Comments on Natural Disasters

Over the past week or two, we have had 2 natural disasters; a cyclone in Burma and an earthquake in China; from the disasters themselves to Burma not allowing any people inside it’s borders, the death toll might rise to over 100k people; because of these two and others that have happened in this decade, it is natural as human beings to ask why are these happening; what does Allah mean by them? Or even why would Allah bring this to happen?

All of these questions are valid and ok to ask, as long as one knows that we might not be able to come up with the answer, as our minds are limited and Allah’s knowledge and wisdom is unlimited; and with this understanding, a Muslim can venture out and ponder on these points and pray to Allah to guide him on the straight path

So the first answer can be summed up into scientific reasons; and there are two here; the first, that there is massive climate change going on and as the temperature of the oceans becomes warmer, more storms happen that are stronger and deadlier; we also have more people alive today that in centuries or mellenia before us, so more people will obviously die; or we can say that maybe there is not an increase, but news can travel faster and thus we has human beings around the world here about them more often;

But these scientific answers do not get to the heart of the theological question; why would Allah bring these things to happen and what does Allah mean by them;

So for the question of what does Allah mean by them, we must know that for everything that happens in this world, there is a reason, even if we don’t see it in our lifetimes; there is always a benefit from every harm or hardship, as individuals, communities, nations, or as human begins; as Allah mentions in Sura Inshirah:

Verily with the hardship, there is good
Indeed with the hardship, there is good


And Allah also mentions in the qur’an about things in this life of the world being examples for us in Sura Baqara, v. 26:

Verily, Allah is not ashamed to set forth a parable even of a mosquito or so much more that it. And as for those who believe, they know that it is the Truth from their Lord, but as for those who disbelieve, they say: “What did Allah intend by this parable?” By it He misleads many, and many He guides thereby. And He misleads only those who are rebellious, disobedient to Allah”

And so the first part of this verse says that Allah can use an example of a mosquito, or something much bigger than that; like earthquake or tsunami, or cyclone, or hurricane; or something smaller, like even a stubbed toe; but in these examples is a test

The believers will always say, there is Truth in it from their Lord; here Allah is not saying that the believers understand the example or parable, but that they know it is a Truth; so it doesn’t matter if you question, but it matters as to the end result; many things in the world happen, and we don’t understand why, so why is this any different;

The disbelievers, however, ask the question “what did Allah intend by this parable?” meaning they ask the question, and then never come to a conclusion, always remaining in doubt; slowly this doubt can grow into a cancer that will eat away at a person’s faith;

And we find throughout the qur’an stories of generations that have gone before us, wiped out, for there disobedience; and all of them are examples; ‘Imad, Madyan, people of Nuh, and on and on; we can read them and use them as examples as to what not to do, or we can read them and say, wow, Allah destroyed all these people? Why? Its not fair!! And so on…. I ask Allah to protect us from disbelief and keep us on the straight path;


So as we have been mentioning, disasters around the world have happened throughout time and will continue to happen till the end of time; with the greatest disasters happening at the end; and we as believers, need to take them as examples and benefit from them; rather than keep questioning them and lose faith;


Also as I mentioned earlier, these examples are such that even if we don’t know of the benefit now, we might realize it in the future, maybe centuries, or thousands of years later; take a simple example as the oil and natural gas we consume, have consumed, and will consume in the future; aside from the what it is doing to our planet, no one can argue how beneficial it has been to the human race; and yet, imagine what type of a calamity, death, destruction happened millions of years ago for us to be able to benefit from it now?


So the best answers to questions about why did Allah allow this to happen is we don’t know; we know it is the truth from Allah, and He is the All-knowing, All-wise; but do know 2 things: first, for us as individuals, this is an opportunity; and second there are ways to prevent these disasters;

he opportunity is that through these types of disasters, millions of people get together and help each other; and this gets rewarded by Allah;

If you take the Tsunami for example, yes hundreds of thousands died, but billions of people were able to pool resources and help the ones that survived and the reconstruction effort is still going on today; so for us as individuals, we need to open up our wallets and give sadaqa for the people that are suffering;

And there are ways for us to prevent these disasters; a hadith of the prophet says:

'Abdullah ibn 'Umar said, "The Prophet, peace be upon him, came to us and said, 'O Muhajirun, (emigrants from Makkah to al-Madinah) you may be afflicted by five things; God forbid that you should live to see them.
If fornication should become widespread, you should realise that this has never happened without new diseases befalling the people which their forebears never suffered.
If people should begin to cheat in weighing out goods, you should realise that this has never happened without drought and famine befalling the people, and their rulers oppressing them.
If people should withhold zakat, you should realise that this has never happened without the rain being stopped from falling; and were it not for the animals' sake, it would never rain again.
If people should break their covenant with Allah and His Messenger, you should realise that his has never happened without Allah sending an enemy against them to take some of their possessions by force.
If the leaders do not govern according to the Book of Allah, you should realise that this has never happened without Allah making them into groups and making them fight one another

Best of Speech

As some of you know, I have just recently completed a documentary about an American Muslim who learns to fly called “On A Wing And A Prayer”. It is getting good reviews and in fact this past Monday, it was on the front page of the Bellingham Herald; there were many comments that were made; over 100 as I am writing this khutba

Some of them were supportive, while most were filled with hate, ignorance, and misunderstanding; and as the subject of the article, it is very easy to get depressed about the comments, let alone if you are a Muslim reading them; but one can look at it from the glass being half full empty (see, they do hate us), or can view it as the glass being half full (that we have an opportunity here to do good); give dawa, educate people about Islam; so this is what I would like to speak about in my khutba today; Allah mentions in the Qur’an:

And who is better in speech that he who invites to Allah and does righteous deeds and says: “I am one of the Muslims”

The good deed and the eveil deed cannot be equal. Repel (the evil) with one which is better; then verily, he, between whom and you there was enmity, will become as though he was a close friend

But none is granted it except those who are patient, and none is granted it except the owner of the great portion

And if an evil whisper from Shaitan trist to turn you away, then seek refuge in Allah. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower

And next week, the MSA is doing an Islamic Awareness Week and inviting their friends and fellow college students to get to know Islam from Mulims; and as we go out and call people to Allah, there are some rules we must follow;

And who is better in speech that he who invites to Allah and does righteous deeds and says: “I am one of the Muslims”

Allah is saying here that the best of speech is the call that one makes to Allah; during the time of the Prophet when he was in Mecca, and to a lesser extent nowadays, most people are not calling others to Allah; far from it, they are not even practicing Islam because it is dangerous to be Muslim; this first part of the verse is a reminder that there is nothing more important that to invite people to Allah; that we can friends with them, hang out with them. Be a good example to non-Muslims, but at the end of the day, there has to be an invite;

Many people have used the example of the people of Indonesia and how they came into Islam because of the trade that was established between the Arab Muslims and the Java people; and this is partly true, but at a certain point, even the Arabs had to tell the people “accept Allah”; in the same way, you have neighbors that you meet , say hi to, kids play with, but it is taken to another level when you invite them to your house!!!

But inviting to Allah is not enough, because in order to do it effectively, you have to yourself do righteous deeds; if you were evil, have vulgar speech, then nobody would want to follow what you are believing; and look at the example of our messenger and all the ones that came before him, they were all righteous, upstanding, outstanding human beings that made a call to Allah;

And finally, in the verse, Allah mentions that best person is one who says he is “…one of the Muslims”; we shouldn’t hide our identity, not be ashamed of it, practice our faith to its fullest and be proud yet thankful that Allah has blessed us with Islam;

The good deed and the eveil deed cannot be equal. Repel (the evil) with one which is better; then verily, he, between whom and you there was enmity, will become as though he was a close friend

Idfa’ billati hea ahsan: repel evil with something better; something we must as Muslims keep in mind; good and evil are not equal, so in the long run, cannot fight evil with evil; it must be with that which is better; good deeds, kindness; as mentioned earlier, with the comments on the article, very easy to respond to the vulgar comments with yourself writing vulgar comments, but that would not solve anything; if you respond with good, it might change the heart and mind of the person with Allah’s help;

The Prophet said “kindness makes things beautiful, violence makes them defective”; and in a hadith related by Abdallah ibn Mugaffal, the Prophet says, “verily Allah is kind and loves kindness. In return for it, a servant may receive what he will never receive through violence

So we have been talking about the importance of inviting people to Allah, and in Sura Fussilat in verse 33, Allah mentions the best of speech being that of inviting people to Allah, doing righteous deeds, and proclaiming that you are one of the Muslims; Allah goes on to mention a very important point that we, especially in this age, when we see violence being retaliated with violence, must keep in mind, that we have to repel evil with good;

Next Allah mentions that when you repel evil with good, something extraordinary happens; that your enemy will become a close friend; that hate will turn into love; what a powerful and beautiful phenomenon!!! We have many examples we can use here; Israelis and Palestinians; Al-Qaeda vs. the US; in all of these, imagine that rather than spewing hate and committing acts of violence, Muslims responded to the evils with good; would that change the tide of the war or the occupation? Allah says it will, but in the least, what do we have to lose? Whatever we have done has not worked!!!!

But none is granted it except those who are patient, and none is granted it except the owner of the great portion

This is not easily attained; we must have sabr; patience and perseverance; it is not easy to fight evil with good; our nafs tells us to fight back, to retaliate, but Allah is telling us differently; do good, be patient, and all will work itself out; Allah similarly says:

And if the ignorant approaches you, say to him a word of “peace”.

And finally, how do we do this? How do we not let our animal nature overtake our human nature?

And if an evil whisper from Shaitan trist to turn you away, then seek refuge in Allah. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower

We have to know that the evil is an act of Shaitan; evil done by others is an act of Shaitan, and our thoughts of doing evil is a whisper of Shaitan; and the way to stay away is to seek refuge in Allah; and the best way to do this, as I mentioned last week, is to hold fast to our prayers.

Checklist for Your Life

(Sura Mu’minoon,v. 1-11)

As we are going through life, one initially begins with a goal, and that for us as Muslims is to attain paradise; we do this by first submitting ourselves to Allah, and thus enter into Islam, but as we struggle to work on our souls and our sincere in attaining Allah’s pleasure, then we are blessed with the gift of Iman, or faith, and then can be one of the Mu’mins

Just like at work, when you have reviews, your boss has a checklist to see what your progress has been, how you are doing, where are you lacking or need improvement; in the same way, there must be a checklist that Allah or the Prophet left for us as well, otherwise how can we know we are headed in the right direction? Sure the Qur’an can be that checklist, but most of us don’t have time to go through the Qur’an and use as a checklist, it is just way too big;

Alhamdulillah, that He has given us such a checklist for life; Allah says in the Qur’an:

Qad aflahal mu’minoon
Successful indeed are the believers
Alladheena hum fi salaatihim khaashi’oon
Those who offer their prayers solemnly and full of submission
Walladheena hum ‘anil laghwi mu’ridhoon
And those who turn away from falsehood
Walladheena hum lizzakaati fa’iloon
And those who pay the zakaat
Walladheena hum lifuroojihim hafidhoon
And those who guard their chastity
Illa ‘ala azwaajihim aw malakat aymaanuhim, fa innahum ghayru maloomeen
Except from their wives and those their right hands posses
….
Walladheena hum li amaanaatihim wa ‘ahdihim raa’oon
Those who are faithfully true to their duties and covenants
Walladheena hum ‘ala salawaatihim yuhaafidhoon
And those who guard their prayers
Oolaa ikahumul waarithoon
These are indeed the inheritors
Alladheena yarithoonal firdausa hum fihaa khaalidoon
Who shall inherit the Paradise and live there forever

So this is the checklist we need to follow and constantly refer back to it to analyze how we are doing; here, Allah lays out the characteristics of a successful person, and even though Allah is mentioning the qualities of a successful believer in the hereafter, the also apply to the present life; if you can do these things, then you are also going to be successful in this life and the hereafter




Qad aflahal mu’minoon
Successful indeed are the believers
Alladheena hum fi salaatihim khaashi’oon
Those who offer their prayers solemnly and full of submission

The first thing that Allah mentions is the prayer to show how important it is; and it is the only one he mentions twice in this formula or checklist for success; here it is not about whether we perform, but how we do it; with concentration, understanding, reverence to Allah? Or just do the ritualistic actions to get it over with; and many people do the prayers and as soon as they say Allahu Akbar, they do everything, think of everything, but concentrate; that is why my grandmother used to tell me, if you can’t remember where you left something or forgot something, just pray 2 rakat, you will remember; I thought she was saying this cause if I prayed Allah would help me find or remember it, but really it was because she knew that people think of everything in their prayer even where they left their keys;

Walladheena hum ‘anil laghwi mu’ridhoon
And those who turn away from falsehood

And here, the falsehood that Allah is mentioning is all kinds of falsehood; and the goal here is a moving target in that the more you stay away from, the more you will find you will need to stay away from as falsehood is all around us in large and small firms; one begins by staying away from the large ones, backbiting, cursing; so the falsehoods are those things that you personally get yourselves involved with, but then from here a believer must move on the seeing no evil, hearing no evil, and speaking no evil; the hearing and seeing are very difficult, but not impossible; they way to begin to do this is what Allah says in the Qur’an in Sura Furqan:

Walladheena laa yash-hadoonaz zoora wa idha marroo billaghwi marroo kiraama
And those who do not witness falsehood, and if hey pass by some evil play or talk, they pass by it with dignity

That you stay away from it and as is life, you will encounter it some times, and dignity is that you don’t repel falsehood with falsehood, but falsehood with that which is better – repel evil with good

Walladheena hum lifuroojihim hafidhoon
And those who guard their chastity
Illa ‘ala azwaajihim aw malakat aymaanuhim, fa innahum ghayru maloomeen
Except from their wives and those their right hands posses

That a person is modest in their dress, and protects themselves, their bodies with from evil; staying away from fornication, is just the last step, and believer should not even find himself in a situation that would lead to this; that in this case, anything that leads to this, is evil in and of itself; similar to when Allah forbade Adam and hawa from even approaching the tree, let alone eating from you: laa taqraboo hadhihish shajaraa
But with certain people, letting down your guard, not only is it ok, but sometimes even encouraged, like your spouses; that you should take one another as a source of comfort for each other

Walladheena hum li amaanaatihim wa ‘ahdihim raa’oon
Those who are faithfully true to their duties and covenants

The biggest Amana we have to fulfill is the amana of the shahada; that when we say it as an oath, we are pledging to Allah and His messenger our devotion and to follow His way; but the duties and covenants are many others in our lives, from the covenant of marriage, to employment, to the everyday business dealing we have; we must always be fair, honest, fulfilling our pledges; and remember that even before our Prophet was a messenger, he was known as Al-Ameen, the trustworthy;

Walladheena hum ‘ala salawaatihim yuhaafidhoon
And those who guard their prayers

And finally a full circle is made, as we started with prayer, we end with prayer as well; and here Allah is mentioning that we, to be successful, must be protective our our 5 dialy prayers; and we shouldn’t let go of the importance of this issue of prayer;

1) it should be something we do no matter what; it is the only active pillar that we cannot leave; not fast if sick or on journey; no zakaat if no wealth, no hajj if no money; but prayer, no excuse; you must pray whether you are healthy or sick, rich or poor, tired or active;
2) that if we hold fast to our prayer, then we will naturally avoid the other things that Allah is mentioning; and even more importantly, going back to the khushoo’, if we have it, then we will taste a sweetness that we not only fulfill the other items on checklist, but we will do it, including prayer, with a sweet zealousness

last thing is that in order to make sure we hold fast to the prayer, we revolve our lives around prayer, and not our prayer around our lives; that the five prayers are the pillars in your daily life and everything else gets scheduled, around it; and if you miss a prayer or delay it, something inside your heart is missing;

Oolaa ikahumul waarithoon
These are indeed the inheritors
Alladheena yarithoonal firdausa hum fihaa khaalidoon
Who shall inherit the Paradise and live there forever

And if we do the above, then Allah promises us Paradise; one thing to note here is Allah uses the term inherit; which implies a rightful ownership; in Islam, when you inherit property, it is rightfully yours because it is stated in the Qur’an; similarly, if we do fulfill our checklist and are successful believers, then it is our right to get paradise; because it is a fulfillment of a contract;