TRANSCRIPT:
[Dr. Sa’ad Al-Faqih] Another question: are the floods and storms that are hitting our country punishment? Allah knows best. The Jeddah floods, the storms in Oman, other natural disasters, not wars and conflicts. Now, people have no doubt that what has befallen Syria, Libya, Egypt are punishments. That’s because they were late to remove injustice. This is my speculation, of course, that people have no doubt about that. They were late to remove the injustice that had overshadowed them for decades, so, this punishment befell them. It’s true that, by the Will of Allah, this will be lifted soon, but they have to pay this price, in Libya, Egypt, Syria and Yemen as well. The corruption, injustice, tyranny and authoritarianism that have overshadowed their lives, especially injustice, that overshadowed them during all this time, hypocrisy, despicable traditions, it was necessary for those to be cleansed by paying this great price. This is punishment. I don’t think people doubt that this is divine punishment.
Punishments take different forms and shapes, as is mentioned in the Quran and as the Prophet (pbuh) said. So, are the repeated Jeddah floods, are the massive storms and violent dust storms that we are afflicted with, are these punishments? They could be minor punishments, or they could be warnings. I don’t think that the injustice that we suffer, and the humiliation suffered by the people, and the silence in the face of injustice – the issue is not injustice per se, the issue is the inability to remove injustice. If you don’t have a mechanism, neither by the people nor the system, to remove injustice, or to remove corruption, or to eliminate what’s wrong, this is when punishment comes. The issue is not injustice itself. If injustice happens, and you remove it, you are saved from punishment. You will not deserve punishment. If there is injustice and you are unable to remove it just like the way things are today — look how many people are imprisoned. How many are deprived of their rights, how many are abused. People being abused in their religion, property, reputation, dignity, etc This injustice has not been removed. Continue reading Are the Recurring Floods in Saudi Arabia Divine Punishment? – Sa’ad Al-Faqih