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Monday, Dec. 27, 2004
The magnitude 9.0 quake struck about 7 a.m. Sunday
(Midnight GMT Saturday) and was centered about 100 miles (160 kilometers)
off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island at a depth of about 6.2 miles
(10 kilometers). More than 23,000 people have died in India, Sri Lanka,
Indonesia, Thailand, and Maldives. The giant waves also left thousands
injured and missing as well as hundreds of thousands homeless.
"The entire Maldives, I think, for a moment disappeared
from the planet Earth. Some islands may have completely disappeared, we
don't know yet. But all the islands have been affected." (Maldives high
commissioner, Hassan Sobir)
It is a great calamity which most of us have not heard
before. Let us all pray to Allah T'ala for His Mercy and Forgiveness. It
should also serve a reminder for the coming Day when the entire planet will
suffer a much greater calamity and we all have to present ourselves to God,
the Almighty for a Day of Judgment.
When the earth is shaken to her (utmost) convulsion,
And the earth throws up her burdens (from within),
And man cries (distressed): 'What is the matter with her?'-
On that Day will she declare her tidings:
For that thy Lord will have given her inspiration.
On that Day will men proceed in companies sorted out, to be shown the
deeds that they (had done).
Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it!
And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it. (The Holy Quran,
Chapter 99)
When the Sky is cleft asunder;
When the Stars are scattered;
When the Oceans are suffered to burst forth;
And when the Graves are turned upside down;-
(Then) shall each soul know what it hath sent forward and (what it hath)
kept back. (The Holy Quran,
Chapter 82, verses 1-5)
May Allah T'ala forgive our sins and include us in His
Mercy. Ameen.
Is it not (the case)
that to God belongs whatever is in the heavens and on earth?
Is it not (the case) that God's promise (of the Day of Judgment) is
assuredly true?
Yet most of them understand not.
It is He Who gives life and who takes it, and to Him shall you all be
brought back.
O mankind! there has come to you a direction from
your Lord God and a healing for the (diseases) in your hearts,- and for
those who believe, a guidance and a Mercy.
Say: "In the bounty of God. And in His Mercy,- in that let them rejoice":
that is better than the (wealth) they hoard. (The Holy Quran, 10:55-58) |