Making Sense of Earthquakes & Tragedies

Hey robola alameen wa salatu salam ala Nabil Karim. While early he was her big man in Ahmedabad.

So everyone should be aware of, there was a major earthquakes that took place earlier this week in some of the Muslim lands, and 10s of 1000s of people passed away, many more have been displaced. And I'm facing a lot of problems.

And I want us to just reflect on this a bit for today.

Things important that when things like this happen, we take a moment to reflect and to understand what is going on and to, to take lessons of our own lives from it.

Last week, I mentioned about the importance of telling our children the truth about his world, not lying to them about debt, not lying to them about the fact that life is a test, that bad things can happen. And so one of the reasons we should do this, is that we prepare them for when things go wrong, that they are mentally and psychologically prepared for sometime in the future if something goes wrong, because there are things in this world that are beyond our control. And this is one of those things, right? The issue of natural disasters is something that is beyond human control. Now, a question that comes upon the minds of many young people is, why does Allah allow these things to

happen? Why does Allah allow earthquakes and floods and riots and all of these things that cause destruction? Why is Allah allow these things to happen?

And it's quite interesting that when Allah subhanaw taala was creating humans, the angels asked him the same question. Why are you creating something that will cause bloodshed, something that will cause problems without? Allah simply replied, I know what you do not know.

And this means there is divine wisdom. There is divine wisdom, behind the things in this world that we can't understand.

That Allah subhana wa Taala has allowed things to happen that to the human eye, it seems like a bad thing. It seems like destructive, but from the perspective of Allah Subhana Allah, it may be different altogether. So number one, you must learn to trust Allah SCADA. You must learn to trust that Allah Subhana Allah knows what is best for us. And wherever we go through in life, it is decoder of Allah. Number two, we have to understand that life is a test. And if if bad things don't happen, there is no test.

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that Allah subhanaw taala promises us isn't promises a life of peace. It doesn't promise us a life of ease. He promises he says I will definitely, definitely test you with fear and hunger, and loss of lives and loss of wealth, and loss of efforts. So give good news to those who have sobre to those who are resilient.

So Allah subhanho wa Taala has promised to test us and our life in this world is a test. And everyone's test is different. And it's important that from a very young age, we raise our children with this understanding that life is a test. We're not always going to get what we want. And sometimes things will happen that we don't like at all things will happen that are very physically harmful to us. But we still have to always move forward and try our best to pass the test of life. So how do you pass the test of life?

Number one, is that you do not allow the trials of this world to affect your relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala This is the most important thing.

That whatever goes wrong in life, whether it is the death of a loved one, whether it is a natural disaster,

whether it is losing your job, losing your reputation, whatever it is, you don't allow it to affect your relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala that you remain committed to the obedience of Allah, that you will remain committed to working your way towards channel. Number two is that we respond with sober, right that we have resiliency. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that sober is in the early moments. It is when when the calamity strikes how you react. That is when you're supposed to have sober not 10 days later, one year later, but immediately in that moment, and this is something we have to prepare ourselves for psychologically if something had to happen to us.

How would we react in the moment? Would we react with sober

Why would we say things to Allah does not be fitting. In some people, when the trials of life of victim, they say things like, why Allah doing this to me, I'm a good person, they say things like, you know, I heard people say things that I can repeat over.

And this is not the way a Muslim should react rather, we should go through life understanding that life is a test. Allah Subhana Allah tells us in the Quran, that hey, we're sure good and bad about tests from Allah, good and bad about tests from Allah. And so our life goes through various phases is the phases of goodness, we are tested will be continued to worship Allah will be controlled, our desires will remain persistent in our good deeds, or will you will be distracted by our success. Will you be distracted by the access we now have to fulfilling our desires, this is the test you have during the good times. And then during the difficult times, you're sober is tested, your

Tawakkol is tested, your Eman is tested.

And some of the early Muslims used to say that they found the test of the difficult times easier than the test of the good times. Because during the difficult times of life, you've got no choice you have to have sub, you need to pray you need to make dua you need to ask Allah for help. That's the only way out of a difficulty. But during the good times, it's so easy to just get caught up in this world and just enjoy this world. And to forget about Allah subhanho wa taala. So they would actually prefer the tests of the hard times. Because that way the relationship with Allah was stronger. And that was what was more important to them.

So why do these things were provided Allah subhanaw taala allow things like earthquakes, and floods and hurricanes and tsunamis and all of these things to occur. Number one, life is a test. This is a way of testing us. Number two, you know, it's a way of taking people back to Allah in two ways. Number one, taking the souls back to Allah. Because when your time is up, your soul goes back to Allah, right. And number two, bringing people back to Allah meaning someone who may have been negligent, or living a life that is pleasing to Allah when things go wrong, they may make boba they may change their life, they may become righteous. And so that calamity for that person becomes a

blessing, it becomes the moment of change, it becomes a moment of going back to Allah.

And on this point, I want us to understand something about death, right? That as Muslims, we have a very different understanding of dying and death from other people. A lot of people look at dying as they look at it as a punishment or an evil, that how can so many people die.

But as Muslims, we don't look as dead as a punishment or an evil, we just look at it as a transition from this world to the next. That's what that is, every soul when they come to this earth, it is written the day they're going to die. Every single soul is written the day they're going to die, none of us are going to live a moment longer than what's written.

So debt is not something that we should ever look at as in of itself as being evil, or in of itself being harmful or in of itself being a punishment. Rather, it is simply someone's time is up, and they now cross over to the next world. And Inshallah, you know, if they live the righteous life or if they passed away in a good state, then that is good news for them. And that brings us to the actual another aspect here. Our religion gives us a lot of hope in these situations. You know, when, when there's a lot of people who passed away in a difficult manner, our religion gives us a lot of optimism. And one of the ways that our religion is optimistic about these things, is that these

kinds of debts are considered a type of martyrdom. They are considered a type of martyrdom, meaning if someone passed away in an earthquake, or a flood or a tsunami, or anything of this nature,

while they were believers, then inshallah all of their sins are forgiven.

And enduring that in this world was enough to make up for distance. In during that Deen dealing with that in this world, and passing away in that kind of calamity would be enough to make up for all of their sins so they can go to Jana should think optimistic thing Kushner loves who's done below that Allah wanted to forgive so many people and take them straight to gender.

That's what Allah wants for them.

And that brings me to another point a lot of people they jump onto this, you know, this judgmental bandwagon, that whenever something like this happens, they say Allah is punishing them.

This is not an appropriate statement for a Muslim to make. Because you do not know the intention of Allah subhanho wa Taala you are talking about the unseen. Rather, when something bad happens to us in this world. It could be a punishment to us for our sins. It could be a means of bringing us back to Allah subhanho wa taala. It could be a mean

forgiveness for our sins. Right? It could be a test to elevate our status. It can be any of these things.

So we can't just pick one of these things and ignore the others, that sometimes to feel good about ourselves, we want to put the entire other nations down. You know, did you hear people saying that Allah is punishing them and not us because they were a bad nation, no and Muslim should never speak like this. This kind of language is not befitting the believer, to not judge the intentions of Allah subhanho wa Taala rather have Woosnam rather have good thoughts about Allah, say Allah is taking some martyrs towards him, Allah wants you to forgive their sins. That's why he took them in this way. Allah wants to elevate the status and make them only that's why he's testing them with us.

Think good about Allah don't think negatively about Allah. So we shouldn't jump to the idea that this is a punishment. Rather, this is a way for Allah to elevate the status of people.

Another lesson that we can take from this is that we need to always be prepared for the fact that life could change at any moment, we should never become so caught up in the comforts of life, that when the tests come, we can't handle it.

And some of the early Muslims used to purposely put themselves in some kind of minor inconvenience. Why? So they don't get too comfortable in this world.

And even from the Sunnah of Rasulullah, sallAllahu, alayhi wasallam, for example, he would sleep on the rough mattress, every one of his wives wanted to get him a softer bed, he got angry. And he said, Don't give me the softer bits, because I ended up missing the 100. Having said you're comfortable sleep, did he want you to have enough difficulty in his life to keep his worship strong, that you would sacrifice the comfort of a good bed, because the 100 was more important to him. And so this become a practice of the righteous throughout history, that they will do these little things to make sure they don't get too comfortable in this world. Little things. So for example, you know,

some of the alumni had this practice, that they would walk around barefoot. Why? Because they didn't want to have this, this, this this luxury, where if something had to happen in the future, they can't handle the slightest bit of pain. And they felt by walking around barefoot, if they step on stones, and they get hurt their bodies used to toughness, it used to roughness. So no matter how wealthy they got, they always had some kind of practice there to keep them from getting too soft.

And so as Muslims, we need to be prepared, we need to be prepared for the fact that sometimes Allah will test us with good, and sometimes you will test us with hardships. And what how would we react in a time of hardship this is the this is the test we need to this is what we need to ask ourselves that if we were in that situation, what thoughts will go to our mind? What words will come on our tongue? How would we react? What would we do for others?

This is the test. For every believer, the reaction in the moment that summer is at the immediate moment.

Other benefits that we can take from these kinds of reflections is that

Allah subhanaw taala made this world such that for us to appreciate good things, we have to also experience bad things.

We cannot know what a hero is, if there's no circumstances for someone to become a hero.

But when you have a circumstance that is scary and dangerous and tragic, and people go in and they help others and they save others, this will Allah giving them that chance to earn that reward.

So we can't appreciate good without a bit of harm. So Allah gives us both in this world.

And finally, very important message for all of us to remember is that a life of eternal happiness is in Jannah alone.

Until we get to Jannah. We should expect tests, we should expect trials, we should expect that life will go through ups and downs. There'll be good times to be bad times they'll be a mixture of both.

Our job is to make sugar and the good times and suburb with the difficult times and if you keep doing this and Insha Allah, no matter what we go through in life, we will attain Jana

We ask Allah to guide us and to allow us to understand things in a way that is pleasing to Him. Super Hannah, Rebecca Robin is at Jamba spoon was salam ala mousseline Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen?

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the prophets Allah Allah Allah alayhi wa sallam has warned us in several Hadees that towards the end of time, earthquakes will become more frequent that this is

A sign of the Day of Judgment, that as you get closer to Kiama, there will be more earthquakes in the world.

And so when these things happen, we need to ask ourselves that important question. What have we prepared for the Day of Judgment? Once a man came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and asked him Matassa, when is the hour when is the day of judgment? And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam simply replied, What have you prepared for it? What have you prepared for it? That's the question we need to ask ourselves. That when we see signs of the Day of Judgment happening, when we see signs that we could pass away at any moment, what are we preparing? What deeds have we prepared? Understand that when we leave this world, only three things are going to benefit us? Right? Our Iman

our sincerity, and our good deeds? Are we preparing these things? Is our image strong? Are we doing solely for the pleasure of Allah subhanho wa taala. And have we prepared good deeds that will continue to benefit us in the afterlife,

and from the good deeds, they can outlive us and continue to benefit us after we pass away? They are three that are most important. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that when you pass away all of your deeds come to an end except three, the charity that continues to benefit people, the knowledge that continues to benefit people, and your descendants that continue to make to offer you are investing in these three things. Are we setting up sources of charity that will continue to benefit this ummah for generations? Are we setting up sources of knowledge that will continue to benefit this ummah, for generations? And are we having children and grandchildren and growing our

family and raising them to be righteous people, so they make dua for us after we pass away, because these are your three sources of continuous reward after you move on.

When these kinds of calamities happen, it is not just a test for the people there. But he's a test for others as well. And the test we face is, how are we going to react? Are we going to reach out? Are we going to try and help people? Are we going to be generous? Are we going to care for our Muslim brothers and sisters? Or will we remain in ignorance just focus on ourselves and our wealth and our luxuries? Completely ignoring the fact that on the other end of the Muslim world there are people under rubble, asking for help.

So at times like this, it is a test to our generosity. And every single one of us should be doing what we can.

We should be donating financially if we can. We should volunteer our time and go up there and help them if you can. At the very least you can't do anything else. Are you making dua for them?

Are we making dua for the people into gear and Syria and all these other lands? And what they are going through? are we raising our hands you're asking Allah to grant him is to grant gender and martyrdom to those who passed away to grant the orphans, you know, a good home? How are we making these to us?

So a final message to everyone on this topic

is to be generous in donating towards these campaigns to help the people out in those areas. And if you cannot help them financially, at least make dua for them. And either way we all should be making to offer them and we will end this goodbye inshallah with a brief tour for the people of Turkey and Syria.

I'm doing a little bit Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Nabil Karim Robina Tina dunya Hasina Wolfville Claudia Hasina, walk in other banana. O Allah assists the people of Turkey and Syria and all of the other Muslim lands, and you even Muslims are going to trials Oh Allah, those who have lost their lives in these calamities, grant him Jana and grantee martyrdom and those who have lost their families, Grant replaced what they lost with that which is better for them. Those who are often in this tragedy, granting good homes and good lives and make it makes up for what they have lost. Those who have lost their properties, grant them better properties, those who have lost their

income granting better sources of income, those who are injured, granting full healing. Those who are going through any kind of trial and difficulty anywhere in the Muslim world. Oh Allah grant him a way out and grant him is oh Allah open our hearts to be generous and to be kind and to be loving and to be from those who care about the Ummah and to assist the Ummah and restore the dignity of this ummah and make us an ummah, who care about each other and love each other and are there for each other.

Robin abdominus wodgina will do react in a Kurata unit. Mama Subhana rahbek Robin is at the AMA Yossi foon was salam ala mousseline with hamdulillah Grobbelaar.