Yasir Qadhi – Why does Allah allow Natural Disasters, Earthquakes and Calamities

			Our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in a hadith reported in Bukhari and Muslim la taco Musa
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			water crural Zilla ZIL were to Cora was the man who will tell the huddle feet and work through how
Raj will who will cut Lu al kutlu. The Day of Judgment will not occur until knowledge is lifted up,
and earthquakes increase, and time will become diminished. And trials and tribulations will appear.
And bloodshed will become common. This hadith isn't Behati and Muslim. We learned from this hadith
that one of the signs of the Day of Judgment is duck, thorough xylazine, earthquakes will increase.
And we are all witnessing and seeing yet another earthquake every few years, we see a massive
earthquake somewhere in the world. And we are just seeing right now yet another tragedy. And this
		

			tragedy is happening to a land in a place that already has faced its own tragedy. This is in the
borders of Turkey and Syria. And this was the same region that witnessed almost a civil war. I
actually visited this region two years ago for a project for Syrian refugees. And I was in these
very cities of Gaziantep and Chandi. Orissa, very beautiful, very historic, very, it's a different
part of Turkey different the other side of Turkey, and I was there to help build a school for Syria
and refugees, and SubhanAllah. Those very lands are now in need of our help. So today's brief,
hotter up, we wanted to discuss I wanted to discuss this topic from a theological from an athlete
		

			standpoint, and to discuss a very difficult question that especially our young men and women, they
ask us, and that is, how do we understand the wisdom and the causes of this type of natural tragedy?
How do we contextualize how do we come to terms with why this would be happening in the world today?
And this is, of course, a very, very difficult question. It's a very touchy subject. And in the
English literature, this is discussed under the topic of theodicy. It's an entire discipline of
theology and philosophy. And before I began this topic, just a brief introduction to this reality
that most philosophers divide pain and evil into two broad categories, moral evil, and natural evil.
		

			Moral Evil is the evil that man does to man. Murder, Civil War, stealing, *, pillaging,
plunder, this is moral evil, Natural Evil is that which occurs, natural disasters that occur in this
land, earthquakes, tsunamis, that's not something we are directly causing. Now in our Islamic
tradition, there was a lot of discussion of moral evil, a lot of empty laugh amongst our various
groups. Is there free will? Or is there no free will? Or is there a partial freewill? Do we create
our own good deeds? Or is it something that's beyond our control, and that discussion is beyond the
scope of today's hot era, but every single book of al Qaeda will be discussing this issue. As for
		

			natural calamities and disasters, this is something that you will rarely find our theological
textbooks discussing. And you might find snippets or paragraphs in the books of the see it in the
books of Adam, in the books of so look, you will find small references, but you will be hard pressed
to find an entire paragraph. Why is there suffering? Why is there natural calamities? And this is a
question that, frankly, is more discussed in the Western tradition than in our Islamic Eastern
tradition. Our Islamic Eastern tradition was more concerned with the evil that we do, the evil that
man does, and is the source of as for natural disasters and calamities, it was understood that this
		

			is you know, from Allah subhanho wa Taala for wisdoms known to him. So, we have to scour the
literature, and we have to see what did our earlier theologians say about how we can understand the
wisdom of these natural calamities and disasters? Why is there this type of massive suffering and
pain and of course, one does find snippets Ibaka em, I love khazali Ibn Taymiyyah Fakhruddin raazi,
but as I said, interesting point here, this wasn't a question our tradition was obsessed with that
much. But of course, we live in a land that is having a different set of philosophies and ideas. So
the question is asked, How could God allow such type of natural disasters and calamities? So I shall
		

			in today's brief, hotter on
		

			I'm going to go over eight potential wisdoms that are found in our tradition, eight potential
reasons that are given from our own roadmap and theologians and understand these eight are not
mutually exclusive. It's not either one or two or three. Rather, there's possibility of one
possibility of two possibility of three, perhaps four or five in one situation, perhaps all eight in
the same situation. So these are eight that I have briefly collected for today's caught up the first
of these eight, the first of these, one finds a sentiment a expression in some of our earlier
scholars, such as a robot could have been an Adobe, the famous Maliki, Mufasa and kotoba such as
		

			lasagna and others, that one finds this sentiment, that it is a mistake for mankind, to try to
rationalize why Allah does anything.
		

			Their perspective was, it is a mistake for us to even ask why. Who are we to ask why?
		

			Who are we to assess wisdoms? Are we qualified to assess Allah's wisdom? So there was this
sentiment? So the first answer, don't think of an answer. The first answer, it's a mistake to go
beyond this. Just stop right here and close your mind and simply acknowledge so a robot could have
been allowed to be who is a famous, more facile, there's two urban attributes. There's the Sufi Ibn
Arabi. We're not talking about them. There's another jurist Fatih Ibn Arabi, who was a Maliki
scholar from underneath this Ibn Arabi. He says, If someone asks us, why does it appear that Allah
punishes innocent people, we respond, and who does he have to answer to such that he has a higher
		

			moral authority? Who are we to question Allah subhanho wa Taala that He quoted the Quran law use
your file? No one can question Allah about what he does. Rather Allah will question you about what
you do. This point or the sentiment is that there is no higher power than Allah. We are Allah's
creation. So whatever Allah does with us, it must be justice, whether we understand it or not, Allah
azza wa jal does not have to answer to any higher power. So who are we to question any wisdom? And
of course, this is a correct response. But does this mean there's no other responses? And there are
other responses that are offered as well. So point number one, you should not be even thinking about
		

			this. And that's a it's not a wrong sentiment, like I said, these are all valid sentiments that our
scholars have done. Point number two. Another point that is mentioned is that some of our earlier
scholars said there is a clear wisdom that ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada references in the Quran. And we see
in the Sierra, that calamities bring about a sense of humility in mankind. The purpose of
calamities, is to make us humble ourselves in front of Allah to remind ourselves of our mortality,
to make us eliminate to cut bore arrogance to make us turn to Allah subhana wa Tada. So Allah azza
wa jal tells us in the Quran, what an evolution can be shaman of hope he will Jewry one awesome
		

			minute and while you were unfussy with Thammarat, we're going to test you, you're going to lose your
lives, you're going to lose your wealth, you're going to lose your livelihood and your crops and
give glad tidings to the sub 18. We're going to test you and our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, every time a calamity happened, there was an eclipse, there was a war there was an Army
coming, he would automatically stand up and Salah be reminded of Allah subhanho wa Taala increased
dua so there is clearly a wisdom of a divine calamity and that wisdom is it wakens you up that
wisdom is it brings you closer to Allah you reminded of Heaven and * the akhira you reminded of
		

			the finiteness of your own life. And Allah says in the Quran, fellow hula is a home but sunnah
Tadahiro why didn't they humble themselves to us when the punishment came down? Why didn't they
humble themselves to us? This shows us there's a wisdom when something happens. The people should
humble themselves in front of Allah. This is point number two. Point number three. Some scholars
have Athena and theology some scholars have Sulu contest gear. They interpreted verses in the Quran
and Hadith to imply that any time a calamity happens to anybody, it is a type of punishment for what
he or she has done. And there are verses in the Quran that can be interpreted this way. Ma sobre
		

			como si button, Ellerbee Maka, Sybil ad calm no more Seba happens to you except because of something
you have done. Bhima cassava a deacon. So point number three some and there are
		

			Many causal stories of the self of the righteous, they would meet somebody who used to be rich, he
becomes a beggar. They will meet somebody who was a vizier, or a king. And then he was blind or
crippled. There are stories like this, what happened to you? Oh, I did this and this and Allah
punished me. This is a genre, we find it in our tradition. So according to this, every single
calamity is the result of some punishment. Now, of course, this is a third point. But some have
raised an objection to this understanding. How does one understand punishments upon children,
punishments upon people that haven't done anything wrong? Punishments upon entire civilizations and
		

			people that might not necessarily be doing something wrong? And so some earlier might have said that
the notion of a calamity being a punishment is not always the case. It is sometimes the case and
this is a correct opinion. It is sometimes the case not every single time a calamity happens, we
should say, Oh, these people are being punished. No, that's not always the case. Sometimes it is the
case. Sometimes it is not the case. But still at an individual level. When something happens to you,
there is no problem in you coming closer to Allah by saying, Okay, this is a result of my sins, I
need to repent from those sins at the individual level, it is good at the communal level, we can say
		

			it doesn't always happen as a result of punishment. The fourth wisdom that some have said of
calamities, is that
		

			it is a follow up of point number three, but instead of looking at it as a punishment, we look at it
as a Kfar as an explanation of our sins of forgiveness, a cleansing. So point number three, you were
wrong. You were guilty, and you're being punished for what you did. Point number four, you were
wrong and guilty, but Allah wants to forgive you. It's the same concept but flip it around. You did
something you shouldn't have done but Allah will forgive you for some sin that you have done as a
result of this pain and suffering. And of course, there's a number of verses in the Quran. For
example, the same verse I quoted you know, calamity befalls you except for what you have done. Then
		

			Allah says, Well, yeah, for an cathedra Allah forgives much because of the calamity. Well, yeah, for
one cathedral. And our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, No Muslim is afflicted with
tiredness or sickness, or anxiety or grief or any pain, even a foreign prick, except that because of
it, Allah forgives some sins and raises him and ranks this hadith in Bukhari and Muslim. So this is
a beautiful Hadith that combines all types of pain and suffering. No servant is afflicted with any
type of stress, any type of sickness, any type of anxiety, any type of grief, any type of physical
pain, even a Shoka even a thorn prick, except that Allah subhanho wa taala, forgives him sins and
		

			raises him in rank. So this is point number four, that we look at a calamity as a means of Cafaro as
a means of rising up in ranks. Point number five, similar to four but again, slightly different
point number five. Never does Allah test somebody with a calamity, except that Allah will give him
rewards in the era that will make up for the calamity, what he will get of good and joy will be more
than what he will suffer of pain and anxiety. So point number five is the concept of Phillip. Point
number four was Cafaro. But five is more than Kasara. Five is Phillip five is Janna. Five is Allah's
law. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned that Allah is going to test you. So from
		

			Andrade affetto radar, whoever is content with Allah is testing Allah will be content with him.
Woman SohCahToa and whoever is angry, Allah will be angry with him. And Allah says in the Quran in
Nima you are for sobre una ajira home Big Idea ASAP, the patient will get agile without any
counting. So point number five as a result of pain as a result of stress as a result of any issue
that troubles us. We should expect a lot to give us an equivalent or more of the lab and pleasure in
the hereafter. We should look forward on the day of judgment for every single distressed we get if
we turn to Allah and our patient, that Allah will give us back much more than what he took from us.
		

			This is point number five. Point number six I'll call Toby mentions that of the wisdoms of a tragedy
is that Allah subhanho wa Taala uses a tragedy to prevent a greater tragedy, thus making the tragedy
a blessing in disguise and he uses
		

			Is this and he brings the evidence from Surah tell calf, and the three stories of Musa and Heather.
Every one of these three stories is a calamity. Every one of these three stories is a mini tragedy.
But the end of the story shows you that it was no calamity. It was a blessing. It was no mini
tragedy, it was a protection. If you look at the entire ending, then what happened of the pain in
the middle actually prevented a bigger pain hence it becomes a blessing in disguise. So the sixth
point is that we need to look at tragedies as actually preventing bigger tragedies, we need to look
at calamities as Allah azza wa jal, somehow protecting us from something that might even be worse.
		

			Even if the calamity is the biggest we can imagine. For example, in South Africa have the two
parents lost a child, what can be a bigger calamity than that you would think nothing. But then the
Quran tells us there was a calamity worse than that, that child would grow up and the child would be
the worst child imaginable, the most painful, abusive son to the parents. And that is a worse pain
than the memory of an innocent child who's gone. A living child who's going to constantly cause you
grief and stress and be rude to you and obnoxious and whatnot. That is a much worse tragedy than an
innocent child whose memory remains and the sweetness remains and he's long, no longer a part of
		

			your life, even the loss of a child, Allah subhanho wa Taala demonstrates, in reality, a greater
calamity can actually do you'll be lifted away and you don't realize it. So this is point number
six, that every calamity should be looked at as a potential means of averting a bigger calamity.
Point number seven, I'll be happy and others they mentioned something, a concept that our modern
authors have called educative theodicy fancy terms here. But meaning that in these calamities is
lessons for mankind, through the use of pain, through the example of suffering through tragedy,
ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada causes mankind to appreciate blessings they took for granted. And will Allah
		

			He every one of us sitting here lived through COVID we understand exactly what this means blessings,
we did not even realize where blessings, blessings we literally did not even appreciate were
blessings, and COVID made us appreciate them. And the same applies for every single tragedy and
calamity that what should happen when we see tragedy is that our heart should be full of gratitude
for what we have that in people's hardships, our own hardships, we might appreciate the blessings we
took for granted in other people's hardships, we appreciate our own blessings and there is a
narration that they happily brings which is weak in you know it's not but the concept is there the
		

			hadith is life but the concept is there that allegedly is so weak Hadith Damn it Salam asked a lot
that Oh Allah, why are you creating these lepers and blind and you know, people that are born with,
you know, problems? Why are you creating, you know, such people that are not, you know, like the
rest of mankind. And the response given was, I wanted to be thanked by mankind. I wanted mankind to
realize what they have by seeing others that did not have it. So in seeing tragedy, we should have a
sense of humiliation of humility, excuse me, and of Shuker for what we have. And this is reinforced
in the authentic drop of the Prophet sallallahu. Either he was setting him that he taught us we
		

			should all memorize this drop that the prophets have said when you see somebody afflicted, you
should say to yourself, not to him, you should say to yourself, Alhamdulillah Hilary, I find the
minimum tele copy right, well forgot any other Casimir Lila, that Alhamdulillah who has saved me
from the affliction that you have, and he has blessed me over many of the creation. So in seeing
tragedy, we should feel a sense of thankfulness and a sense of appreciative pneus of what we have.
And if there was no tragedy, there was no suffering, we would not have that appreciative pneus in
our lives. The eighth benefit that sometimes there are the last one we will mention, this is not an
		

			exhaustive list, but time is limited. The aid that has been mentioned by some including Ibaka human
others, they mentioned this type of notion, and that is that in seeing the poor, for example, ALLAH
SubhanA wa Taala wants to test us who are not poor, who is really generous in seeing the team. Allah
is testing us who's going to sponsor the A team, and seeing the one who doesn't have clothes who
doesn't have food. Allah is testing us who's going to be the one giving food and giving clothing so
the real test is not to
		

			them it is to us and seeing how we respond. And of course this is proven in a beautiful Hadith in
Bukhari and Muslim Hadith Bootsy, that Allah will say to the servant on the Day of Judgment, that oh
servant or son of Adam, I fell sick, and you did not visit me. And the man will say, Oh Allah, how
can you fall sick, and you are the rub of the abdomen? And Allah will say, Don't you know your
friend, your brother was sick, so and so? And you didn't visit him? Had you visited him? You would
have found me there, oh, son of Adam, I was hungry, and you did not give me food. And the man will
say, Oh Allah, how can you be hungry and you are a horrible Alameen Allah will say, Don't you know
		

			so and so in your life was hungry, and you didn't feed him and if you fed him, you would have found
me there, oh, son of Adam, and it goes on and on. And the point is very clear over here. The test is
not just to those who are hungry. The test is to all of us to see how we respond to those who are
hungry and our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, the one who does not show mercy to others
will not be shown mercy by the Raha man, the one who is not merciful will not be shown mercy. So the
point is, the purpose of suffering and tragedy is to elicit mercy from Us to see what we can do to
those who need that mercy. And there these are their four eight simple wisdoms. Not all of them
		

			apply in every single situation, but we can see which ones are relevant and apply in particular
situations. And in the end of the day, brothers and sisters, we have to submit to Allah's Will and
decree. Perhaps we don't understand each and every wisdom, but Allah azza wa jal tells us in the
Quran, there are wisdoms that we don't understand well law we are them wanting to Allah to Allah mon
ALLAH knows and you do not know. And we also have to realize that our Prophet system told us the
good news that anybody who dies in these types of tragedies dies the death of a Shaheed Hadith
Islam, Muslim Imam Muhammad and the motto of America that our Prophet SAW Selim said, there are five
		

			categories of shahada, one of them being saw hibel had me the one upon whom something fell and this
is when the earth falls on you or in a building falls on you this Asahi will hurt me, the one upon
whom something falls, that person is a Shaheed so anybody who passes away in this type of tragedy in
sha Allah Tada, they have the death of a Shaheed, and there is no question as well before I conclude
that these types of earthquakes, not only are they a sign of the Day of Judgment, but they should
make all of us think about the Day of Judgment. Not only are they the sign of the Day of Judgment,
but they are also a reality that will happen on the Day of Judgment, either Zillow, till all those
		

			hills zada on that day is not going to be one area that has an earthquake on that day, it's not
going to be just one country or one land, the entire Earth as we know it will be shaking completely.
And every one of us will feel that Sheikh and only those whom Allah protects will be protected. So
we should feel a sense of all we should feel a sense of trepidation and be prepared for the Yama and
last point is that as we said, of one of the points of giving to the charity, please brothers and
sisters give whatever you can here at Epic we are collecting funds, donations at Epic mustard that
orange you can sell also on my Facebook and others you can you can log on to those campaigns as
		

			well. And inshallah I'm not promising right now. But today I spoke to the people I'm organizing
with, there is a slight possibility I myself I'd be going to that region insha Allah Allah, and if
that happens, I will make a special announcement and plea. And I will personally hand deliver in sha
Allah to everything we collect, even if I don't go, but we have I have direct connections and
context I was in that region. I know the infrastructure, we have it already up and running over
there. So we are already giving aid over there. So please give whatever you can donations at Epic
epic Masjid dot o RG where you can log on to my Facebook and Twitter. Last point two books that I
		

			recommend about this notion of evil and how we understand it written by Muslim authors, the first of
them by a dear mentor, and, you know, advisor of mine, Dr. Sherman Jackson, he wrote a book Islam
and the problem of black suffering, Islam and the problem of black suffering. He's an African
American, and how does a Muslim make sense of 400 years of racial injustice and slavery, but in that
he discusses evil and how Muslims understand evil, a very good book, and also a book that was
printed recently by a colleague and friend of mine as well. Islamic theology and the problem of evil
by suffering children suffering children, Islamic theology and the problem of evil. These are two
		

			books I have read them and I recommend them to anybody who's interested in this topic and the end of
the day, do what we can to minimize evil. Don't worry too much about understanding it, concentrate
more about contracting it and trying to minimize the evil that exists and in
		

			That is our salvation May Allah subhana wa Tada help our brothers and sisters in Turkey around the
world which Sackman Lochhead was set on YT equal Rahmatullah who bought a couch with either Zealand
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