IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL

 

STORM CHARLEY – A WARNING SIGNAL

 

[Shamim A Siddiqi, New York]

 

Storms, earthquakes, floods, torrential rains, tornadoes, tidal waves, epidemics, typhoons, cyclones in chain, blizzards, famines, bush fires, dearth of rain, landslides, weather upsets and many more natural calamities that are occurring through out the globe every now and then and in America are the “signs” and the “lashes” of our Lord God. They are just warning signals to man for his “misbehavior” and “disobedience” to Him on earth. Man has no control over any of them. People encounter them as silent spectators. These are natural phenomenon beyond the reach of man. Man is trying to understand the chemistry of each. Sometimes can predict their happenings but cannot prevent anyone of them. It shows that man has no authority over nature, its animate and inanimate objects. Their control lies only in the hands of someone else who is Supreme and whose authority man is violating every moment and every where while enjoying His bounties. In fact, The Lord God should have destroyed this abode of man within twinkling of an eye But He is Kind and Merciful and He does not want to destroy this habitation of man before His appointed hours. That lies in His discretion.

 

Out of His infinite mercy, He is quite lenient to man. He is giving warnings signals in a chain to tell the man:  You are the most “hopeless” creature on earth; Why and what for you claim that you are the master of what you see; How recklessly you are behaving on earth; How willfully you are ignoring the Guidance” that “I” have sent through “My” appointed Messengers; You have filled the earth with corruption, chaos, bloodshed, oppressions and behaving as if you are the “Master”; You don’t take any lesson from the chain of natural disasters that are occurring throughout “My” world; Just see this storm Charley: Even your predictions went wrong as “I” changed its rout and you remain just guessing; There is still a favor for you that “I” have saved Tampa where this storm could play more havoc and I have passed it through less habitat land and saved your beloved Disney Land from disaster though the storm passed over it; It was a favor to you so that you get the warning, bent your heart and mind towards the obedience of your Creator and Sustainer.

 

How unmindful you are: Just crying for the loss of 16 lives and 20 Billions for the destruction of homes and hearts that occurred on its way. But why you don’t cry fro 160 Billions that you have lost so far in Iraq, culminating only in death, destruction and human tragedies of unprecedented nature; Why don’t you think that even in sending the warning signals in the shape of natural disasters, “I” am judicious and the losses are always “nominal” in comparison to what you have done in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the world in a routine? Just don’t you take lesson form these natural “visits” O Man. and surrender yourself to “My” obedience and you will have complete “peace and security” both at “home” and abroad? Be aware, if you are still adamant and obstinate in your attitude of life and show arrogance in your behavior, then wait for the visit of many more Charleys and tornados and natural disasters one after the other till either you surrender to “My” will or the world itself comes to an end. The choice is yours, O the arrogant man!

      

Shamim A Siddiqi                                                                                      

August 16, 2004