Quran Warns People against Hasty Judgments
But verses of the Holy Quran forbid us from making hasty judgments and remind us that we are unaware of all dimensions of an event.
The Holy Quran warns people in many verses that many of their ideas and guesses are wrong. We make dislike something whereas it is good for us and like something that in fact is bad for us. God says in Verse 216 of Surah Al-Baqarah: “Fighting is made mandatory for you, but you dislike it. You may not like something which, in fact, is for your good and something that you may love, in fact, may be evil. God knows, but you do not know.”
Verse 19 of Surah An-Nisa points to the same fact: “… If you dislike them, you could be disliking that which God has filled with abundant good.”
The Holy Quran in various verses warns that many of our guesses and thoughts may be wrong, saying “Do not think that…”, “Do not consider…”, “Think not…”, etc. These phrases point to the fact that many of our judgments are hasty and superficial.
We also read in the Quran and when God was creating Adam (AS), the angels, who had no deep knowledge about humans, objected to it. “When your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am appointing someone as my deputy on earth,’ they said (almost protesting), ‘Are you going to appoint one who will commit corruption and bloodshed therein, even though we (are the ones who) commemorate Your Name and glorify You?’ The Lord said, ‘I know that which you do not know’.” (Verse 30 of Surah Al-Baqarah)
Then God gave knowledge to man and made him His caliph on earth, proving to the angels that they were wrong in their hasty judgment.
Now on the issue of Adl (divine justice), some people may have questions and doubts but they should realize that they are not aware of many facts and that they have limitations in thoughts and experiences.
If we are reading a book and come to a few difficult words, we should not have a hasty judgment and blame the author but should develop our understanding and learn more words.
Here is a story about hasty judgments. A man went out while his baby was alone with a dog at home. When he returned, the dog came to him while its muzzle was stained with blood. The man immediately thought to himself that the dog has attacked the baby and it is the baby’s blood on its muzzle. So he took a gun and shot at the dog. When he entered the house, however, he saw a dead wolf, realizing that the dog had defended the baby against the wolf.
He deeply regretted what he had done and went to the dog to save it but it had already died and he could do nothing to undo what has been done. It was as if the dog’s eyes cried: Why did you judge prematurely? Why didn’t you go into the house to see what had happened before deciding to kill me?
The man later wrote an article about the need to avoid hasty judgments.
