God – An Idea Of Burning People With Fire
Just like degrees of Jannah, there will be different degress of punishment as well. And the punishment of fire is only for one cadre of criminals who will be guilty of arrogance and denied the message of Allah knowingly out of their sheer arrogance. Please see : Discussion 38044 • Reply 38056 AND Discussion 67386 Justice as an ethical value has had always been an absolute value but providence of complete justice in this world has had always remained debatable because of the limitations we face in this world. On the day of judgement, all these limitations will be removed and no one will be punished unless there is ‘ completion of proof’ (‘ itmam-e-hujjat ‘) done on them. Therefore, after a criminal has been proven to be as such beyond any doubt and if the crime is of a nature resulting from mere arrogance of a person, then principally God has every right to punish such individuals in the manner he deems fit, because an extreme crime has been committed against God and it is only God who can decide punishment for such extreme crime. Please see : Discussion 37854 • Reply 37855 , AND Discussion 37854 • Reply 37856 And despite warning of eternal Hell for such criminals, a room has been left open by God for their punishment to not be eternal and there lies a chance that their punsihment might come to an end: Please see : Discussion 71595 • Reply 71622 Another thing which should be kept in mind is that matters of heaven and hell belong to the unseen world which is yet to be created, and we have been given very limited knowledge about its content and its mechanism based on our limited view of this world, that is why they are known as ‘ amoor-e-mutashabihaat ‘. Therefore, it cannot be said with absolute certainty about the nature of such punsihments. So the punishment of fire and how it would actually manifest there, is something that cannot be answered with absolute certainty. Regarding the debate on eliminating death penalty altogether in the west even for criminals like murderers and rapists, there lies ethical issues which go against the basic foundation of justice, both at an individual level and at a societal level. Please see : Discussion 985 • Reply 4538
By teaching them a lesson do you mean burning them alive?
Yea it is getting meta-ethics here, we may need a Zavia series of own soon lol. Considering sin are referred to as “zulm” and I think in that way, it is considered as simply “injustice.” Like being good is to be fair and do justice. To do sin is to be unfair and do injustice. Allah gave me everything so I am obedient to Him. So I am good and I am doing justice to Allah. If I choose to be disobedient and live my life like that while enjoying His blessings despite knowing how wrong I am, I am doing injustice to Him. Harm isn’t the factor. It’s that my very nature demands that in order to be pure, I must be good. I must be just to everyone as much as I can. And if I do sin, I am doing injustice, I am corrupting my nature. Corruption is bad, corruption is bad because it closes the door to Paradise and it leads me to Hell. What purifies me and what corrupts me seems to be determined by Allah as part of His test. I think that is the bottom line.