October 14, 2005
Geologists have a convincing explanation: major earthquakes happen when tectonic plates beneath large mountains shift and snap. A great deal of seismic activity normally takes place beneath the mountains, but remains unnoticed by all except for a handful of experts studying the mountains until the earth quakes. And when it quakes, it takes its toll, ruining millions of lives. All of this has nothing to do with the One Who created the mountains and the earth as well as those who suffer when the earth quakes, we are made to believe. Sufficient explanation has been provided by science and that is the end of the story, we are asked to believe. Even the creation of mountains and those who live on earth has been explained away by science. In short, all these scientific explanations have removed God from the equation.
These are relatively new explanations. They have only emerged in the wake of the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century and have been adopted as the official religion of the scientific community during the preceding three centuries, rendering all other explanations “unscientific”, and hence somehow flawed. Until their appearance, humanity believed in a Creator Who was actively present in the affairs of those who lived upon earth, as well as in what happened below it. But modern science calls these beliefs superstitions. This reigning scientific orthodoxy has not only removed the hand of God from human and natural affairs, it has also left humanity in a state of despair—for if earthquakes can be explained away in terms of the movement of tectonic plates, and all that happens on earth in terms of randomly occurring chances, giving birth to the fittest species, then there remains neither any purpose in life, nor any direction for the moral and spiritual life of humanity. This tyranny of science is not only widely accepted, it has become a pseudo religion with followers who wish to hear no one but the experts, who wish to understand everything in terms imposed by science. But in a tragic situation like the one now faced by millions of people in Pakistan, science can provide neither answers nor solace; it can merely explain away the devastation.
Human beings have a spirit capable of feeling pain and anguish at the departure of their loved ones, and they have needs far beyond the physical needs dictated by hormones and glands. They have a spiritual life which originates in their very fitrah, the innate nature, upon which they have been created. And built within this fitrah is an awareness of the Creator Who fashioned man out of clay and inserted Spirit to give life to this earthy creature.
This life has been created for a purpose and for a fixed duration, and no amount of scientific knowledge can increase or decrease this fixed duration assigned to each soul as its period of residence on earth. What causes the departure from earth is also pre-ordained and the soul arrives at the place from where it is destined to be taken away. This is not mere dogma; centuries of collective human experience and wisdom testifies to this truth and it remains a clearly understood truth for all whose hearts have not been corrupted.
Calamities are not the work of nature, for nature has no authority to create them. Likewise, the so-called laws of nature are not the product of nature; they have been created by the One Who created nature. No calamity befalls a community without a reason and though when the earth quakes, the secondary causes can be ascribed to the movement of tectonic plates and explained in terms of geological data, these explanations remain secondary, for science has no answer for primary questions beginning with a “Why”; it can only tell us “How”. Indeed, all that happens below and above earth is causal, that is, there are causes for events, but these causes are both physical and spiritual. Science provides answers for the physical causes; in general, it remains unaware of the presence of spiritual causes.
No calamity of the kind that befell Pakistan happens without spiritual causes, age-old wisdom tells us. The people of `Ad and the Thamud were wiped out from the face of earth through a calamity like the one witnessed on October 8, 2005; those who lived at the time of Nuh (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) were victims of a flood like of which they had never seen before and all of these so-called natural calamities have been recognized as results of the spiritual decay of these communities. This has been the case for centuries. Every community that witnessed a disaster of the nature now inflicted on Pakistan, recognized the spiritual causes more than the physical causes. Only now, do we tend to forget the main cause and concentrate on the secondary causes.
Indeed, there is a lesson in what happened on October 8, and a warning: the hand of God is not cut off from human affairs, and whatever direction Pakistani polity has chosen in recent years, is clearly not in accordance with the high spiritual life that was envisioned for this polity when it was established. Of course, thousands of innocent lives have perished, but that too, is a blessing for them. This does not lessen the pain and suffering of those who are left behind, but for those who remain steadfast and patient a great reward awaits in the Hereafter, for no calamity befalls them except that they say: Inna lil’Llahi wa inna alaihi raji`un, Indeed, we are from Allah and to Him we return.
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