“Why are there so many rules? I just want to live life.” We tend to hear this when religious rules are brought up.

But let’s look at other rules we encounter in our daily lives. We have traffic rules for the road. We have rules in our schools and jobs. We have rules when we enter a coffee shop, a company building, or a bank. We have piles and piles of heavy law books judges and lawyers have to know about when they go to court. We even have rules in our homes!

Why? Well you know the reason. So why should you expect God to not have rules for the creation He made? Does it make much sense for Him to create the Universe and Earth with all its inhabitants, for Him to just say, “Alright, do whatever you want now,” especially given that we were given a lot of free will? As Allah says in the Qur’an,

And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.

[Qur’an 51:56]

Another important logical point is that God created us, so he knows more about us than we do! We are biased. We don’t always see the full picture. We may focus too much on the present, or just see 2-3 factors when there may be 10, and then not see the long-term ramifications.

In addition, God in countless parts of the Qur’an calls Himself Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem, attributes related to Mercy. In fact, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Allah is more merciful to His servants than this mother is to her child.”¹ We know that when parents take their children to the doctors to get vaccinated, that shot hurts. If a person dislocates his shoulder, he knows that if he goes to the hospital, the doctor will try to reduce it and that it will hurt as well! But are the parents or doctor called “unjust”? In fact, it is part of their mercy to do what they do. So why don’t we think the same way with God?

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1. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5999, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2754