INTERNATIONAL

The Signs of Our Times: Volcanic Eruptions and More

Hadiza Wada, DBA ...April 17, 2010

“...(the corruption continued) until the heavens wondered at them before Me, and the earth and mountains, including the beasts, wondered and wailed. All that had no effect on them; nor was the Book useful to them.” (God to Jeremiah, Ibn Kathir)

We woke up this week to a volcanic eruption on the northern arctic continent of Iceland, which has literally handicapped air traffic to and from European nations. Literally a thunderous roaring and raging mountain spitting its guts. Before then we had many signs of an ailing world some of which has come to be generally termed a consequence of human activities corrupting the atmosphere and the environment. Earthquakes have also become all too frequent, with Haiti still on our minds and a few days ago China.

A world meeting aimed at curbing global warming which took place in Copenhagen in December 2009 was generally described as a failure, ending with no tangible measures at reversing such destructive activities. Many of the rich industrial nations responsible for greed in resource control and exploitation as well as waste and destruction to nature, refused to allow tangible policies meant to curb their activities, though the earth is surely wailing!

Since the turn of the century many events we term “natural disaster” have occurred. But in our characteristic way of denying God credit or else acknowledging what such events have always meant in religious terms, we just call them some natural disaster and pass on. There was the Tsunami of December 2004 which was a result of an undersea mega-thrust earthquake near Sumatra Indonesia, which resulted in the death of an estimated 230, 000 humans from 14 countries of the Indian Ocean region. Less than a year after that in 2005 was when the United States suffered two historic hurricanes named Katrina and Rita, with Katrina (sixth most catastrophic in recorded history) causing an estimated $80 billion plus loss in damage.

What entails human attitude and practices that anger God enough to punish His worshippers for their inequities, even if they admit His worship and claim to be his worshippers. All of us, Christians Jews and Muslims alike, the three scriptural religions of the world today not only recognize the Almighty God as our Lord and claim to worship him from crystallized forms of rituals, we have done that for centuries in well established and acceptable places of worship we call the Mosque, Temple (Synagogue) and Church. We may claim Him and think we are doing our best to serve Him, but how does He view our services and how acceptable are our services to him? How does He show us how He thinks of us, even if we still claim His worship?

For that we would look at the accounts of God’s words (concerning His anger) from one of the most popular Mufassirs (Scriptural Commentators) of our time, Ibn Kathir. His full name is Imam Abi Al-Fidaa Isma’il Ibn Al-Kathir. His Qissasas al Ambiya (Accounts of the Prophets) written hundreds of years ago has been the most acceptable and authentic book of study about the Prophets and Messengers of our Lord in use by scholars of Islam. He lived about 700 years ago, born 1301 in Busra, Syria and was once a student of the renown scholar Ibn Taymiyyah.

We do not attempt to interpret but just to draw parallels between the message and what obtains today . We will examine from his account about what brings on God’s anger. We will look at one incident of His anger against his worshippers of the Bani Isra’il (Children of Israel) of old as he expressed in Surah Isra’ (Bani Isra’il) of the Holy Quran. In particular His statement therein that He warned in the past the Children of Israel that “indeed you would do mischief in the earth twice and you would become tyrants and extremely arrogant (and twice would you be punished). So when the promise came for the first of the two, we sent unto you slaves of ours given to terrible warfare. They entered the very innermost parts of your homes. And it was a promise completely fulfilled.”(Quran 17:4-5)

One of the accounts attributed to the same source (Wahab Ibn Munbah) says the first of the warnings of corruption came during the Prophethood of an Israeli Messenger of God named Amos, while two accounts attributed the time to another Prophet named Jeremiah. This was the account from Ibn Kathir about what Allah revealed to Jeremiah to tell the rulers of Jerusalem of that time and the people about their practices that have angered Him. Though Jeremiah pleaded on behalf of his people, Allah told him He had chosen Jeremiah while in the womb and guided him for service; then Allah asserted his order.

“...I swear by My majesty and power that I will send against them people with strange tongues and strange faces, merciless in the face of their tears.” With that Jeremiah went to the rulers, with such a cease and desist commandment, and sure enough they belied and consequently threw him in jail. They said much of what people today may say, i.e. Allah will not destroy his worshippers (especially the Israelite then thought as his chosen people), nor would he destroy their places of worship etc Therefore for their heedlessness to His warnings with all its visible signs, and belying and imprisoning the carrier of God’s message, the punishment that threw them into despair was fulfilled with the ruthless attack of Nebuchadnezzar.

Our intent is to bring out from that specific account what constitutes corruption in the earth that triggers God’s anger. For it appears that, with the staggering number of God’s followers today (numbering billions) within the three scriptural religions, the same corruption if not more persists. Signs of such corruption and signs of His usual way of displaying his warnings are among us. The news about the volcanic eruption at Iceland that has effectively disrupted what people might not have seen as a favor of their Lord, i.e. giving them knowledge that enabled them design vessels to fly them across continents in large numbers to take care of their businesses. This may be just one way to again warn and jolt people from their slumber. He is an eternal Living God and his powers to punish still alive and well.

The Muslims, the Christians and most especially the Jews of our times have lessons to learn from the account because all fall into the same mistake time and time again. The Jews especially tend to believe because Allah Has promised his Prophet Ibrahim (AS) that he would make prophets of his progeny they are spared from His wrath regardless of their actions. Well, this message we will draw lessons from was sent to the children of Israel in particular.

Allah was reported to have revealed to Jeremiah to warn Israel and its rulers that “I remember their forefathers and that makes me merciful to them...(they have) forgotten why I have favored them for the sake of their forefathers, and have misused my generosity.” How then can you adduce from today’s worshippers that Allah’s generosity has been misused by His worshippers?

Generally according to all three teachers and their scriptures, when Allah gives you wealth it is not for you to hog it thinking it is “yours’ to do as you wish regardless of His established laws of justice and fairness in the process of acquisition and dispensation of such wealth. Further there are also the laws of righteousness, charity, dealing fairly with everyone without cheating and stealing away from them. He not only created you and gave you the health, knowledge and all that enabled you to acquire it, he also approved and opened the avenue for you to acquire that wealth.

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The usury and misery that the wealthy impose on the weak has been cursed not only by Jewish Prophets but also through the mouth of Isa (Jesus) on him be peace and further stressed and imposed on the followers of the message of Muhammad on him be peace in the Quran. Today only some Islamic countries and communities of the world still operate non-interest and non usury consuming monetary sources (banks) one thousand four hundred years from their own message. Generally though the “developed” nations still persist in the violation of that Godly Law. Such developed nations unjustly and unfairly create international commercial laws and policy that cherishes and propagate the tenets of monetary oppression. With the result that the poor and poverty stricken countries on our sole planet continue a steady downward spiral into more poverty, decay and death.

“Your scribes have forgotten my tenets and your reciters worship other than me.” That condition has been further explained by the scriptures that came after the Torah. Isa (Jesus) on him be peace, was reported to have been in constant debates and arguments with the scribes of his time, even as a young boy that would sit with them in the Temple. Though he had said he came not to change the laws (of the Torah) which was established before he was born, his criticisms simply tells us that the tenets of that law has been abandoned. And further if the reciters, who should know more about the message and the laws contained therein more than ordinary men going about their daily lives, have themselves abandoned God worship, then you may surely have imagined the condition of the community.

“...and your women have not learned a useful lesson and their rulers have lied against Me and My messengers. Their hearts and mouths are full of lies.” The women who raise the upcoming generation have not been taught righteousness. Lessons are generally taught in two distinct yet supportive ways (1) by the direct delivery of messages of righteousness contained in the holy scriptures and positive community values on the one hand, and (2) the practical good example provided by adults within the community, where children generally emulate their parents and elders as role models. Both methods have failed. It is very true and real today in many societies, the difference only being the intensity of decay from one community or country to another.

The rulers whom Allah gave power to lead the community, Allah said, have lied against Him. This as is usually conveyed from accounts about past generations may mean they have either claimed to be the objects to be worshipped, or have misdirected the worship of God for their personal reasons of staying in power as rulers. This they do regardless of God’s laws of righteousness as it applies to leadership and followership relationship and the rights of all drawn from the relationship often trampled in His name. Lying against His messengers is also too prevalent today. This occur from among some members of all three scriptures today; interpreting the messages of His Messengers in self-serving ways, either to directly benefit from such counsel, or else to appease others in leadership or power.

The difference between the corrupted generation and their righteous predecessors if you analyze the warning as explicitly stated word for word was “those before them feared Me.” This means fear of Allah’s retribution when one disobeys his commandments, knowing fully well the overwhelming capacity of His powers.

Realizing His immense power towards mercy and especially punishment, his faithful servants in the past arranged their lives in consonance with conforming to the prohibitions and provisions of the divine laws and the teachings of righteousness. They never lost sight of that, and displayed that to the extreme, as in the usual story of how meager the possessions of Prophets were (unmaterialistic) and how hard they strove to improve their spiritual essence (soul) consistently throughout their lives. All they had, all they earned, and all that was gifted to them were usually given out almost entirely to others in need, in full service of humanity.

Not only that, some of them, like the most self sacrificing example Ibrahim (AS), was willing to sacrifice himself in the fire for his belief, his only son (through blood sacrifice) when commanded to give him up to his God in sacrifice, his family (an only son and second wife) when commanded to leave them in an inhabitable valley, his share of family wealth and parental nurturing, when he left his birth home and family as a young man etc. That and many practices of complete submission to his Lord, earned him a high place recognized by Allah in His infinite mercy. With that, His Lord accepted the prayer of Ibrahim to make prophets from his progeny.

Now that Ibrahim’s progeny have allowed, or at the bare minimum his people have taken to corruption, Allah further warns. “...but these people displayed their disobedience of Me in the temple, marketplace, hill and mountain tops, and under the shade of trees..” This literally means corruption is taking over the land. It is not confined to just one place but all important places that are pillars to material survival and spiritual development.

Marketplace is where everyone goes to earn his livelihood, either to buy or to sell. The farmer, the herder, the merchandiser, the fetcher of wood, seller of salt and everyone brings his professional product for buying and selling. But as the warning is conveyed from Allah His anger emanates from the abandoning of all forms of righteousness in such places. And the marketplace today has been corrupted away from Allah’s laws because of such practices as cheating, usury and interest, selling polluted and diluted products, fake currency used to acquire products from those who worked hard to produce them etc.

The hills and the mountaintops are places of contemplation, admirations of nature and rejuvenation from the hustle bustle of life in cities. It is also a place where shepherds and herders call home, while they raise their animals. The shade of tress are shelter from the heat of the sun, where people rejuvenate at noon, and at times use it as a place from which they conduct their daily business of earning a living in the olden days.

The worst place to find corruption of all these places mentioned is the Temple. It is supposed to be a place established primarily for the worship of Allah, the One true God. If the reverence of one’s Lord did not prevent him or her from even thinking of doing anything that defies God’s law, let alone performing a sin therein, then the place has not only been corrupted but by implication the laws of God have been mocked at in one of his most revered places.

That warning continues as it draws yet another parallel with what is truly visible today to anyone willing to be true to himself. That condition is displayed in the condition of the earth. In other words the condition tagged “global warming” that has been followed by one natural calamity after another. These calamities have been in the extremities too, tsunami that swallowed hundreds of thousands of human beings, the floods, the earthquakes etc We have just mentioned the ones that stood out, but many others have occurred recently.

Allah warned the Israeli prophet at that time about similar situation when He continued “...(the corruption continued) until the heavens wondered at them (the corrupted people) before Me, and the earth and mountains, including the beasts, wondered and wailed. All that had no effect on them; nor was the Book useful to them.” It does appear that the Holy Books have been abandoned, having no effect, because not only have such events not been publicized much for what they mean, the leadership of the world and its policies are not serious about the issue (Nor was the book useful to them). To date not many media houses that I have watched or heard has done much research and digging as they do for other events.

Allah’s warning and His anger is palpable from these statements. He has already informed us in his scriptures that He never changes His ways (laws and ordering of heavens, earth and all between them including those for us the humans). His laws have taken hold as soon as he uttered the command at the creation of the heavens and the earth. No one has the power to change it. He taught us in His books that “the pen has (since been) lifted (from the tablet of destiny) and the ink has dried.” This means the world ordering and our human laws He has prescribed for us based on all such orders will remain in place; outliving every human until the end of the world.

These unrighteous actions listed by God in this report from Ibn Kathir, will continue to remain unrighteous in the sight of God. For this reality I plead with all humans regardless of what their religious identity is, not to fool themselves. Nothing in His laws have changed. If anything has, it is the people that have changed their ways gradually, betraying their covenants of faith and righteousness.