KHUTAB III - 29. DISASTER

29. DISASTER

              At 5.54 a.m. on Saturday morning, 27 May, 06 the earthquake (6.3 on the Richter scale) that destroyed a large area of the city of Yogyakarta in Central Java resulted in more than 6,200 dead, over 40,000 injured, over 35,000 houses and buildings reduced to rubble, and  over 130,000 people were made homeless, about 40 % of them were children. Twenty-two coutries pledged aid, so far, among them Australia with A$7.5 million, Japan with A$13 million, European Union with U$3.8 million, the USA with U$5 million, the Netherlands with US$1.5 million, and South Korea with $100 thousand. The total is about $30 million. The Vice President of Indonesia, Yusuf Kalla, estimates the relief funds to rebuild the destroyed area to be about $142 million.

               Apart from the tsunami and the earthquake in December 2004 that claimed over 30,000 lives in Sri Lanka the disaster that killed 230,000 Indonesians is still fresh in our minds, followed by the Yogyakarta earthquake. The area devastated by the tsunami is still in the process of rehabilitation, of healing the wound. Now, after the recent earth quake in Yogyakarta, is it going to be followed by the eruption of Mt. Merapi in the same area of Central Java?     

              These are natural disasters that humans have no power to stop, but can minimise the casualties by early warning. Yet, there are disasters caused by human hands. There have been over thirty major wars waged by man recorded in history, starting from the Greco-Persian Wars between Greek states and Persia that took place from 499 to 478 BC, the Hundred Years’ War between England and France from 1338 to 1453, the Thirty Years’ War between Catholics and Protestans from1618 to 1648, World War I between the Allies and Central Powers from 1914 to 1918, World War II between the Allies and Axis Forces from 1939 to 1945 and later to include Japan from 1941 to 1945, then the Korean War between the United Nations and North Korea in the period 1950 to 1952, then the Vietnam War between North Vietnam and the United States, then followed with the war between Iraq and Iran, the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, then the War on Terror with the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq by  the United States and its allies.

With the advance of technology man can reduce the number of victims of natural disasters through early warning and early evacuation. But advances in technology help to increase the number of casualities in war. With the invention of modern and sophisticated weapons, man can kill his enemies by pulling a trigger and pushing a button, and the bullets, the rockets, the guided missiles, or the bombs will hit the targets.  A custer bomb, or even a nuclear bomb will destroy not only the enemy combatants, but also any living creature near the target, polluting the air and the land. The first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, obliterated more than ten square kilometres and caused heavy damage outside that area --136,989 people of a pupulation of 343,000  died. The second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August, 1945; of its population of 212,000, 73,884 were killed, and 76,796 were injured. The injured would die later from the effect of radiation. A total of 150,680 deaths, over two-thirds of the population of the city. In the First World War, about 18 million people killed; in the Second World War, about 32 million people killed. The total toll of both world wars: 50 million people perished.

It is said that the total number of people who were killed in the Vietnam War from 1954 till 1975 between the Communist North Vietnam and the U.S. backed South Vietnam is about two million, and some say, between three and five million people, including civilians. The number of casualty among the American soldiers in Iraq since the United States’ invasion and its allies in the so-called “War on Terror” till 25 June 2006 is over 3,600 soldiers dead, whereas among civilians is over tenfold, namely,

over 38 000 (some say over half a million) people, not to mention the wounded. The number keeps increasing, as the war is still continuing, where the conditions are close to civil war. Over four million Iraqis have become refugees.

After the fall of Communism we witnessed two Gulf wars, between Iraq and the UN forces led by USA from 15 January till 28 February 1991, and between Iraq and Iran from 1980 till 1988, besides the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq by USA and its allies, and the recent invasion of Israel against Hizbullah in South Lebanon, all resulted with casualties on both sides, especially and mostly innocent civilians. War (accompanied with a scene of carnage) is countinually going on somewhere on the globe, presently in Darfour, Sudan which has claimed 200, 000 lives and Sri Lanka which has claimed over 60,000 lives in two decade-all-civil war.

              It is true that, with the invention of pennicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928, the antibiotic could reduce fatality among woulded soldiers so that soldiers who hade recovered could be sent back to the battlefields, if required.

              The human casualty from man-made disasters and wars is more by far compared with those from natural disasters. The flood in the time of Prophet Noah caused his people to drown, including his son, but there were not too many people at that time. Moreover, we do not know whether this flood was local or global; no record has been found in distant places, like Egypt.

              The most devastating natural disaster was probably 65 million years ago, which eliminated the dinosaurs from this earth. The word dinosaur means “terrible lizard,” but actually not lizards although they were reptiles.   Dinosaurs had dominated the earth for more than 160 million years, from 225 million years to 65 million years ago. The biggest among them was Ultrasaurus from North America, weighed in at 140 tonnes. Seismosaurus  (‘earth-shaker lizard’) was about ten times the size of an elephant. Four million years after the catastrophic disappearance of the dinosaurs and the catastrophe, human beings appeared. It is Allah’s decree and blessing that He had destroyed the dinosaurs before He put man on earth, because dinosaurs and man could not mix. They would have destroyed us, or even eaten us because some of them were carnivorous (flesh-eating animals, predators). We could not domesticate or tame them, as they were too big. The only solution was to destroy them before they destroyed us, and Allah did it for us.

How did the dinosaurs become extinct? There are many theories: one suggests that a huge meteor or comet crashed into the earth, heating up the atmosphere and the oceans by several degrees, killing many creatures. It would also have sent a lot of dust and smoke into the atmosphere, probably also with volcanic activity, which would have prevented the sun’s rays reaching the earth, and so the earth became cool. Other theories are prehistoric plagues, bombardment by cosmic rays from an exploding star, and the eating of dinosaur eggs by rat-sized mammals.

              Mankind has been on this earth less than one million years. Can we survive on this earth for 160 million years like the dinosaurs, or even just one million years? We are slowly destroying the earth, destroying ourselves, killing each other. For the victims of disasters, especially the natural one, Allah says,

 وَلَنَبْلُوَنَّكُمْ بِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالْجُوعِ وَنَقْصٍ مِنَ الْأَمْوَالِ وَالْأَنْفُسِ وَالثَّمَرَاتِ وَبَشِّرِ الصَّابِرِينَ . الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُمْ مُصِيبَةٌ قَالُوا إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ. أُولَئِكَ عَلَيْهِمْ صَلَوَاتٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِمْ

وَرَحْمَةٌ وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْمُهْتَدُونَ. (البقرة : ١٥٥-١٥٧) 

Be sure We shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some

 loss in goods, or lives and the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings to those  who patiently preserve,--who say, when afflicted with calamity: ‘to Allah  we belong, and to Him is our return.’-- They are those of whom (descend) blessings from their Lord, and mercy, and they are the  

 ones that receive guidance. (Qur’ān, 2:155-157).

   We have to be patient, and help each other. This is also a test for the rich, to see whether they are ready to help others through their wealth. Those who died are included among minor martyrs.  For the victims of man-made disaster they are also among the minor martyrs if they are not involved in fighting. If there is fighting, the combattants, become major martyrs if they die in defending Islam.

For the disaster caused by man, Allah said,

ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِي النَّاسِ

لِيُذِيقَهُمْ بَعْضَ الَّذِي عَمِلُوا لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ (الروم : ٤١)

  Evil has appeared on land and sea because of what the hands

 of men have earned (by oppression and evil deeds) that He (Allah)

 may make them  taste part of that which they have done, in order

 that they may return (by repenting to Allah, and

 begging His Pardon. (Q. 30:41)

Evil committed on the land includes the killing of human beings, and at sea includes piracy. 

The act of an evil man could cause terrible havoc and terror in the community and the environment. Bush fire in Australia is said to be mostly caused by arson. The immediate cause of war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia that eventually turned into a global war involving thirty-two nations known as World War I was the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand (the heir-presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary) by a Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip on 28 June, 1914 at Sarajevo (capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia). The notorious Ned Kelly (1854-1880), who was captured and hanged in 1880 had carried out bank robberies in Victoria and NSW border (Australia), and Al(phonse) Capone (1898-1947) whose nickname was Scarface built up a criminal organization in Chicago, USA.

Commenting the above verse, the Qur’ānic commentator Abū ’l-‘Āliyah (d. 80/708-9 or 96/714) said, “Whoever disobeys Allah in the earth has corrupted it, because the condition of the earth and the heavens depends on obedience to Allah.” In a hadīth recorded by Abū Dā’ūd, the Prophet s.a.w. said,

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ

حَدٌّ يُعْمَلُ بِهِ فِي الْأَرْضِ خَيْرٌ لِأَهْلِ الْأَرْضِ مِنْ أَنْ يُمْطَرُوا أَرْبَعِينَ صَبَاحًا

(سنن ابن ماجة, ج ٧, ص ٤٣١)

 Any prescribed punishment which is carried out in

 the land is better for its people than if it were to rain for

 forty days. (Sunan Ibn Majah, vol. 7, p. 431)

Therefore, justice has to be established, and evil deeds have to be prevented in the world in order to live in peace and prosperity. In a h.adīth recorded by al-Tirmidhī, the Prophet s.a.w. said,

إنَّ اْلفَاجِرَ إذَا مَاتَ تَسْتَرِيْحُ مِنْهُ اْلعِبَادُ وَ الْبِلادُ وَ الدَّوَابُّ

(رواه الترمذي, حديث رقم ٢٠١٣)

 When the evildoer dies, it is a relief for the people, the land,

 the trees and the animals. (Tirmidhī, h.adīth no. 2013)

Pure natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and tsunamis cannot be prevented, but the damage caused by them can be minimised. Man-made disasters can be prevented. Let us be wise enough and follow many aspects of Islam, i.e., enjoining good and preventing evil (الأمْرُ بِاْلمَعْرُوْفِ وَ النَّهْيُ عَنِ الْمُنْكَر), including preventing people and ourselves from causing disasters, and by minimising the damages caused by natural disasters. (ANUMA, 02 June, 06; Assalam, No. 1, August, 2006).