Can we really detect a sign from God?

Posted on 26th August, 2009 by

Last week a tornado hit Minneapolis, and some Muslims were quick to connect the event to a convention being held by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in one of the buildings which suffered minor roof damage, on the grounds that discussions were being held about relaxing the church’s doctrine on homosexuality. The twister also damaged the steeple of a Lutheran church across the street. Umm Squeakster asks, “what does a modern day sign from God look like?”, and some of the Lutherans present at the convention voiced this suspicion as well.

Of course, people say this — both Muslims and others — every time any disaster hits anywhere. An Israeli rabbi blamed Katrina on America slipping off (or appearing to) in its support for Israel; Christians blamed it on a gay festival which was about to be held there. Some Christians blamed the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 on, well, the fact that most of those affected were not Christian, and we all remember Jerry Falwell blaming 9/11 on homosexuality. As Muslims I think we ought to be more circumspect about speculating on what event happened why. After all, no human being knows why Allah Most High does anything and according to Imam Tahawi:

The exact nature of the decree is Allah’s secret in His creation, and no angel near the Throne, nor Prophet sent with a message, has been given knowledge of it. Delving into it and reflecting too much about it only leads to destruction and loss, and results in rebelliousness. So be extremely careful about thinking and reflecting on this matter or letting doubts about it assail you, because Allah has kept knowledge of the decree away from human beings, and forbidden them to enquire about it, saying in His Book,

‘He is not asked about what He does but they are asked’. (al-Anbiya’ 21:23)

So anyone who asks: ‘Why did Allah do that?’ has gone against a judgement of the Book, and anyone who goes against a judgement of the Book is an unbeliever.

This is not to dispute that natural disasters happen as punishments for sins, but let’s face it, one wonders why the Lutheran church would have suddenly fallen victim to such disasters — not that it really counts as one, being a small bit of external damage with no injuries to anyone, and when the convention centre is not even owned by the church — when the Episcopal church has been notorious for its liberal position on such matters for years, and when the very doctrine of the Trinity and therefore the worship of all the Christian churches is, for us, idolatrous. We can only assume that natural disasters are in response to everyday sins that nobody considers.

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a list of people who had suffered untimely deaths after saying offensive things about Jesus (peace be upon him) or God, and I’m sure it’s one of those things which has been passed round many times since its likely translation from Portuguese (several of the alleged incidents mentioned took place in Brazil). Anyway, it turned up on the MySpace blog of one Katy Cutshaw, a quadriplegic car crash survivor living near Knoxville, Tennessee. I don’t suppose Ms Cutshaw either wrote or translated it.

One of them is the famous utterance of John Lennon that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus”, except that it misquotes him as saying “more famous than God”, which is likely the result of confusing that with a ridiculous utterance by Noel Gallagher of the British band, Oasis, thirty years later. He made the statement in 1966; he was murdered in 1980. Admittedly, that was after penning the truly awful dirge Imagine, but besides its obvious hostility to religion, it actually doesn’t curse or revile God or any religious personage (and even that was released nine years before his murder). Why does anyone assume that his murder had anything to do with that statement?

Good things and bad things happen to good and bad people; some things may be punishments, but things which might appear to be punishments happen to quite innocent people as well. Quite innocent people meet terrible deaths as well, particularly at the hands of other people. Many things are tests, but ultimately we belong to God and our lives, and our physical faculties, are things which are given and can be taken away any time. None of us can read from the Tablet and none of us knows why anything happens, be it a hurricane in New Orleans, a tornado in Minnesota, a person’s death in New York or a girl suffering a disabling injury in Tennessee.

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  • http://imuslim.tv iMuslim

    Agreed. Plus, I remember reading that Allah has promised not to use the punishments of old on this Ummah, as a special mercy to the followers of the Prophet Muhammed, sallalahu ‘alayhi wa salam. I.e., natural disasters that would wipe out entire communities, as described in the Qur’an and Old Testament, due to the terrible sins that those people committed.

    Obviously natural disasters still continue, and will grow in number towards the Day of Judgement. But I think the above means we can’t assume they were sent for one specific reason. Rather, as you said, for a multitude of reasons, including general sinning, as well as a trial for the believers.

    Allah knows best.

  • mirele

    I don’t like these kinds of lists, because it seems to me like believers of all stripes send them around in hopes of scaring unbelievers into belief—See What A Horrible Death You’re Going To Have! It’s kind of like the “Left Behind” series of books, where the “saved” Christians get caught up into heaven and then all sorts of terrible, horrible things happen to the “unbelievers” who remain. It’s just vindictive. Leave the judgment to Allah swt.

  • Thersites

    “A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a list of people who had suffered untimely deaths after saying offensive things about Jesus (peace be upon him) or God,”

    How many suffered untimely deaths at the hands of believers for these alleged sins? There’s been a number of christians killed in Pakistan recently for allegedly blaspheming against islam- a logical absurdity when you look at it, as people can only blaspheme if they believe, and christians by definition don’t believe in the truth of islam.

  • LeedsLad

    People make punishments with their own hands and heads. If a place is susceptible to a natural disaster, then get out and move somewhere else.

    It goes to show how easy it is to make non-existence real if people choose to believe the unreal. Just as Cheney and his friends still believe mobile nuclear/chemical laboratories to be in Iraq.

    Blaming on God is the last resort a weak man has to do nothing.

  • http://umms.wordpress.com ummsqueakster

    Assalamu Alaikum,

    I don’t normally contemplate on natural disasters being punishments or warnings for specific things, but it hits a bit close to home when it’s right down the street from where you work and effects someone/something/an organization that you have a history with.

    I do appreciate your response, and the quote from Imam Tahawi gives me something else to think about.

  • http://www.blogistan.co.uk/blog/ Indigo Jo

    Salaams Umm S, there was a tornado in north-west London in 2007 and I had a narrow escape as I was working a mile or two away and had to pass quite near it on the elevated road (the Westway) into central London where I was making deliveries to the hospital. It had passed over by the time I got near but the clouds were still really intense. It damaged a couple of houses in one street but nothing else. We get quite a lot of them in the UK but normally they strike in the countryside.

  • http://suspectpaki.com Shahid

    Of course, the Qadianis connect every natural disaster, including the earthquake in Pakistan/Kashmir and the tsunami in Indonesia, with a rejection of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s claimed prophethood.

    ( I talk about some of this in my video on my experiences of Qadianism, blatant plug…http://thecult.info/blog/2009/08/03/a-fracture-in-belief-ahmadiyya-exposed-at-kingston-mosque/ )