One of the issues engaging the mind of man since the distant past is the existence of suffering, which is apparently pointless and futile.
The presence of suffering in our world is undeniable. Everyone has encountered and experienced them in their various forms in his life.
Life without anguish or pain, and happiness without grief exist only in the imagination. But the reality is a mixture of the two (happiness and loneliness).
Imam Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic examines sufferings from this perspective and says:
[All] the evils (Sharour), catastrophes, death, disease and destructive events and troublesome creatures and other such things which are in this world of nature and this narrow pit of darkness arise from the interferences and conflicts between existents, not from the aspects pertaining to Being but on account of the deficiency of their ambiance and the narrowness of their abode.
As such, evil (Sharour) in this sense is also relative (subjective). That is, every happening that takes place is evil for some while good for others.
A person falling down and breaking his leg is an ‘evil’ event for him. Yet, this same unpleasant happening is good for the bonesetters and orthopaedists since their occupations are connected to these kinds of ‘evil’.
However, the Imam goes beyond this point and believes that evil is not only relative but also a non-existing issue.
That is, in a more technical description, all the evils [basically] arise from the interferences and conflicts between existents, not from the aspects pertaining to Being but on account of the deficiency of their ambiance and the narrowness of their abode.
And these derive from limitations and deficiencies which are totally outside the ambit of the light of creation and are in reality below making [ja‘l].
The true reality is the Light which is quit of all evil, defect and deficiency. However, these defects and evils and harmful and troublesome things, in respect of their defectiveness and harmfulness, are not essential objects of creation, but they are accidental objects of creation.