Natural Disasters

This verse from Surah Alankaboot in the Holy Quran has always made me think how true is the word of Allah that after so much advancement in science and technology we have not been able to find a way to escape the following threats to human life :

فَكُلًّا أَخَذۡنَا بِذَنۢبِهِۦۖ فَمِنۡهُم مَّنۡ أَرۡسَلۡنَا عَلَيۡهِ حَاصِبٗا وَمِنۡهُم مَّنۡ أَخَذَتۡهُ ٱلصَّيۡحَةُ وَمِنۡهُم مَّنۡ خَسَفۡنَا بِهِ ٱلۡأَرۡضَ وَمِنۡهُم مَّنۡ أَغۡرَقۡنَاۚ وَمَا كَانَ ٱللَّهُ لِيَظۡلِمَهُمۡ وَلَٰكِن كَانُوٓاْ أَنفُسَهُمۡ يَظۡلِمُونَ
سوره العنكبوت ايه ٣٨

Translation
“And We punished each one of them for their sins: some We struck with a violent storm; some were overcome by a sudden blast; some We made the earth swallow; and some We drowned. It was not God who wronged them; they wronged themselves.”

Commentary:
1. Life is a gift from God on which humans have no control. It is Allah Almighty alone who gives life and who takes away life.
2. What we know already is that there are two ways of dying: sole death by reaching the end of tunnel (old age) or by accident or illness when life is cut short; and collective death as in an explosion or earthquake or food.
3) In this verse Allah says there is another type of death, which is the result (punishment) of a cause (excess of sins). Allah gives the examples of certain condemned nations and individuals who died as a result of four deadly natural phenomenon:

1-Death by hurricane or storm (as visited upon the nation of Prophet Lot)
2-Death by explosion as visited upon Samood, the nation of Prophet Swaleh.
3-Death by the movement of earth (as for Quorah), and
4-Death by flood (as for the nation of Noah and Pharaoh).

Experts agree that while science helps us to predict natural disasters and gives us time to prepare for them, these cannot be totally prevented from happening because this is where the power of man stops and the power God becomes manifest.
SubhanAllah.

اردو ترجمہ: آخر کار ہر ایک کو ہم نے اس کے گناہ میں پکڑا، پھر ان میں سے کسی پر ہم نے پتھراؤ کرنے والی ہوا بھیجی، اور کسی کو ایک زبردست دھماکے نے آ لیا، اور کسی کو ہم نے زمین میں دھسا دیا، اور کسی کو غرق کر دیا اللہ اُن پر ظلم کرنے والا نہ تھا، مگر وہ خود ہی اپنے اوپر ظلم کر رہے تھے

If we look around us, we see that death has become so frequent and so cheap. The person who dies in such explosions does not know for what fault why he/she got killed; and the person who kills does not know why he killed others. There are explosions, climate change related freak natural disasters, seismic plates shifting on lands which are heavily built up on surface and wars and conflicts which are causing massive misery and shifting of populations. These are also times when the rules of morality and decency are fast breaking down. Places of worship are empty of people, and faith is split up in different religions, sects and communal groups . Man is materially, socially and spiritually insecure.

May Allah save us from His wrath and displeasure. Ameen.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.