Local and international media outlets reported widely on the occurrence of earthquakes that hit North West of Tanzania on Saturday afternoon, September 10, 2016.
Comment:
Earthquakes are not a new phenomenon in the Lake Victoria Basin region. Historical documents have recorded earthquakes in 1945, 1947, 1960, 1952 and 1994 with only a few damaging events having occurred. However according to an expert from the Geological Survey of Tanzania, last week’s occurrence was the most intensive ever experienced in the country. The death toll has been raised nearly to 20, more than 200 injured, 840 houses destroyed and more than 1000 houses damaged.
This quake with a magnitude of 5.7 on the Richter scale and a 40 km depth was felt as far away as western Kenya and parts of Uganda, which share the waters of Lake Victoria. Tremors were also felt in Burundi and Rwanda. In Uganda, more than 100 houses collapsed; and at least four people were killed and seven others were injured across the country.
Despite the fact Tanzania has massive resources, as expected, fundraising and humanitarian assistance pleas are voiced targeting individuals, local and international institutions as well as donor countries, to comfort victims from one of the poorer regions of Tanzania. The region where over half of the buildings are built of pole and mud (often-basic columns with rammed earth) and 41.4% of buildings are built with bricks of mostly baked or sun-dried form. It is obviously the vulnerable nature of the building typologies further caused high number of fatalities.
Democratic politicians both from the ruling party and from opposition capitalize on the tragedy to further their popularity and political market. However, it is duty bound for any sane person especially politicians to grasp a deep lesson from this occurrence.
Natural disasters such as quakes are clear manifestation of the weakness and inability of humankind in two aspects. Firstly, he has little limited knowledge, lacking unseen knowledge (ghaib) which in principle is beyond human grasp. None knows except Creator of Human and Universe. Responding to a question on whether the institution has released an alert on the happening, official from Geological Survey of Tanzania said it is normally impossible for authorities to issue an early warning, observing that even developed countries have failed to do so.
وَعِنْدَهُ مَفَاتِحُ الْغَيْبِ لاَ يَعْلَمُهَا إِلاَّ هُوَ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَمَا تَسْقُطُ مِنْ وَرَقَةٍ إِلاَّ يَعْلَمُهَا وَلاَ حَبَّةٍ فِي ظُلُمَاتِ الأَرْضِ وَلاَ رَطْبٍ وَلاَ يَابِسٍ إِلاَّ فِي كِتَابٍ مُبِينٍ
“The keys of the Unseen are in His possession. No one knows them but Him. He knows everything in the land and sea. No leaf falls without His knowing it. There is no seed in the darkness of the earth, and nothing moist or dry which is not in a Clear Book.”
(Al-An’am, 6:59)
Secondly, humans cannot stop or control occurrence should the Creator intervene and impose His wishes. He is the Owner and Controller of all creatures and everything is in His possession including the heaven, the earth and human.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُمْسِكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ أَنْ تَزُولاَ وَلَئِنْ زَالَتَا إِنْ أَمْسَكَهُمَا مِنْ أَحَدٍ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ إِنَّهُ كَانَ حَلِيمًا غَفُورًا
“Allah keeps a firm hold on the heavens and earth, preventing them from vanishing away. And if they vanished no one could then keep hold of them. Certainly He is Most Forbearing, Ever-Forgiving.”
(Fatir, 35:41)
From this scenario secularists whether politicians, intellectuals or ordinary people should they ponder deeply, would realize that secular point of view in life is irrelevant, nonsensical, irrational and imitated blindly thought without questioning. How is it that they conclude to advocate marginalization of The Creator to rule His own creatures? If the Creator is the only one who knows the secret of unseen knowledge such as occurrence of earthquake, tsunami etc, that means He has also secret knowledge of the nature of all creators including human. How is it that The Creator and Owner of the knowledge of His creatures deprived right of running human political affairs as instructed by His Prophets (as)? Of course this does not make sense to any sane person.
It is unfortunate that politicians who are supposed to be of high caliber in thinking and linking things to the reality, only rush after this tragedy to gain political popularity and amass aid and humanitarian assistance which in most cases ultimately end up in the pocket of a few and not for the victims.
It is high time for them and any sane person to engage in enlightened thinking, linking things with the reality and submitting all affairs to the guidance of the Creator.
مَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَقَوِيٌّ عَزِيزٌ
“They do not measure Allah with His true measure. Allah is All-Strong, Almighty.”
(Al-Hajj, 22:74)
Masoud Msellem
Media Representative of Hizb ut Tahrir in Tanzania