Allah is Justice or Merciful?

[Uzair Ahmed]

One of My Christian friend asked me a hard question

"Can any Muslim explain how God can demonstrate Justice and Mercy at the same time? (Justice demands a penalty for sin; Mercy offers forgiveness with no penalty) Justice and Mercy united in one action .... how? Muslims, please answer."

Then i provided this link to him http://www.answering-christianity.com/forgiveness_mercy_and_justice.htm

He Replied
"Your Allah randomly chooses to forgive or not forgive. How can a Muslim know when Allah has forgiven you? In other words, I am asking how does Allah demonstrate (show you) his justice and mercy. Remember, the attributes of God cannot conflict. His justice and mercy must be equal at all times. How does Allah do that?"

"When you say Allah was merciful to you and forgave you, how does that equal justice requiring that a penalty be paid?"

So i am little bit confused hope you guys will give me an answer..

[mclinkin94]

Here is an analogy to explain how someone can be both just and merciful.

You get pulled over by a police officer, you were going 15 miles/hour above the speed limit. If the police officer lets you go free of anything he would be merciful but not just. If the police officer arrests you and puts you in jail for 3 months, he would be just and not merciful. So how does he become both just and merciful? Here are some ways:

1.) Let you go with a warning and put it on your record (if in the future you commit the crime again, the punishment will be more severe)
2.) Charge less on your speeding ticket price.

Let's say you ask for forgiveness to the police officer and he let's you off with a warning. Here the police officer was merciful and just. But if you go on and speed again, the police officer was already merciful, but now you will get a more severe punishment. That is exactly how it works with Allah. You ask for forgiveness--okay it is forgiven with the condition you would not do the sin again. If you do the sin again, Allah was already merciful to you, now you won't be forgiven again.
 
Or let's say the police gives you a lower speeding ticket price. That way justice was served and mercy was displayed.

Justice and Mercy goes hand in hand.

"Your Allah randomly chooses to forgive or not forgive. How can a Muslim know when Allah has forgiven you? In other words, I am asking how does Allah demonstrate (show you) his justice and mercy. Remember, the attributes of God cannot conflict. His justice and mercy must be equal at all times. How does Allah do that?"

"When you say Allah was merciful to you and forgave you, how does that equal justice requiring that a penalty be paid?"

First of all, Allah does not randomly choose to forgive or not. You don't know if Allah has forgiven you, you just hope he did and you repent. There is no magic "poof" that means you are forgiven, it is completely up to Allah.

For the second question, you assume that Allah would be merciful at the expense of justice.  As I have shown, both justice and mercy can be observed simultaneously and they are not logical contradictions.

It is not impossible to be both just and merciful.
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[mclinkin94]

So now that was the defense of Islam. Now lets shift from defense to offense!

The NT states that Jesus had to die to atone for sins and that is how God can be both just and merciful at the same time. God implemented Justice on jesus to atone for human sin and to be forgiving to all humans.

The OT is against this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB7EZ5fgr4I

[Uzair Ahmed]

He Replied
"Sin is not like a speeding ticket. The penalty for sin (any sin) is death. Your "speeding ticket" kind of sin lets me know that you have no concept of the depravity of men or the consequences of sin. God is not the police officer. God is the Judge who knows you have broken His law and therefore deserve death. His justice requires the death penalty for you. He cannot give you mercy because you do not deserve it. But God loves you..... He made a way for His justice and His mercy to be done. Want to know the way God gives both justice and mercy???"

[mclinkin94]

He Replied
"Sin is not like a speeding ticket. The penalty for sin (any sin) is death. Your "speeding ticket" kind of sin lets me know that you have no concept of the depravity of men or the consequences of sin. God is not the police officer. God is the Judge who knows you have broken His law and therefore deserve death. His justice requires the death penalty for you. He cannot give you mercy because you do not deserve it. But God loves you..... He made a way for His justice and His mercy to be done. Want to know the way God gives both justice and mercy???"

Sorry, but a failure to understand analogies implies a lack of intellectual competency. Saying that God is not a police officer so the analogy fails is not an argument. In fact that type of thinking is both ignorant and laughable.

Nowhere in the Quran is the penalty of sin death. The penalty of sin is punishment. That means there is no death penalty for God. In fact, sinning leads you to live in ETERNAL punishment--not death--I'm sure the bible even agrees that there is an eternal hell. If the punishment for sin is death, then why make people live forever in hell?

God can be both just and merciful the same way a judge or a police officer can be.