivers him from his misfortune, and if a person wishes to keep his animals happy and he feeds them the best food which they can eat, then it is due to Goodness. Thus, this word ‘Goodness’ has been made mention of by the Prophet David who says, ‘Oh, come, taste and see that the Lord is good!’ Now, it is the duty of Justice that when sin is commit- ted, it should remedy it, and Mercy cannot precede this, but rather after the redress and accountability have been done, it should come to seek to free the person. Until sin is committed, whatever good that is done to him is according to Goodness. And it should also be remembered that whatever has come into existence from noth- ingness has the right to ask his Creator that Why has such and such pain afflicted me? If You are Just, deal justly with this. If a goat is