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Earthquake in Türkiye & Syria: "Why didn't God stop it?"
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On February 6th, a devastating earthquake hit Türkiye and Syria. Over 12,000 lives have been lost, and thousands more have been injured and displaced. When tragedies and disasters occur, it’s understandable to wonder, “Why did God let this happen?”
Are natural disasters a form of punishment from God? Are they a warning to turn back to Him? If Allah is Merciful, why does He allow suffering to exist?
Join host Mohamad Zaoud as he discusses these questions and more with Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy, author of the Yaqeen paper, “Why Do People Suffer? God’s Existence & the Problem of Evil.”
Make sure to sign up for our DoubleTake companion email to receive exclusive content every week and a sneak peek of the upcoming episode here: https://yqn.io/doubletake-email-signup
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This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. On February 6th, a devastating earthquake hit Turkey and Syria. At the time of this recording, over 12,000 lives have been lost and thousands more have been injured and displaced. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on them and give the survivors patience and strength. When tragedies and disasters occur, it's understandable to wonder why did God let this happen? Are natural disasters a form of punishment from God? Are they a warning to turn back to Him? If Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the most merciful, why does he allow suffering to exist? Welcome to a special episode of Double Take, a podcast by Yaqeen Institute about the questions and ideas around Islam and Muslims that give us pause. Remember to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. If you like what you hear or want to share feedback, you can get in touch with us directly using the link in the show notes. Today is a special episode with Sheikh Mohammed Eshanawi to make sense of the recent earthquake and discuss the questions you're probably hearing around you. Sheikh Mohammed is a fellow at Yaqeen Institute and he is the religious director at the Islamic Education Center of Pennsylvania in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He's the author of the Yaqeen Institute paper, Why Do People Suffer? God's Existence and the Problem of Evil. Sheikh Mohammed, salam alaikum and jazakallah khair for joining us at short notice. May Allah make it beneficial for speakers and listeners alike. Sheikh, we're witnessing what's happening in Turkey and Syria. Thousands of people have been killed in the rubble, in the earthquake, and what I'd like to achieve in this episode is
represent some of the questions that I've been hearing in my circles, in halaqas around me, family members asking some questions, some Muslims, some non-Muslims, and certainly some questions that have come through online about how we make sense of all this. And to start off, if you're okay with it, Sheikh, is really simple. Why does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow for this suffering to exist? Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wasalamu ala rasool Allah, we begin in the name of Allah, of course, the most merciful, always and forever the most merciful, the grantor of mercy. This has to bring us back to a Qur'anic paradigm shift. We have to be so positively sure that Allah called his book a light for a reason, right? That without seeing things through the lens of the Qur'an, we have to be sure that we're in the dark, we're blindfolded, there's no way around it. If you look through the Qur'anic lens, you'll find so many of the wisdoms and a very important qualifier that we are not the most wise, and so the full extent of the wisdoms is only knowable to Allah Azza wa Jal. But of the wisdoms is that Allah recalls us to the insignificance of this world through these events, through these tragic, very painful events, Allah Azza wa Jal reminds us, you know, of what a thousand maybe spoken reminders never can. It forces us to face that this world truly is so insignificant. You know, I remember C.S. Lewis, actually himself, he beautifully writes about, you know, the struggles of a secular age and how lost and heedless you become. He says, but God has these ways, he works in these beautiful ways where he whispers to us in our pleasures, but he shouts to us in our pains. Meaning it's hard to hear the
quote-unquote voice of God, right? When you're comfortable and you're enjoying pleasures or you're indulgent, but it's very hard to ignore the voice of God when you're struggling. And, you know, these earthquakes have not just shaken those parts of the world, they've shaken everyone that's seen the footage, hears about the casualties, you know, is facing this, it shakes us to the core and it reminds us that we're so vulnerable, we're so fragile, we're so not possessing of our own lives. That's a big part of it, right? And then when you have these such low expectations of this world that's so insignificant, there comes another blessing, right? Or another wisdom is that you recall just how blessed you are, like we're all on borrowed time, we're all enjoying, you know, this presumption of competence and ability and greatness, right? If you will, that is not inherently ours, just a gift from Allah Azza wa Jal. And also you recall in an earthquake like this just how significant on the flip side the day of judgment will be when the earthquakes will displace mountains and cause people's hair to grow white when they see the footage happening in living color, right? That's of the the wisdoms there. And of the wisdoms also for these tragedies is that we're all going to die but Allah wishes to elect and select some of us, distinguish us, to have us come back as martyrs in the highest stations of paradise. And also of the wisdoms is to elevate the ranks of those behind, the believers who rise to the occasion of embracing adversity and making the best out of it. Is there such a thing as like generosity when there's no scarcity, right? Is there such a thing as courage and valor when there is no fear, no peril? And so goodness is only possible when it is challenged or else is it really goodness? So these are some of the many wisdoms our Quran reminds us of for why evil per se or evil as we perceive it has to exist in the
world. But an earthquake of this magnitude with thousands of people killed, children, families, how do I see the wisdom there? You know, why does why does Allah create an earthquake like that? Fair question or common question, right? So here is the idea. We have a framework with which to process these things that the Quran guided us to. So the Quran tells us that Allah Azza wa Jal, as we said before, is the most wise. We're not the most wise, right? And that Allah Azza wa Jal, from his wisdom, is that he made this life a very real test. Because if it feels like a simulation, it looks like a simulation, then where is the actual test, right? To be able to see through it with ease doesn't evaluate much out of us, right? And so from his wisdom is that he granted caused us to live through this very real experience of this life. And from his wisdom, from his wisdom is that he hid the answers to these questions from us. You know, the angels asked like bloodshed is going to happen on earth and you know, havoc is going to take place in this world. What did he tell them? He told them, I know what you don't know. Because even if the answers are given to people, sometimes they may not even understand them just yet. And interestingly, right after that in the story of the angels, after he prompted them or reminded them to have this intellectual humility, he pointed out to them that even Adam knows some things you don't know. And that is when they said, Subhanaka laAAilm lana illa maAAallamtana, glorified you are, we have no knowledge. We don't know anything. We should all recognize that we don't know anything except what you choose to disclose to us. So from his wisdom is that he didn't disclose all the wisdoms or else it would be unwise to test us with a test that we have all the answers for.
But at the same time, one last point I do want to make is from the wisdom of Allah is that he knew we would not be able to handle these tests without some of the wisdoms, right? And so he gave us some of these. Like even you think of the story of Musa alayhi salam and al-Khadir, you know, it looked like just a very ungrateful and catastrophic event that you rip apart that ship. And oh, it's because in hindsight you were saving it from a worse outcome. But the owners of the ship may actually have never known that. You got to catch this in the story. Then the child had to die in the story of Musa alayhi salam and al-Khadir. And then Musa alayhi salam gets the explanation. But think about it. The parents didn't necessarily get the explanation. They may get that explanation on the day of judgment, right? And so Allah gave us examples of some of the wisdom from his wisdom so that we would be able to sustain, you know, our ability to hold off, you know, the whispers that are suggesting that there is none. That is the problem today. Everyone is so anthropocentric. They're self-centered. They're like, if I can't see it, then there must not exist. Well, that's no, that's just your conceit and your deludedness. You are not the most wise and we do need to know our place. But what I struggle with when people ask me, for example, is this a, because I grew up with this comment in my household and in my life, that this is ghadab from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is a punishment from Allah, like a natural disaster is a punishment. That's what I've been taught growing up. So I've also heard that it's a warning or a message from God. How do I decipher when something like this happens, like the recent earthquake? Is this a punishment from God? And who is he punishing here? Is it a warning from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or is it a message?
How do I understand what's going on here? So first of all, there are many texts that have been revealed to us that cause us to think this way. I mean, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam spoke about the plague and he said that it was a punishment that Allah would unleash on the people before you, by the way. And then he said, and Allah has caused it to be a rahmatan lil mu'minin, a mercy for the believers. Right. We'll come back to that in a second. And then you have also a hadith about, you know, earthquakes, some attributed to the Prophet alayhi salatu wasalam, others to Umar, Aisha radiallahu anha, Ibn Mas'ud and others that say that, you know, when wine is drunk and musical instruments are played and fornication becomes prevalent, then Allah azza wa jal commands the earth to shake beneath them. And so this concept of it being a punishment is established. But I think there's often a false dichotomy between punishment and between purification, whereas they can be one and the same. Because when it came to, for example, there's a hadith in Surah Abu Dawood, you already heard about the plague. The plague could come as a result of a punishment, but it served an additional function for the believers, right? A function of mercy for them. You have another hadith in Abu Dawood when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said, This nation of mine, the believing nation, the Muslims, is a nation that has a special share of Allah's mercy. Its punishment happens in this world, meaning a lot. But it doesn't have a punishment in the hereafter, meaning that punishment is actually a purification, right? For it. And then he gives three examples.
Persecution, basically, and killing and earthquakes. And so this is a means for a person to be punished in this world so that they don't have to face it in the hereafter, or a punishment in this world that could be a means for recourse. The Quran is very clear on that. We shall cause them to taste the lesser punishment before the greater punishment so that they may reform, so that they may change course. So to see it as a pure exercise of Allah's wrath, no, Allah is not the vengeful, wrathful God. He is the most merciful God, even if his wrath is extended. And even in that wrath, there is mercy. There is wisdom by Him subhanahu wa ta'ala. Of it is that it purifies people, of it is that it wakes up people and allows them better standing the day they meet Allah Azza wa Jal. One of the great things that I see in our religion is that for every existential question that exists, we generally have a pretty concise, straightforward, understandable answer for all ages. I love that about our religion. One question that's come up is why, and I kind of, I'm starting to hear the answer already, based on your last answer, but why would Allah allow for this to happen in Muslim lands? You know, you mentioned the punishment of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala being, one of the things of natural disasters, sometimes it is a punishment and we have, you know, cases in our religion that points to that. You mentioned that if people are drinking wine and there's fornication, that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will punish those people. Well, the earthquake was in a Muslim land and typically speaking,
the last few natural disasters have existed in many Muslim lands. So how do I make sense of that? There could be a cognitive bias here because number one, we could be focusing on how many natural disasters, not the gravity of the natural disasters, or we could be looking at one natural disaster and not another. I don't think this hadith means that Muslims will be punished more often. I just mean that it has a superior function for someone that believes in Allah azza wa jal when it does happen. But I mean, look at the Haiti earthquake in 2010. That took, you know, upwards of 250,000 lives. 300,000 lives were lost in that earthquake. And that is not a Muslim majority country. Let's step a little bit outside of, you know, death tolls. The 10 most common places to have earthquakes. I actually looked this up recently because of the discussion that you and I hear in certain circles because we're so Muslim focused. You feel like it's always happening to us. Why only us or why usually us? The 10 top countries for earthquakes, two out of the top 10 only are Muslim majority countries, Indonesia and Turkey. The rest are not. Do we not consider the death toll of COVID a natural occurrence? I mean, who lost what the United States lost? 1.1 million people. Death toll in the US of COVID. Right or wrong? And so I don't think we're looking at this the right way. And Allah knows best. If you spend a few minutes just looking at the photos of those who've passed away in this recent earthquake, the one photo that comes to mind immediately is the one of the newborn
who was actually delivered in the rubble. You know, so this newborn lost their whole family, and they're going to be born into this world without a family. And I mean, what do you say to that child when they grow up to know what happened? What's your message to them? Where does Allah fit in that newborn's life? You know, the problem of evil, I just need to be honest, right? And I will come back to the very raw emotions that I too felt and continue to feel about the likes of these captures, right? The problem of evil causing people to have negative sentiments towards God, the problem of evil is the number one line of argument, statistically speaking, for people that quote-unquote are atheists. Okay, I'm familiar with this. But that statistic is in the Western world. That statistic is in the modern world. It's rather ironic that in the parts of the world that have weaker infrastructure and go through more difficulties, economically speaking, and they don't sustain natural disasters as well, and all of this, this does not drive them away from God. It's weird how they don't need answers to these questions the way we do. And that speaks to the fact that there is something spiritually wrong with a person that has this deficit mindset. I just, this is the frank truth. Allah Azza wa Jal, you know, says, the human being is ever a denier of the favors of his Lord. You know, that you only count the
calamities. Why didn't God do this? And why didn't God do that? And I know, of course, you're sharing a question that may be posed to you or a challenge sometimes by antagonists to our faith that are posed to us. But at the end of the day, people are sitting on one side of the world in their luxury saying, why is God doing it that way? In their sense of God complexes, their entitlements, while those actually going through so much duress. I saw this amazing capture of a man still in the rubble asking people to pass him wudu water. They're telling him, you just tap the dirt. He's saying, no, I want wudu water. I need to make my prayers. Right. He's still in love with his Lord. Allah has blessed him with the virtue of faith to see through it all, not to need an answer for these questions. That's very important. All of the heartache that we feel for the people that are suffering is not just correct heartache and very noble of us, but we need to recognize that Allah is the one who put that mercy in our hearts to begin with. Subhanahu wa ta'ala. You know, speaking of a baby, you know, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, his grandson was dying, the son of Zaynab, his daughter, his eldest daughter salallahu alayhi wa sallam. And he was incapable of being with her in that moment. And her baby was dying. And so he said to the companions, go back to her and say, belonging to Allah is everything he takes and belonging to Allah is everything he gives. And everything has an appointment with him. Be patient and await your great reward. And then she sent back a message. You have to come. You have to come. And he finally was able to get to her in time. And he was watching the baby. His soul was rattling as it was exiting this infant. And so the eyes of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam overflowed with tears. And so the companions didn't understand, like you're the one who tells us to just trust God
and accept God's decree and all of this, but you're crying right now. And he said, Innaha rahma ja'alaha Allahu fee quloobi man yashaa'u min ibaadi. This is a mercy, what you're seeing, human compassion, empathy. This is a mercy that Allah places in the hearts of those he wishes. And Allah will only have mercy on those who have mercy in their hearts. We all need to have this feeling inside us. But at the same time, we recognize that just because we have mercy in our hearts, doesn't mean we are more merciful than others. More merciful than God himself. That's the meaning of arhamur rahimeen, the most merciful of those who show mercy. Rather, he is the source of the mercy in all of our hearts. And you know, think of a baby. What would I say to the baby? I would, you know, reverse the question on people, not in the argumentative sense, but what would you say to baby Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam? Right? Never got to see his father's face, right? Never got to feel his mother's embrace. He is picked up by his grandfather who dies shortly thereafter that. And then he is, the problem with the son of Adam, the human being, is that he is so short-sighted, right? You step out, in hindsight, it becomes 2020. Allah was building him to be the orphan, as they say, that adopted the world, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Right? So we have to be very careful about this issue of like, how come this baby or this family has to go through that? It is not our place to ask this at all. You know, if we were thinking correctly, or our state of heart before our state of mind was in the right place, we would be fair with our Lord. And we would ask, hey, why does every baby get born healthy? Right? Why don't we count those? Why do we only count the misfortunes and we don't count the favors?
Because you know, if you see the good from God, which is the norm, the prevalent norm, like how much does your blood flow versus the times that it clogs? How long are you healthy versus the times that you're sick? How long do the planets synchronize in orbit versus collide and come to a collision? How long is a volcano dormant versus the times that it actually erupts? If you were to see the good as the overwhelming norm, only then can you begin to process evil. Right? Only then. You know, a great example I once heard was, like you go through, imagine a mansion of 400 rooms, and they're all more impressive than each other. Technologically speaking, architecturally speaking, mind blowing. Right? Then you get to one room, that's just, you know, wires sticking out of the walls, and it's a mud house, and it's a rut. You would not conclude, oh man, this is a nasty engineer. You would say, no, there must be an explanation here. That's what you would conclude, based on you seeing the exception, seeing the norm. Without recognizing that God is a good, gracious God, without being fair with your Lord, you will never be able to figure this out. Right? Maybe they ran out of money. It wasn't the engineer's fault. That's why the room looks like that. Maybe the owner wanted to remember before he was rich, he wanted to remember his humble beginning, so he asked for the room that way. Maybe there's an explanation. But that's only possible after you recognizing the other 400 rooms. But when you stop someone and say, hey, how come God does this? And how come God does that? And atheists love to do this. They love to get you a nice, gruesome scene, appeal to emotion, and you explain to me how a God can ever accept that happening. And that's why they always say, by the way, they refuse the bigger picture. They say, and don't say because of the Day of Judgment. Because they know, if there is a hereafter, the entire argument falls apart. I mean, that child that is devastated and then killed, for instance.
Allah gives them another life in a better world that doesn't end. Has God been fair with them? No, he hasn't been fair with them. He's been gracious with them, SubhanAllah, right? He's been generous. He has upgraded them. And so that is a completely different perspective. That is the Quranic perspective that we need to have, especially for us as Muslims. And we have to stave off and hold off anything else. You know, I'll stop with this, I promise. But I remember the tennis legend, Arthur Ashe. Arthur Ashe was diagnosed with HIV. He had a blood transfusion and it was contaminated. And so he contracted HIV. And all the fan mail he was getting, someone said to him, why you? Right? Why you of all people? Why God let this happen to you? And so he wrote back to them that, you know, 50 million kids in the world try to learn how to play tennis. And 5 million of them actually learn. And 500,000 of them go pro. And out of that 500,000, 50,000, you know, make it to the circuit. And then 5,000 make it to the Grand Slam. And then, you know, 50 make it to Wimbledon. And then 4 get to the semis and 2 make it to the finals. He said, when I won the finals, when I raised that trophy above my head, I never asked God, why me? How come I'm the one who got the trophy? And so I'm not going to ask God today with my HIV, why me? That is the perspective of the believer. JazakAllah khair. I appreciate it. I appreciate you taking the time to dig deeper than most Muslims, I think, around this topic of evil. I'm going to ask a similar question and then we're going to move on to our responsibility as an Ummah.
But just one final question, just to summarize all your learnings on this problem of evil. Assume someone is Sinsi, Sheikh. Assume that they don't have that evil presumption of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They genuinely care. I can understand if someone, their faith is wavering or if they're not believing that they might have questions on this topic of evil. But if someone is truly believing, you know, and believes in Allah's wisdom and the plan and believes in the hereafter and sees this suffering and sees so many people around that person, around them, talking about Allah as someone who is obsessed with evil, like they're surrounded in this environment. What is your message to that person? How do they stay strong when they're faced with a wave of negativity around Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? You need to not underestimate the power of socialization, social conditioning. The Quran, you know, when it speaks about community members that were actually dissenters, not true believers, Allah Azza wa Jal criticized some of the believers for giving them an ear. He said subhanahu wa ta'ala, وَفِيكُمْ سَمَّعُونَ لَهُمْ And among you are those who underestimate just listening. This is not harmless, you know, when something is repeated, it is reinforced. And so you need to position yourself in a way that will allow you to see things with God's light. You must, you must position yourself in a way to develop a Quranic worldview, a Quranic paradigm. And that's not a one and done.
You have to develop that and then you have to also protect it. This is so liberating, to be honest. When the Quran speaks about the mushrikeen who say, أَنُو طَعِبُ مَن لَوْ يَشَاءُ اللَّهُ أَطْعَمَةٌ You know, they're trying to just look for a cop out from their responsibilities. And they say, are we going to feed the poor? Are we going to feed those whom had Allah willed, He would have fed them? This is a whole class of people now. They act like they care about the poor. They act like they're empathic, but they're just sitting there looking for excuses to not be truly selfless, be truly invested in the well-being of others. There are many people that have many different motives and prerogatives for speaking the way they speak and conversing the way they converse. And a lot of it is self-validation. And you're subjecting yourself to that and you think, oh, it's just an honest, honest question. No, it could have very different roots. The curiosity you have and sort of the criticism someone else has may at face value seem similar, but they come from very different places and they can deliver you to very different outcomes. Sheikh, talking about responsibilities, and let's just say as a practicing Muslim, I don't want to pass the buck. I believe this is my responsibility. I need to do something. What is my responsibility here? Where does it start? Where does it stop? Am I supposed to be making dua for them and maybe donate to my local charity? Have I done enough if I do those two things? This question varies, right? Of course. Keep in mind, if you want to know your station with Allah, as Ibn Ata said, a beautiful principle. If you want to know your station with Allah, know where Allah has stationed you. If Allah has stationed you in a place to be a believer in a world of doubters, stoke the
flames of your faith, keep reading the Quran, as we said, and protect that. And then now, if Allah has placed you in a place of competence or strength, when people around you are in a position of weakness, right? Leverage that strength for his sake. If that means building awareness about the cause, if that means mobilizing locally or domestically or internationally, whatever it may be, there is so much I think that can be done. Do seek sort of the paths of least resistance. See what Allah has opened for you and know that this has become a communal obligation for us all, meaning we are all liable to the extent of our capacity. And so he will only ask us our capacity, but just have a moment of pause with yourself and see what is my capacity? How can I best help financially in terms of promoting and inviting to the cause and mobilizing people for it and bolstering the faith of the faithful and all of this is necessary. One final question, Sheikh, my nine-year-old niece, she also has a question around this topic. She knocks on your door and she asks in her simple terms, why would Allah allow this earthquake to happen? How does Sheikh Mohammed respond? I would tell her our Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam promised us that when the reward of those who went through tragedies is distributed on the day of judgment, those who did not go through tragedies will wish that their very bodies were mutilated out of aspiring for that reward. And he said to us, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, that on the day of judgment, Allah will bring
about the person who went through the most painful adversities in this life, the most painful experiences in this life, the one who suffered the absolute most from those that are destined for paradise, and he will only dip them for a moment in paradise and then ask them, have you ever gone through any hardship, ever gone through any difficulty? And they will swear, oh Allah, by your might, I've never gone through any negative experience. They are not lying, but simply a dip in the next world obliterates and evaporates anything wrong that could have ever gone wrong in this world. Sheikh, Jazakallah khair for your work on this topic of evil. You wrote an article, why do people suffer, God's existence and the problem of evil. You've researched this so well and I appreciate you spending the time to respond in real time to a major tragedy. May Allah give the families patience and may Allah allow us to help them and support them. Jazakallah khair for your time and BarakAllah Feek Sheikh.
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