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The number of dead and injured continues to soar! Faced with the prospects of an estimated forty thousand dead and four million homeless, Pakistan struggles to make the best of a hopeless situation in the aftermath of the deadliest earthquake in its history. From above and around the rubble, the deafening noise of machinery and equipment employed to remove slabs of concrete, brick and debris reverberates. Besides the heavy equipment, rescue workers and ordinary citizens scramble with their bare hands to dig beneath the rubble in a desperate effort to retrieve any remaining signs of life. And while the wounded anguish in makeshift hospitals, waiting to be operated upon or amputated as their best hope for survival, several of the dead still remain buried under the devastation.
Amidst all the chaos, destruction and despair, many are asking why God chose to inflict such misery on humanity. Why would He let his people suffer in this fashion--women, children and infirm alike?
Some, it seems, already have the answers to these vexing questions. Shouting from their pulpits and podiums, our mullahs are warning of even greater calamities befalling Muslims if they do not rectify their conduct, or if they continue to "aid anti-Islam forces." A fundamentalist website recently circulated similar warnings quoting the following verses of the Quran:
"Do the people of the towns feel secure against the coming of Our wrath by night while they are asleep? Or else do they feel secure against its coming in broad daylight while they play about (carefree)? Do they then feel secure against the plan of Allah. But no one can feel secure from the plan of Allah except those doomed to ruin! (A"raaf 97-99)"
Added to the verse was the following commentary: "Allah surely creates disasters as warnings to mankind."
Such retributive justice from God was also proclaimed when the Tsunami hit Asia at the close of the year 2004. Numerous warnings of further dire consequences appeared after hurricane Katrina hit the Southern shores of the United States as well. Religious rhetoric from all corners of the world interpreted these natural disasters to be an expression of Divine wrath in response to the wrongs perpetrated by man against God or man against man. Pakistan, many have concluded, was hit because it joined the US in fighting the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden.
Yet, such judgments and declarations raise more questions than they answer. For starters, why would God punish innocent children, many of whom perished when their school buildings collapsed over them? Why the capriciousness with which tragedy affects rich and poor, believer and non-believer, pious and reprobate alike? Why would a God who is All Merciful, punish in such a manner?
While no one can claim to have the perfect answer to these troubling questions, it is advisable not to attribute natural calamities to Divine wrath. Our efforts are best directed towards providing relief to the victims, be it through money or effort. Moral Judgments ought to be reserved, if at all, for another time and place where they can prove to be more productive and consequential.
Farzana Hassan is a director of the Muslim Canadian Congress.
