Creating an Earthquake
A world settled on the ruins of one of the first generation stars. A world whose match with its blue seas, fascinating waterfalls, multicolored meadows, majestic mountains and tropic forests has not been seen. And vivacious living beings everywhere on it. Butterflies, birds, fishes, insects, albatrosses, dolphins.
All of those are above a very tiny ground cloth spread over the red-hot rocks. The flying earth is in the depths of space with the beings on it like that.
However, the earth is shaken from time to time.
It is a minor event for the earth but a serious event for the ones above it and it is not independent. It has a meaning and aim.
Why did you choose the topic of the earthquake for the second book of the series?
Just after the August the 17th earthquake, we were exposed to a dense and long-lived information bombardment. The branches of sciences, which most of us were unaware before, have settled in the center of our daily lives and have showed that they will not leave for a long time.
However, it is difficult to say that the information given is the remedy of any troubles. On the contrary, we have observed that depressions have increased parallel to the information achieved because the useful part among those tremendous information accumulation constituted a very small part indeed.
The things which were the actual object of interest did not take place among the information reported to us. The experts contradicted each other about the issue; fiery discussions and quarrels took place before the public opinion; all of those were watched with curiosity like the sections of a thriller; however, no relieving information emerged from any of the explanations.
Actually, we have expressed the points that should be dwelled on since the first days of the earthquake on several television and radio programs and it has had an impression over the spectators. Our aim was to discuss those points from a wider perspective after the surroundings calmed down.
However, the confusion emerged especially after the November the 12thearthquake, the despair and the panic the people were dragged in and the occurrence of denial of belief shortened the term. For example, in the headline of a current newspaper, the ending of the year 1999 was stated as good news as if the year 1999 were the maker of all of those disasters and we would get comfortable when it left!
Unfortunately, the publications discussing the event in all necessary aspects and explaining it properly and displaying the scenes in a correct way seriously lack today. We wanted to cover such a gap and meet the need about the issue through that book. Actually, while we were planning to discuss the subject after the people calmed down but the chaos we are living through has caused us to deal with it earlier.
What mistakes are made most among the explanations made about that subject?
The first one is the passive expressions without an agent. The minds, which could not have reached yet to the opinion of a Creator who has the dominion of all things with all of their attributes and details in His hand, could not imagine Allah being busy with the movements of the crust of the earth, so they even said Do not involve Allah in that subject.
Secondly, a proper judgment about the results of a calamity which had been introduced as an independent event could not been made because the information which would be the base for the judgment would appear under the light of the question Why?. Such a question was already meaningless for the events without a maker!
Thirdly, the voice of the ones tending objectively to the sources that should be referred for such a judgment could not be heard in that confusion. From the books, everybody recited the parts suiting his purpose and interpreted them as he wished. Many things that should be read were not taken into consideration. Actually, there were some claims that there were excessive parts in the Book for some time!
How do we consider the earthquake?
First of all, we know that an earthquake happening at any part of the earth cannot be meaningless and without a maker like every event happening in the heavens and the earth because, the Creator the Quran introduces us, is the maker of everything and every event in the world of existence and there is certainly a wisdom in every action of His. After accepting it as a fact – which is not a blind acceptance but is a fact that everything happening around us and the whole universe confirm- we lean towards to the Quran and the guidance of the person who has brought it to us and examine the event under the enlightening of that guidance. What are all of those for? What are their meanings? What is the purpose of them? What will happen then? What is the situation of the innocent people? We search for the answers to such questions.
The concepts of justice and mercy also carry weight in that point of view. Indeed, everything happens with the command and power of the Sustainer of the Heavens and the Earth; indeed, when we examine the events happening in the world of human beings carefully, we realize that everything happens under the laws of the wisdom and the mercy. Everything happening has a cause, a meaning and a purpose. And everything is the object of a universal justice either in itself or in regard to its results. In the same event, the guilty one is punished and the innocent one deserves a reward which will compensate for the damage he has had.
What is the position of the truth of mercy in an earthquake?
In the subject concerned with the innocents, going one step forward, the extreme encouraging rewards of the Divine Mercy are in question more than the justice. However, it is difficult for us to be able to see it from our point of view restricted by materialism. In order to be able to see it, we have to widen our standpoint in a way that it will surround the world and the hereafter together and that can only be possible by Allah and His Messengers informing us. In the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh), there is extremely clear good news for the oppressed ones and the innocent ones stricken by the disasters. Moreover, before the rewards they will achieve in the Day of Judgment, it is informed that the people in good conditions will wish to be in their places.
To sum up, there is the aspect of lordship and power and if we look from that point of view, we see and believe that earthquakes and other calamities and even their minute details are under the dominion of Allah and they happen by His ordaining.
And the justice aspect shows that a calamity does not happen without a reason, independently and arbitrarily but it undoubtedly happens because of some faults.
And when we consider it in terms of wisdom, a calamity that is happening is not labeled and sent as This is a Divine punishment and warning, but it happens under the sphere of the Divine laws prevalent in the universe and that is a part of the test we are in.
And the mercy aspect discloses the rewards that the innocent ones suffering from those kinds of calamities will achieve.
Thus, the opinions that will be put forward about earthquakes and other calamities should consider those four aspects altogether, practice the particular rules of each of them properly and examine the event from a standpoint that surrounds the world and the hereafter.
There are a lot of inelaborate books about the earthquake in the market. It is obvious that they benefit from that income. What are your remarks that are different from them?
I do not think that there are too many works about that subject in the market. However, we know that some compilations have been made hastily and put in the market. Some of those were the efforts taken from serious sources and aimed at meeting the need; however, they did not include an analysis directed towards our age although they do not have a pecuniary aim behind and they could not meet most of the need.
And in some others, we see that some unproven and unsupported, serious ideas are suggested in a dared and improvised way. And as it is known, some focalized on acquitting some persons that they were in close touch with. In any case, the lack of seriousness was the common property of the most of those works. On the other hand, the chaos on the positive sciences aspect of the event was in a dreadful extent and that situation is still the same.
The attempts to make the movements of the crust of the earth to be evaluated in accordance with the secularism concept of today affect neither the ground nor the beings under the ground; however the beliefs of large masses are seriously affected by that confusion. Our scientists and administrators collaborate in that subject. Some are responsible for arousing a panic and some are in charge of spreading that panic. Some governorships comprehend measures against the earthquake as distributing plastic bags for corpses to the police stations and schools and supplying fields for graves at the places with safe grounds. We are face to face with an approach that will nearly bring people to ruin without a new calamity.
Under such conditions, the need to deal with the events that we particularly call earthquake and generally call the movements of the earth's crust, and natural disasters in a serious manner in terms of both the positive sciences and the spiritual scopes shadows itself forth intensively. In Creating an Earthquake, we have tried to discuss and explain that event from both aspects relying on true information and from a reliable standpoint.
Are those calamities a punishment or a warning? How should we consider the event?
In the enlightenment of the explanations above, it will appear that the question does not have a single answer since several parts of the community are under the scope of a single event. It was certainly a punishment for some of them; or else Allah did not tyrannize over His servants. That was a warning for some of them. And some others were innocent completely and they were the persons who should not be affected by such an event in any way, but we have mentioned the compensation mechanism of the Divine mercy for them.
All of those are the subjects that require both a personal or social self- accounting that all of us should tend to. I think the fact that the fuss and the confusion in the media do not make such an accounting possible is the most important aspect of the danger. We have to think, examine and learn what can come after those happenings not only from physical aspects but also from spiritual causes, wisdoms and Divine laws - of course, before it is too late.
First of all, we know that an earthquake happening at any part of the earth can not be meaningless and without a maker motion like every event happening in the heavens and the earth because, the Creator the Quran introduces us, is the maker of everything and every event in the world of existence and there is certainly a wisdom in every action of His. After accepting it as a fact – which is not a blind acceptance imprudently but is a fact that everything happening around us and the whole universe confirm- we lean towards to the Quran and the guidance of the person who has brought it to us and examine the event under the enlightening of that guidance.
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