God’s Mercy And Natural Disasters

This article covers the relationship between God’s Mercy and Natural Disasters.

Why Does God Not Choose Between The Innocent And The Sinful In Calamities?
Where Is God in Natural Disasters?

In calamities such as earthquakes or floods, God does not usually choose between the good and the evil or between the innocent and the sinful- when such calamities come, they do not fall exclusively on the wicked and wrongdoers; the meaning of the testing and trial to which men are put in this world requires it to be so. However, in return for such calamities, the good and innocent ones will be rewarded greatly in the Hereafter. It sometimes occurs that God Almighty includes the good and innocent in such calamities because they do not try to prevent the sinful from doing wrong and committing sins.

Storm Destruction Disaster Weather Hurricane

Hurricane

The sovereignty is His. He holds sway over His possessions as He wishes. Moreover, a skilful craftsman makes you a model in return for a wage and dresses you in a bejeweled garment that he has most artistically fashioned. Then in order to display his art and skill, he shortens it and lengthens it, measures it and trims it, and he makes you sit down and stand up. Are you able to say to him: “You have made the garment, which made me beautiful ugly. You have caused me trouble, making me sit down and stand up.” Of course, you cannot say that. If you did say it, you would be crazy.

In just the same way, the All-Glorious Maker has clothed you in a most artistically wrought being bejeweled with faculties like the eye, the ear, and the tongue. In order to display the embroideries of various of His Names, He makes you ill, He afflicts you with tribulations, He makes you hungry, He fills you, He makes you thirsty; He makes you revolve in states like these. In order to strengthen the essence of life and display the manifestation of His Names, He makes you journey in numerous such conditions. If you say: “Why do you inflict these calamities on me?”as is indicated in the comparison, a hundred instances of wisdom will silence you. In any event, calm, repose, idleness, monotony, and arrest from action are forms of non-existence, and harm. Action and change are existence and good. Life finds its perfection through action, it progresses by means of tribulations. Life manifests various actions through the manifestation of the Divine Names, it is purified, finds strength, it unfolds and expands, it becomes a mobile pen to write its own appointed course; it performs its duty, and acquires the right to receive reward in the hereafter

By Bediuzzaman Said Nursi

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