Some of the lessons learnt from Quraan that apply to our general living!

1. Respect and honour all human beings irrespective of their religion,colour, race, sex, language, status, property, birth, profession/joband so on [17/70]

2. Talk straight, to the point, without any ambiguity or deception[33/70]

3. Choose best words to speak and say them in the best possible way[17/53, 2/83]

4. Do not shout. Speak politely keeping your voice low. [31/19]

5. Always speak the truth. Shun words that are deceitful andostentatious [22/30]

6. Do not confound truth with falsehood [2/42]

7. Say with your mouth what is in your heart [3/167]

8. Speak in a civilised manner in a language that is recognised by thesociety and is commonly used [4/5]

Muslim Character

Logging Under the Rubble

Two weeks passed when a rescue team started removing the rubble of a primary school amid strong winds, cold and rain. Obviously it was too late and what they found inside were twenty girl students in dirt and all dead. With fear struck faces and holding tight to each other in twos and threes. They must have faced death for so many days before their lives finally ended in darkness. No one cared to come on time.

Taj, a nine years old girl was found holding a pencil and note book in her hands, with her innocent eyes wide open staring in the void. Her father shrieked as he found his little angel lying dead and stiff cold, all dusty.

All this time since she got trapped under that narrow triangle made by the fallen roof and walls of her class room , she didnt let go of her notebook and pencil and kept writing, and in that communicating with her mom and dad, all her lines begining with Mama or Papa.

But she didnt have any idea of what actually had happened, so she wrote to her dad in that homework book that someone has bombed their school, which made their classroom shake wildly at first, which made them hit and fall on each other, and then another explosion made the roof come down on her fellows. After which it was all foggy with dust.

For the first day, her log was coherent and with the date on top. But later, she scribbled her notes whenever it was enough light for her to jot down and whichever page opened in front of her, and whenever she came out of uncousciousness.

To her dad she writes:

"Papa, our teacher had just finished checking the homework of a few girls, but our classroom suddenly started shaking because some terrorist threw a bomb on our school. We fell on each other. We didnt even get back up when there was an explosion and two beams from the roof came down and with them the whole roof. It fell in such a way that it made our room into a triangle, with beams and the roof. When the dust settled, I saw Asifa, Jannat and Noor pressed under a beam and shouting in pain.Our teacher and the rest of tried hard to move it but it didnt, at all. Then they became still in a few moments. As they went quiet we all started crying and shouting in fear. Our teacher Mariam tried to calm us down and was reciting the Kalima loud. But another huge peice of roof fell on her and she was gone. Due to dust, fear and darkness we all became uncounsious. And then it was complete dark"

These are the last of her ordered notes. Scattered scribblings and fuzzy sentences make up the later part of her log. Now she writes without a date, and writes only when she is back to her consciousness and finds enough light to write on any page she sees.

"Papa, I dont know how I woke up. It was may be the pain, hunger or the sharp ray of light that fell on my eyes. I got up to sit. Everyone around me was laying unconscious and senseless. I started shivering so badly in horror. I called out Saba, Naheed, Yasmeen, but no one even moved, they were so cold.

"Papa, I started crying so much, and from out of nowhere Nazia came and clung with me, i got scared, and i shouted "Who"?, "Me Nazia".

"Papa I m so hungry, there is no water, then we started crying together, huddled with each other.

Now, Taj started writing in very short lines.

Papa, Nazia is so quied, she doesnt cry at all.

Papa, she doesnt talk.

Papa, I am so scared.

Mama, give me bread, give me water.

Papa, Mama, it is so cold.

Mama, my leg is getting stiff.

Papa Papa, Mama Mama

Mama, Who took my blanket

Papa, my stomach.

Mama dont you know, I need a blanket?

Mama where are you, where are you?

And then there is just a line stretching across her notebook, she could write no more. She held her copy till the end, and this is all what her father has of her now, who told how he had taught her to write a story, when she asked for it a year or so ago. He had told her to write just as an incident happens in front of her eyes, so she used to write a real story everyday of what she used to see around.

And she had a story to tell when she was dying too, no amount of words can ever tell her pain. Thousands other kids like her lost their lives in their very schools. They couldnt be reached because of the haphazard aid and rescue efforts. Wailing parents could do nothing with bare hands. But they kept clinging to the broken schools in a disoriented state, with their ears on fallen walls, to hear one word from inside. But most still can't even have their children's dead bodies, because this is all that they want now so they can see them, touch them and bury them with their own hands.

Time wasted is the time wasted. Though most from around the country have played their part, but there are more people left to be cared than those have been reached and helped. All because of being disorganized on the overall, and not being prepared even on the basic level.

We ask Allah to ease their pains, and give peace to the departed souls. Aameen.

Here is the original story in Urdu, from Urdupoint, where i read it:

Hamare Aane Wale Kal Ke e Mout

And another article mentioning it:

And there were no more screams

Wish I Can Help

Though this page is originally all about my study and teaching of the Quraan, and thats what it was started for and is still about. But for the time being, as you have noticed, I have been writing more about earthquake aftermath. This is because this disaster has had a deep impact on myself spiritually, and the damage it has done to the people is colossal. Now i wish i can use this page for anything it can do to make a contribution towards helping it.

It is exactly a month now. The world probably doesnt feel the magnitude of damage, which has been greater than the Tsunami.

Thanks to Allah billion trillion times me, my family, friends, and relatives all have been safe Alhamdulilah. It is the horrible state and suffering of the people coming from the destroyed cities and towns, which is so painful it has broken my heart. Most people, especially kids, are in a state of shock and trauma after seeing their loved ones and everything get crushed in front of their eyes in seconds. Their minds and eyes just cant let go of those scenes.

All it took was a few seconds of time, and all the buildings came down as a pile of rubble, most of them, even the multistorey building, swallowed by the earth with their roofs almost on the ground level. And it was all so quick it didnt give anyone time to rush out, and the building turned into graves. All 8000 or so schools were destroyed and the kids crushed under their very roofs while they had just started their lessons in the morning. Hospitals, libraries, police stations, govt. offices, everything is gone.

i would like to share what some eyewitnesses had to tell about the disaster, when on Saturday I went to join some volunteers.

An amazing account was by a lady who told how theirs was the only house standing in that area (officers colony, Muzzafarabad) after the quake, and that she says is because they were studying the Quraan there, and the place where Quraan is being read is encircled by the angles of mercy (according to a hadith). And thats absolutely true. They had daily Quraan classes in that house, and this lady used to teach kids.

When the jolts started, she said they were very violent, but no one rushed out. She said they felt a strange calm and the kids stayed at their place, and recited prayers. Then they saw the roof getting separated from the walls on one side of the room, as if just about to come down. The jolts were getting more severe and it was taking it too long to stop. Ofcourse it wasnt like any other earthquake. But when finally it settled, she went to look for the kids in the other room, seeing they were all fine she returned to her class and was proud to find out the kids were in prostration, praying nafl to thank Allah, and she joined them too. She said she felt so great seeing them praying so peacefuly in that frightening situation.

But the real surprise came when they went outside to see each and every building around crashed down and dust clouds all around. The next house was all rubble and down in their lawn. This was ofcourse astonishing as their house was no different than the others that fell down in seconds, in construction and stuff. That was the only building, she said, that stood safe in that area, except a few cracks in two of the rooms. And it's a sign indeed, as the angles circle the place where Quraan is being read and peace descends there. Its Allah who protected them, ofcourse.

For others it was horrifying, most people said it started with a very sudden wind storm, then there was a black smoke or dust, and then the earhquake with a booming noise. For some the earth cracked and they fell into it. Others got stuck alive in the rubble of their houses for days. Amazing they took one young man out after 21 days, imagine! He was apparently ok, with a few injuries, but he was in shock, wasnt responding and he wasnt able to listen now.

A school teacher had decided to have her maths class out in the open just minutes before the catastrophe. She also described the same things happening before the quake, saying the weather was just calm, but there was a sudden violent wind and black smoke following it. Then it took only moments for the school building to collapse in front of them.

Another lady just came out of her kitchen when suddenly the wind blew and jolts started and her kitchen broke apart and collapsed behind her. She rushed to pick up her baby, falling three times on her way. And when she finally was holding her baby her two storey house starting falling down and with it she and her son also. Both were able to come out of rubble later unscratched Alhamdulilah.

But a majority people got buried alive, and their cries for help subdued by time. And their disoriented family member still roaming around helplessly because there is no way they can more the heavy boulders without the machines.

The people who are surviving are so lost, and seeing so many hardships ahead didnt even have time to grieve. Digging graves with their hands and burrying the ppl the loved, they have nothing to lose. Now they have nothing to eat, for most there is no shelter in these freezing temperatures.

A huge number of people have lost their limbs, again most of them are kids. It may take them forever to get over this, and to get back to normal life.

The trauma is immense, i can go on and on about it. I would say, everyone around the world, esp. the Muslims, do all the help you can. Everyone can help in someway or the other in their capacity. There are a million way in which we can help, as their needs are as many and more.

Allah please help them, and help us do our best for them and manage, so that not a single one of them is left without proper care. Allah please forgive us, make us better human beings and better Muslims, and give us the best lives here and in the Hereafter. O Allah have Mercy.

Aameen!

"And say (unto them): Act! Allah will behold your actions, and (so will) His Messenger (pbuh) and the Believers, and you will be brought back to the Knower of the invisible and the visible, and He will tell you what you used to do." [9:105].

Get Into Action

From the mound of rubble, a little voice cries
“Please help me”, then it fades and dies

Cries, anguish, tears, there’s despair all around
There’s no face you can see on which hope’s to be found

An old man is seated, next to him is a corpse
It’s his only son, “O please help him God!”

A little girl holding a hand so tight
It’s her brother’s hand who died last night

Blood pouring from wounds, there’s a stench in the air
Towards the sky the dead just stare

It’s freezing cold, people thirsty and starved
No fire or light, its just pitch dark

A baby is crying, it can sense something’s wrong
‘Cause the comfort of its mother’s arms is gone

I sit there and look at the distressing scenes
It seems so unreal on the TV screen

Then all of a sudden I start to weep
That could be my child, that could be me!

The tears won’t stop - it’s like a dam that’s burst
‘Cause something tells me it’s going to get worse

Will things ever be the same? O God we need help
It’s not only their trial, but ours as well

Then all of a sudden, something happens to me
It’s like I’ve been blind and now I can see

No weeping for me! That’s all in the past
Let me get into action and do my part.

ZainabHabib

TURN BACK TO YOUR LORD

"And turn in repentance and in obedience with true faith to your Lord and submit to Him before the torment comes upon you (and) then you will not be helped."

(Az-Zumar: 54)

The need of today is to focus on one's own reformation on an individual and collective level. If we cannot set right the disorder in the world, we can at least correct our own selves.

Let us then strive for our own improvement because the hardships that others are facing today may well engulf those tomorrow who are now mere spectators.

"And fear the fitnah which affects not in particular (only) those of you who do wrong and know that Allah SWT is severe in punishment."

(Al-Anfal: 25)

Hardships & Calamities are a Warning

It is necessary for every heedful eye to learn a lesson from the calamities and disasters occurring in the lives of individuals and nations. To call them a turn of events, natural calamities or merely an accident and to move on can prove harmful.

Allah Ta'ala says:

"And verily we will make them taste of the near torment (in this world) prior to the supreme torment (in the Hereafter) in order that they may return (repent).”

(As-Sajdah: 21)

THE WAY TO AVERT CALAMITIES

"Was there any town that believed and its faith saved it (from the punishment) except the people of Yunus; when they believed we removed from them the torment of disgrace in the life of the world and permitted them to enjoy for a while (more). "

(Yunus:98)

Consequently, faith in and obedience to Allah Ta'ala is the only way to salvation.

When Disaster Strikes

M o u n t a i n s

Chapter 27- An-Naml [The Ant], Verse: 88- The Holy Quraan

Transliteration: wa taral jibaala taHsabuhaa jaamidataw wa hiya tamur-ru mar-ras saHaab* Sun'Al-laahil-ladhiy atqana kul-la shay'* in-nahuu khabiyrum bimaa taf'Aluun

Translation: "And you see the mountains, you think them to be solid, and they shall pass away as the passing away of the clouds-- the handiwork of Allah Who has made every thing thoroughly; surely He is Aware of what you do".
Shakir's Translation.

After the Disaster

LET US ANALYZE OURSELVES:

 How have I reacted in this present situation? With panic, despair and wailing or with dignity, patience and faith?

 Do I only remember Allah when I face hardships or calamities and once it passes away, do I forget Him?


 What positive change has come about in my life after this calamity?

 Have I started to study what guidance Allah has sent for me in the Quran?

 Has my pace in constructive activities (efforts towards personal reformation, hastening in good deeds) increased?

 Do I still put off good deeds for the next day?

 Have I stopped wasting my time? Have I left idleness, laziness and negligence?

 Has there been any change in my routine (recreation, parties, shopping, useless chatting)?

 Have I started worrying about fulfilling my obligations, acts of worship and responsibilities?

 Have I left moral vices such as backbiting, lying, fighting and breaking trusts?

 What have I done to help my Muslim brothers affected by the earthquake?

 What have I sacrificed to serve Allah's Deen?

 If death overtakes me today, am I ready to meet Allah Ta'ala?

IF WE CANNOT CHANGE OURSELVES, HOW CAN WE EXPECT THE CONDIONS OF THIS WORLD TO CHANGE?

Taken from a pamphlet

Am I Prepared?

I Listened to the explanation of Chapters 21 and 22 of the Quraan today, at the mosque, and they make so much more sense now

"Draws near for mankind their reckoning, while they turn away in heedlessness." (Al-Anbiya 21:1)

"O mankind! Fear your Lord and be dutiful to Him! Verily the earthquake of the Hour (Day of Judgement) is a terrible thing."

"The Day you shall see it, every nursing mother will forget her nursling, and every pregnant one will drop her load, and shall see mankind as in a drunken state, yet they will not be drunken, but severe will be the Torment of Allah" (Al-Hajj 22:1-2)

Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet pbuh said, "The Hour (Last Day) will not be established until (religious) knowledge will be taken away (by the death of religious learned men), earthquakes will be very frequent, time will pass quickly, afflictions will appear, murders will increase and money will overflow amongst you." (See Hadith No. 85 Vol 1). [bukari]

Its Allah's mercy in a way to send us these warnings. Its time to prepare!

"...and let every soul look to what it sends forth for the morrow" [Al-Hashr 59:18]