Articles, Comments

Justice of Allah

by Mohammad Asghar

February 10, 2005

I noticed that Mr. Zahid's write-ups has a signature which reads as: "Every nation has a test to undergo, my {Muhammad (SAW)} nation will be tried thru wealth - Tirmidi."

That fact that Allah has not yet started trying the Muslims with wealth is discernible from the economic state in which most of them have been living from the day Islam came into being. They tried to overcome their economic hardships through Caliphate, but it failed to improve their lot. They became poorer after they lost their Islamic Empire; they are now hoping to improve their conditions by reintroducing Caliphate not only in 57 Islamic States but also in those infidel lands of the world they are going to conquer in future.

I do not know if and when Muslims would succeed in their grand scheme, but it is for sure that Allah has never stopped bestowing wealth on a select few, despite the fact that no conscientious human would like to see them rich due to their despicable conduct. Perhaps, it is His intrinsic nature of His that forces Him to favor the tyrants, or it is a policy He has adopted to deprive the poor. The point I am trying to make is embedded in this verse of the Quran:

"Allah has bestowed His gifts of sustenance more freely on some of you than on others: those more favored are not going to throw back their gifts to those whom your rights possess, so as to be equal in that respect. Will they then deny the favours of Allah?" (16:71).

What an inspiring message Allah has given to the slaves? Should not they be doubly grateful to Him for His kindness and generosity?

He gives more to those people who do not share their heavenly gifts with their slaves, lest they become equal to them (their masters)! A good and logical stand, is not it?

Not to share their wealth with their slaves and other poor people is one of the most important virtues that most of the Muslims are endowed with. This gentler nature of them is visible in almost all Muslim countries of the world; they do not share those foods they themselves eat with their slaves - commonly known today as servants - servants must eat those foods which are suitable only for their poor stomachs.

But modern day slaves, nay servants, must take solace from how Allah deals with their rich, but unkind masters. Here is what the Quran says about them:

"When We decide to destroy a population, We (first) send a definite order to those among them who are given the goods things of this life and yet transgress; so that the word is proved to true against them: then (it is) We destroy them utterly" (17:16).

A cursory perusal of the Quran makes it abundantly clear to a reader that sinful acts have always weighed more heavily in Allah's mind than crimes. An example of it can be found in verse 17:31, through which He equated murder of a child with sin, not with crime. It was this reason that had forced Him to prescribe as many regulations to prevent commission of sins by humans as was possible on His part.

As a sin is more grievous than crime, Allah has issued warnings to mankind from time to time to refrain themselves from committing it in their lives in order to avoid their utter destruction at His hand. The procedure He employed in the past, and would be employing in future, before destroying a nation is clearly described in the verse I am discussing here.

If we believe that what the Quran says is true, then we should have no difficulty in believing that Allah has indeed destroyed many people and their cities or nations in the past for their refusal to live by His commandments. But He destroyed none of them without first sending His apostles to them. Some such cities or nations were:

1. The nation of Ad. [1] 2. The nation of Thamud. [2] 3. The city of Lut. [3] 4. The nation of Shu'aib. [4] 5. The nation of Pharaoh. [5]

The people of all the above cities or nations had refused to obey their apostles. This threw Allah into a maddening rage. Since only destruction of human lives and their properties sooth His anger, He visited all the offending cities or nations with a wrath the destructive power of which not only killed all of their people, it also raged all of their cities to the ground.

Being Allah, He has never deviated from His well established policies. One recent catastrophe that visited Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India demonstrated this truth.

In the morning of December 26, 2004, Allah decided to destroy a large number of rural people of the above named countries, for reasons I am not aware of. In keeping with His long standing policy, however, He sent His apostles to those people of those countries who lived in comfort. The apostles delivered their messages to all of them. It appears that they did neither follow the apostles' instructions themselves, nor did they pass them on to their other compatriots.

Infuriated by the rural elites' disobedience and insolence, the Almighty Allah created a number of very powerful Tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. He directed them to hit only those villages and towns of the above named countries in which lived mostly the poor and relatively simple people.

At Allah's command, the Asian Tsunamis killed almost 300,000 villagers; left a large number of them injured, and destroyed properties worth billions of dollars of the affected countries. One third of the dead were young children. Even fetuses in wombs could not escape Allah's wrath: He killed them in the wombs along with their would-be mothers.

As a result of Allah's retribution against the villagers, many children have become orphans, many among whom may even end up selling their soft bodies in the brothels of their respective countries. Many women who lost their husbands may also become flesh traders, as Allah has not only taken away their husbands from them, but has also destroyed everything they had in order to turn them into a vagabond and destitute people.

Interestingly, Allah spared the lives and properties of those countries' rich people most of whom live in the comfort of their large and Metropolitan Cities. It is in those cities where most sins are committed in bars, brothels and hotels. It is in those cities where people have more opportunities to adopt unfair means and corruption to become rich than in the villages. It is in those cities where people are not as Allah-fearing as are the people of the rural areas.

Out of the four Asian countries Allah visited recently with His wrath, only Thailand, a pre-dominantly Buddhist country, is famous for its seaside resorts, bars and night clubs. Its tourism business depended, until a few years ago almost entirely, on easily procurable and cheap sex. 

On the other hand, Indonesia is the largest Muslim country of the world, but it also permits both Indonesians and foreign tourists to satisfy their sexual needs in one of the restricted areas of its capital.

He destroyed none of the city dwellers many among whom are fond of committing sins at the drop of their hat. Instead, He destroyed one of Indonesia's islands, called Banda Aceh, and wiped out almost 242,000 [6] of its inhabitants through one of the Tsunamis He employed for the purpose.

The truth being the above, we need to know: (1). Why Allah chose to kill so many villagers, many among whom were fishermen and day laborers, instead of killing those city-dwellers who lived in comfort? (2). Why He killed fetuses and innocent children, if He is a fair and judicious Deity?

Even though I have no way to get answers to our above questions, I should take heart from the fact that Allah is not going to kill all the humans at a time, thus deferring the arrival of the Judgment Day. The destruction of the world's cities or population would take place in phases.

Before striking a people, Allah would send an apostle to those people among them to whom He has given "good things of life, but yet {they} transgressed." The apostle would tell them how they can win back His favor in a certain time. If they fail to do so in a certain time, only then would He destroy them utterly along with those who were not lucky enough to get good things of life from Him.

Allah is expected to accord similar opportunity to all the people of all the nations of the world. Some of them might repent and be forgiven by Him for their sins. Their forgiveness would not only extend their own stay on earth, it would also postpone the destruction of the entire world, as He would not be able to destroy a 'forgiven people' together with those who earned His wrath through their contumacy and disobedience.

I am sure the Dooms Day would come only after Allah has destroyed all the cities or nations of the world one after another. [7] Let us not, therefore, worry or grieve about its arrival any time soon!

The constant arrival of apostles long after Muhammad's death proves another important fact: He might have been the last Prophet [8] to have walked the earth, but he not certainly the last apostle to do so.

 Apostles have graced our earth in the past, they are doing so even now and would continue to do so, if what is stated in the verse is true, until the time Allah decides to destroy our world utterly. In the meantime, we should try, in our own interest, to find them out so that we, with their help, might be able to avoid the fire of hell on the Day of Judgment.

--------------------------------------------