I have extracted and analyzed the key parts from the YouTube video at Muslim Speakers channel.
An Atheist asked :
Way before God decided to create this entire universe, he knew the end result of it.
He knows in the end, he will be disappointed by certain people, and he will throw them in hellfire.
He knows they’ll be tortured.
How can god be so sadistic that he would actually go ahead with a plan which he knows is gonna end up in that manner?
And this is the shortened version of Zakir Naiks answer:
Almighty God can create something which is perfect. That God has already done. He created the angels. The angel never go against any commandment of God. The angels have got no free will of their own. But human being is a better creation than angel. They have a free will to go against God or to follow God. If you obey Gods commandments, you are superior than the angel. The fault is of human being, not God.
(Then the Atheist asked : Why is he giving us a free will when he knows he’s gonna eventually put these many people in hell?)
He wanted a different creation. Better than angels. It is the human beings who were fools who said we want to be human beings. You and I. Quran says every human being was asked. Almighty God says in the Quran, do you want to be a human being? If you become a human being, you can become superior to an angel or can get inferior. If you don’t want to become a human being, just pass. We’re fools who opted for the test.
God gave you an option. What do you want to be? We chose. So we are responsible, not God. God is not a sadist. We are fools. That’s what the Quran says.
CLAIMS:
1. God wanted to create a better being than an angel, so He created man and gave him free will.
2. God gave us a choice : to be a man or an angel. We chose. So we are responsible, not God. God is not a sadist. We are fools. That’s what the Quran says.
Analyze:
Sometimes, the truth should be simple to understand.
Imagine that the bad-x person ties up a three-year-old child and cuts pieces of its body every day. Then, imagine a second person called good-y who watches the child’s torture, holding a gun that could easily kill the psychopath, yet does nothing and continues to watch.
We already know that the first person is a psychopath, but what can we say about the second one, good-y?
Before the psychopath bad-x decided to torture the child, the second person good-y asked him:
“Do you want to be better than an angel?”
The psychopath answered: “Yes.”
The same question was asked to the child, and the answer was also “Yes.”
The person Bad-X didn’t know they would become a psychopath, nor did the child know they would become a victim. Does this question even make sense in such a situation?
Even though the good-y knew what would happen, he allowed the psychopath to torture the child while calmly watching from the side—or from a heavenly throne.
Is there any person in the world who would calmly watch the suffering of a child even though they had the power to stop it? Any normal person would immediately stop unnecessary torture.
If we now say that the person good-y is a God, almost no believer will say that God is bad. Unfortunately, they will still see the God as a model of goodness, generosity, and justice.
In this case, the second person appears just as much a psychopath as the first one. And rightfully so.
But what about the test theory, which claims that God wants to test every individual. In all monotheistic religions, God is all-knowing – He knows with 100% certainty what will happen and how everything will end. The theory is meaningless because it makes no sense to test something when you know with 100% certainty what the outcome will be. That kind of testing would be a complete waste of time. Why would anyone even conduct a test if they already know the answers with 100% certainty? That’s ridiculous.
Believers of Islam will always say that if someone has an incurable disease and has been suffering for many years, it’s a test from Allah. But wait a minute — God knows the outcome of that test. If that person will fail the test, which God certainly knew in advance, then causing suffering only reveals the sadistic nature of an all-powerful being because that suffering is unnecessary. Just imagine — an all-powerful being, yet it still cannot find a better way to communicate with its creations than through their suffering. So, who’s the sadist here?
Believers often justify years of suffering by saying that God wants you to return to the right path, to return to Him. God gave you an illness that causes you to suffer for many years so that you would come back to Him.
Imagine breaking up with the greatest love of your life and wanting to win them back. To do so, you expose them to radioactive particles to give them cancer, hoping that through suffering, they will return to you. It’s sick.
The question of whether God is a sadist also cannot be answered by “What He intended to create”.
Zakir said : “God wanted to create a better being than an angel, so He created man and gave him free will.“
Hitler wanted to create a great nation, strong and independent Germanic race. If we only consider what he wanted, could we determine whether he was good or bad based on that alone? Of course not. But based on what he did, we can say that he was absolute evil. God wanted the best creation—humans. Does that tell us something about God’s character? It’s the consequences that give us the answer.
God wanted a being better than angels, and along this path, billions of people will suffer and be eternally tormented. How that torture will look, we find the answers in the Quran and Hadith.
Surah Ghafir (40:69-74) : ” Do you not see those who dispute concerning the signs of Allah – how they are averted? Those who deny the Book and that with which We sent Our messengers, they will come to know, When the shackles are around their necks and the chains; they will be dragged In boiling water; then in the Fire they will be filled with flame. Then it will be said to them, ‘Where is that which you used to associate [with Him] in worship Other than Allah?’ They will say, ‘They have departed from us; rather, we did not used to invoke previously anything.’ Thus does Allah put astray the disbelievers.”
Ad-Dukhan (44:43-50) : “Indeed, the tree of Zaqqum is food for the sinful; like murky oil, it boils within bellies like the boiling of scalding water. ‘[It will be commanded], Seize him and drag him into the midst of the Hellfire, then pour over his head from the torment of scalding water.’ ‘[It will be said], Taste! Indeed, you are the honored, the noble! Indeed, this is what you used to dispute.'”
Now we can have a clearer picture.
Zakir said : “God gave us a choice : to be a man or an angel. We chose. So we are responsible, not God. God is not a sadist. We are fools. That’s what the Quran says.“
Even if Hitler had asked others, “Do you want me to create a superior race? Some will belong to it and be superior, and others will suffer.” and they had answered yes, it wouldn’t change the fact that Hitler was a monster who committed unimaginable crimes.
In the end, read these verses and see if you could find elements of sadism for yourself.
Surah Al-Baqara (2:167)
“They will never exit from the Fire, and their punishment will not be lightened, nor will they be reprieved.”
Surah Al-Kahf (18:29)
“Indeed, We have prepared for the wrongdoers a Fire whose walls will surround them. And if they call for relief, they will be relieved with water like molten brass, which scalds their faces. Wretched is the drink, and evil is the resting place.”
Are we fools then? Maybe we are. But the punishment can be nothing other than the creation of a sadistic mind.
