Do earthquakes occur as a punishment for previous sins?

The earthquake that recently struck parts of Turkey and Syria sparked different kinds of interaction.

Among them is the sympathy imposed by the “softness of humanity” by which a person becomes a human being, and the solidarity that carries the search for a way to help, and supplication for the afflicted, which is the weakest of faith.

But a special type of interaction deserves to be stopped here, which was put forward by some preachers and those engaged in hadith who brought up some news that focused on the religious reasons for the occurrence of earthquakes, and that they occurred because of the prevalence of evils, such as adultery, drinking alcohol, and so on, which aroused general discontent among the class extensively on social media.

I will address this issue through 3 issues:

• Aspects of previous scholars dealing with the subject of earthquakes.

• Is the earthquake a punishment for previous sins?

• Is it correct to mention the hadiths of punishment and torment as a way of preaching?

One of the most circulated stories in this context is what was attributed to Umar ibn al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, when he said: “By God, the sins of a nation multiplied but that God punished them with earthquakes, with winds, and with rain that drowned them.” Fornication, you drank alcohol, and you permitted singing, may God punish you, and your lands were shaken.”

First: Aspects of previous scholars dealing with earthquakes

To begin with the first issue, it must be pointed out that such a special understanding is not heresy;

Some scholars, such as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (751 AH), who said: “And among the effects of disobeying God on the earth is what falls on it, such as eclipses and earthquakes.” evils, and that they are among the signs of the Hour, so that they may repent and repent.

Al-Suyuti had rejected the interpretation of the philosophers (or wise men) who explained the occurrence of earthquakes by physical causes (the tools of knowledge of which developed in the modern era), and proved - in return - a religious interpretation, based on a number of weak and flimsy news and narratives, and Muhammad Ismail Al-Ajlouni followed him in that ( 1162 AH).

Also, Sheikh Abd al-Aziz bin Baz had concluded that “everything that occurs in existence from earthquakes and other things that harm the servants and causes them various kinds of harm, all of them are causes of polytheism and sin,” and those in charge of the “Islam Question and Answer” website followed him on that.

Since the occurrence of earthquakes is a recurring phenomenon historically, Muslim scholars were preoccupied with discussing and classifying them, as did many of them and from various disciplines, such as the Canadian Arab philosopher (254 AH), the hadith and historian Ibn Asaker (571 AH), Ali bin Abi Bakr bin Himyar al-Yamani (557 AH), and Ismail Ibn Hamid al-Qusi (653 AH), rather, Ibn al-Wardi (749 AH) wrote a treatise on the earthquake that destroyed Aleppo and Manbij (744 AH), and among the last of what was written about earthquakes are letters written by al-Suyuti and Ibn al-Jazzar (d. after the earthquake that occurred in Egypt in the year 984 AH) and Muhammad Bin Ismail Al-Ajlouni.

The last three letters are printed.

In discussions of earthquakes, we can monitor 3 main approaches:

• The scientific approach in search of an explanation for the occurrence of the phenomenon

• The jurisprudential approach that relates to devotional issues

  
  

  - such as praying for an earthquake, and is it prayed for or not?

  In this there is a disagreement between the jurists

  
  

  - how to pray, and is it similar to the eclipse prayer, in which there is more than bowing and prostration?

  Do you pray in congregation or not?

  
  

  Does a person go out in an earthquake to the desert?

  The dispute occurred in that as well;

  Some of them preferred to flee from the earthquake, and some of them carried it - it seems - on the plague in which it was stated that it was forbidden to go out during it (and this understanding has been overlooked scientifically, historically and jurisprudently).

• As for the third approach, it is ethical and related to issues of preaching, preoccupation with repentance, abandoning evils, entertaining the injured, and providing relief to the distressed or afflicted (and includes in that day providing the necessary scientific advice on how to act in the event of an earthquake).

In fact, the three approaches overlap here, so that it is difficult to separate them in dealing with complex phenomena in which the universal and the human, the devotional and the ethical, and the scientific and the religious overlap

.

Even the scientific explanation of the phenomenon - which is indispensable with the development of knowledge - does not cancel the normative religious and ethical determinants that govern human behavior during an earthquake, although the scientific explanation would help to criticize the religious interpretations that were based on flimsy news explaining that the prevalence of Abominations are the cause of earthquakes, as we find in Al-Suyuti and others who classified this, and as happened before in the matter of the plague, which was portrayed as an unavoidable torment, and I discussed it in previous articles in the context of the Corona epidemic.

As a result of this aforementioned overlap, some of them got involved in interpreting the earthquake that occurred recently as a punishment, and then this interpretation led to condemning the afflicted and that the earthquake was what their hands had earned!

Second: Is the earthquake a punishment for previous sins?

As for the second issue - which is whether the earthquake is a punishment for a previous sin - we must distinguish between 3 methodological issues here:

The first

collects the relevant verses and hadiths as a discourse or a single sentence.

If we follow the path of proof, we will find that most of the hadiths that relate to proving that earthquakes are a punishment for the spread of immorality are weak, but some hadith scholars, especially from the later ones, are lenient in relying on such narrations, even if their chain of transmission is weak.

As long as it is outside the circle of judgments!

Among the most circulated news in this context is what was attributed to Umar ibn al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, when he said: “By God, the sins of a nation multiplied, but God punished them with earthquakes, winds, and rains that drowned them.” Fornication, you drank alcohol, and you permitted singing, may God punish you, and your lands were shaken.”

I did not stand for this news on the basis, and its formulation contains intimidation and exaggeration in the way of retribution.

Also from that is a hadith that a man said to Aisha, may God be pleased with her: “O Mother of the Believers, tell us a hadith about the earthquake. Then Anas said: A punishment for them? After the Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, I heard a hadith with which I am more happy than I am with this hadith. Rather, I live with joy and I am resurrected when I am resurrected, and that joy is in my heart, or he said: in my soul.” : “I think it is a topic”, and its text is apparent in its thinness.

As for the hadith in which the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, said after the earth shook during his covenant: “Your Lord asks you to admonish you, so admonish him.” It is weak, and it was also mentioned by others, including Omar bin Abdul Aziz who said it.

The second matter: The texts on this subject are contradictory

, but some preachers resort here to selecting and excluding the hadiths of punishment to the exclusion of others, and to clarify that, I mention 3 points:

The first point: Weak news and authentic hadiths

That in addition to the weak reports that earthquakes are a punishment for disobedience, there are authentic hadiths that indicate that affliction is good and a sign of love and elevation of ranks, such as the hadeeth of Abu Hurayrah that the Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, said: “Whoever God wants good for, He pours from it.” Narrated by Al-Bukhari and Malik And others.

Al-Bukhari wrote a chapter saying: “Chapter: The most severely afflicted people are the prophets, then the next best, then the next best.” Hadith: “The most severely afflicted people are the prophets, then those who follow them, then those who follow them, then those who follow them.” Narrated by Ahmad and al-Tabarani, and al-Hafiz Nur al-Din al-Haythami said: “The chain of transmission of Ahmad Hassan,” and it has hadiths that support it.

In another hadith, the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, said: “If God loves a people, He tests them. So whoever is patient will have patience, and whoever is anxious will have anxiety.” Narrated by Ahmed and others.

The second point: the diversity of earthquakes

• Among them are hadiths that indicate that earthquakes are an earthly punishment and a mercy for the believers, such as the hadith that “my nation is a merciful nation, there is no punishment for it in the Hereafter, its torment in this world is earthquakes and afflictions (…)”, or “earthquakes and trials in this world”, or “earthquakes and killing”.

  This was attributed to Ibn Omar, Abu Musa Al-Ash’ari, and Abu Hurairah, may God be pleased with them.

  The body of the hadith was narrated by Abu Dawud, Ahmad, al-Hakim al-Nisaburi, al-Ruyani, Naim bin Hammad, al-Bazzar, al-Tabarani and others, and some of its chains of narration are weak, but al-Hakim authenticated it and al-Dhahabi agreed with him, and al-Albani authenticated it after it was weak in some of his books.

• Among them is that earthquakes are among the signs of the Hour, as in Sahih al-Bukhari and others that the Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, said: “The Hour will not come until knowledge is taken away, and earthquakes multiply, and time draws near, and strife appears, and turmoil increases - which is killing and killing - until your wealth increases and it overflows.” ".

• Among them is the combination of earthquakes and temptations in one phrase, and that it is in the place of the rise of Satan’s horn, as in the hadith of Ibn Omar who said: The Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, said: “O God, bless our Levant and our Yemen.”

  He said: They said: And in Najd?

  He said: He said: “O God, bless our Levant and our Yemen.”

  He said: They said: And in Najd?

  He said: He said: “There are earthquakes and trials, and with them the horn of Satan emerges.”

  It was narrated by Al-Bukhari, and the dispute occurred in the interpretation of the “horn of Satan”, so there are those who carried it on its face, and there are those who carried it on the meaning of the power of Satan and his army and so on, and in the hadith there is also a political significance that is not discussed here.

• Ibn Abd al-Barr narrated on the authority of al-Hasan that one of the morals of the believer is that he is “dignified in earthquakes, grateful in prosperity, satisfied with what he has, speaks to understand, and is silent to accept, and acknowledges the truth before testifying against it.”

And this diversity in the accounts of earthquakes makes it wrong to assert one interpretation of them from a religious perspective, and to rely on hadiths as some preachers do.

The third point: death due to earthquakes is similar to death by demolition

It was stated in the authentic hadith that “the martyrs are five: the one who was stabbed, the one who was wounded, the one who drowned, the owner of the destruction, and the one who was martyred for the sake of God.” Narrated by Al-Bukhari and others.

All of these three points violate the idea of ​​the correlation between earthquakes and the act of abominations, and that this contradicts the texts of the hadith.

If collected on one level.

As for the third matter: It is that if we follow the path of understanding and interpretation, there are possibilities and details related to several points: Are all calamities a punishment for a previous sin?

Do earthquakes bear only one meaning?

Is there a privacy for each incident in the context of its own conversation?

What is the role of invoking fixed general rules?

As for the Almighty’s saying: (And whatever calamity befalls you, it is because of what your hands have earned, and He pardons much)

(Al-Shura: 30), the difference occurred in its interpretation.

The imam, the interpreter and the historian al-Tabari (310 AH) gave two interpretations of it to the predecessors: the first of which is that “this will only befall you as a punishment from God for you; for the sins you have committed between you and your Lord, and your Lord will forgive you for many of your crimes.” It is important to pay attention here to “what is between you and between Your Lord”, since this connection must occur from the one who knows himself, not from someone else.

As for the second of the two interpretations, it is that the meaning of the verse: “And whatever punishment you were punished in this world with a punishment that you specified for a sin that you required for it, it is because of what your hands have earned.”

As for Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (606 AH), he recounted the dispute about whether calamities - in terms of generality - are penalties for sins that have preceded or not?

And he mentioned two sayings: the first is the saying of those who deny this for reasons, including that God Almighty has made it clear that the reward will only happen on the Day of Resurrection, and that the world is the abode of obligation, so it is forbidden that it be the abode of obligation and punishment together, and that the misfortunes of the world are shared by the heretic and the friend, and what is like that he refrained from making it a matter of punishment. on sins.

Rather, induction indicates that the occurrence of these calamities is more for the righteous and the righteous than for the sinners, and this is evidenced by the hadiths that I have previously mentioned here.

As for the second saying, it is that calamities may be a punishment for previous sins, and the people of this saying adhered to the apparent meaning of the verse here and to some general hadiths, such as the hadith: “The son of Adam is not afflicted by the scratch of a stick or anything else except by sin or utterance.”

There is no doubt that calamities fall on multiple meanings, as they may be a matter of testing in assignment (ordeal), and they may be a matter of punishment, and predestination is ongoing for what is in the interest of the servants, and mercy for them.

And if that is the case, it is not possible to judge every incident as a punishment in terms of the general origin, in addition to the problems arising from its application to a specific person, as will be clarified, in addition to the fact that this apparent generality is not intended, as general calamities also include children and animals, and the obedient and disobedient.

When the earth shook during the era of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, he urged charity, and commanded repentance, and if the accidents have causes and judgment, and cosmic phenomena (such as earthquakes, eclipses, and lunar eclipses) are among the signs of God, then preaching, reminding, and intimidating with these verses is what the obedient and the disobedient need together, and the need is not limited to it only When calamities and because of immorality

As for the meaning of earthquakes mentioned in the hadiths, they may have meanings that some commentators of the hadith have mentioned, including

:

• What is meant by it in the hadeeth “earthquakes and tribulations” is the apparent meaning, which is the disturbance of the earth.

• Or the esoteric meaning, which is the wars that occur during turmoil due to the abundance of movement in them, as Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani mentioned, for example.

The same applies to the hadeeth in which it was stated that frequent earthquakes are among the signs of the Hour. It may have two possible meanings:

• Sensible earthquakes, which are the shaking and moving of the earth,

• And moral earthquakes, which are the abundance of disturbing temptations that lead to trembling of hearts, as explained by Al-Hafiz Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali, although he preferred the first meaning.

But the abundance of earthquakes indicates the signs of the Hour, not just the occurrence of one of them, and therefore Ibn Hajar said: “What appears to be the meaning of their abundance is their comprehensiveness and permanence.”

As for paying attention to the specifics of the facts that are cited here, I will mention to them what was mentioned in some reports that an earthquake occurred during the era of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab

, and he said: “O people! What is this?! .

Al-Hafiz Ibn Katheer said: Its chain of transmission is authentic, but it came in a narration narrated by Al-Bayhaqi: “The earth shook during the era of Omar until the secrets lined up, and Ibn Omar was praying, so he did not know about it, and he did not agree with anyone who prayed, so he knew about it.”

It is clear that the earthquake was mild, which prompts the idea that it was a punishment in the first place.

As for fixing the general fixed rules in detail, such as resorting to thinking well of people, and that the affliction that befalls the believer raises his ranks and mercy for him, and is carried away with the delicacy of humanity with sympathy and consolation for the afflicted.

There is another matter here, which is the interpretation of texts that bear such a link between the occurrence of calamity and punishment for a previous sin, which will lead to research in a later issue on understanding and interpretation, which is the application of that judgment to the events that came after the era of the prophecy, that is, after the time of the arrival of the text.

This is the transition from the general to the ruling on the specific by proving that this particular earthquake occurred on these people for the sake of the common sins among them, and this is not possible. Northern Syria, which is very conservative and religious areas!

It does not work here to suffice with just quoting the general texts for the occasion of the earthquake, because the mere quotation coinciding with the event is an interpretive act and a judgment on the afflicted as a whole.

Then, if the general texts bear - at least theoretically - this meaning as one of the possibilities, then this possibility contradicts the fact that the parts of the world that were not affected by the earthquake are not in a better condition than the regions that were affected.

In addition, expelling this association between the occurrence of an earthquake and the commission of sins is a condemnation of all those under whom the earth was historically shaken;

Note that earthquakes and natural disasters occurred a lot, and some of the works, as previously, were classified on the occasion of earthquakes, just as Al-Suyuti and others committed themselves to mentioning the list of earthquakes that occurred before and after Jesus bin Maryam, may God bless him and grant him peace, and Al-Suyuti listed the earthquakes that occurred to the year 905 AH.

This discussion demonstrates the importance of distinguishing also between two levels: the individual and the community

•  The individual who is the most knowledgeable of people himself can inflict these calamities and trials on his condition between himself and God Almighty, but if we associate the mere occurrence of a calamity with the existence of previous sins, then this is a claim against God and His Messenger and an insult to that afflicted group.

• Then at the level of the group, we must also distinguish between societies in which apparent immoralities that can be measured are common, and between societies in which this is not known or does not appear, here the link between calamity and sin is more transgressive, and it is - to that - contrary to the rule of good thinking of people. .

Rashid Rida distinguished in talking about harm that it does not occur except because of one of the reasons, but these reasons may be specific to the slave’s earning, such as diseases that are presented by leaving the reasons for health and prevention out of ignorance or negligence, and the corruption of urbanization and the fall of states that occur by leaving justice.

The reasons may be general and related to the order of creation, such as the damage that occurs from too much rain, the tyranny of the seas and rivers, earth quakes and thunderbolts in the sky.

The third issue: Is it correct to mention the hadiths of punishment as an exhortation?

As for the third issue, it is the use of these texts in the context of preaching, and I mean the general verses that indicate that the occurrence of calamities is the earning of the servant, and the weak reports that relate the occurrence of earthquakes to the prevalence of abominations.

This

• The first: that the context of the hadeeth does not bear this out;

  Because it insults and accuses the afflicted and increases their suffering, in addition to being a legal violation, according to the foregoing distinction between general and specific judgment.

• The second: that the duty of the time helps preachers to direct people to the need to help, even by supplication and consolation for the afflicted.

• The third: that preaching has various forms, and it is not necessary for this special kind of mentioning these flimsy news or even general verses in this context, but rather that such indirect blame and censure is inconsistent with the duty of aid and victory, in addition to that the lesson and sermon do not justify limiting calamities to punishment Only, God has many rulings on afflictions and it is not permissible to narrow them down, in addition to that entailing a misunderstanding of the conflicting texts, and a blame for the afflicted.

When the earth shook during the era of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, he urged charity, and commanded repentance, and if the accidents have causes and judgment, and cosmic phenomena (such as earthquakes, eclipses, and eclipses) are among the signs of God, then exhortation, reminders, and intimidation with these verses are what the obedient and the disobedient need together, and the need is not limited to it only When calamities and because of immorality.

Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali narrated on the authority of a group of scholars of the people of Levant that they were commanded at the time of the earthquake to repent and seek forgiveness, and they gathered for that, and perhaps some of their scholars preached them, commanded them and forbade them, and Imam Ahmed bin Hanbal approved of that, and Omar bin Abdul Aziz had written to the people of the cities after they occurred. The shiver in the city is that whoever is able to give alms should do so, for God Almighty says: (He who purifies himself has succeeded) [Al-Ala: 14].