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One school of thought holds that all major calamities and disasters
are the results of natural laws and they have nothing to do with the
good or evil conduct of man, nor have these disasters anything to
do with man's rejection of the prophets sent by God.
On the other hand, followers of various religions all over the world
have always believed that whenever calamities acquire an
extraordinary character, they cease to be a natural phenomenon and
instead, fall into the realm of the supernatural.
AHMADIYYA INTERPRETATION
Natural Causes:
Islam does not claim anywhere that all natural disasters and
calamities represent decrees of divine punishment. We most
certainly come across the claim in the Holy Qur’an that at times
God Almighty used physical and natural laws to unleash a havoc
on those world powers which were not only opposed to religious
and spiritual movements, but also had used all their material
strength and resources to annihilate the emerging and nascent
religions.
Take, for instance, the drowning of Pharaoh with all his hosts in
the waters of Egypt. Over countless years, the tides emptied their
waters into the sea twice a day. God knows how many animals and
pre- historic men or for that matter civilized people of ancient
Egypt were swept away by the currents in the rise and fall of tides
or how many unknowingly or unwittingly were drowned from a
navigational error or a gross misjudgment in the depth of the
waters of the Nile.
Yet, neither the Holy Qur’an, nor indeed any other religious
scriptures, assigns such fatalities to be divine punishment. The
cycle of the laws of nature continues to turn and repeat its course.
Neither can any resultant fatality be called a Sign of divine
punishment, nor does Islam make any such claim. In some cases,
however, natural phenomenon acquires a specific characteristic
known in religious terminology as divine chastisement.
A very clear example of this can be found during the time of Noah,
peace be upon him. He had forewarned his people that they would
be destroyed because of their evil ways and their constant rejection
of his claims. He forewarned them in the same breath that the
means of their destruction would be water, a deluge whose like had
never been seen before and that neither man nor animal would be
safe from it.
MADE CONDITIONAL
The Holy Qur’an wanes people not to invite their own death with
their actions and deeds:
ْسنُ َوا
ِ ْ َوأَنفِقُواْ فِي َسبِيلِ اللّ هِ َولَ تُ ْلقُواْ بَِأيْدِيكُ مْ إِلَى الّتهْ ُل َكةِ َوَأح2:196
َسنِي
ِ ْب الْمُح
ّ ِِإنّ ال ّلهَ يُح
It is now upon us to ponder which cataclysms fall under the
category of natural disasters and which are those caused by our
own misdeeds and deviation from natural and religious laws.