A Comparative Study of “Good and Evil” in Sufism and Kabbalah

“Good and Evil”, and their relation to the origin of being, as well as their being issued from the single principle, or dual and multiple principles, are the most critical topics in the teachings of mystical schools. Sufism and Kabbalah also have particular views about Good and Evil, their relationship with each other, the source of their authenticity, or their relativity in the world. This paper attempts to explain these views using a comparative study. Sufism and Kabbalah consider God as an absolute Good, but at the same time, they can not deny the existence of evil in this world. Meanwhile, Sufism has solved the paradox of attributing evil to absolute Goodness by grabbing the concept of relativity. But most of the Kabbalists ignored this contradiction and attributed the evil directly to God. The great figures in Sufism consider the good as innate and the evil as accidental. But some Kabbalists regard certain evil as intrinsic, and others, like Sufis, regard evil as accidental.