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