Ravaging Plagues Of The Past And Muslim Reaction
THEY FLOCKED TO THE MUSAAJID, SMASHED THEIR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, REPENTED FOR THEIR ZINA AND SPILLED THEIR WINES, BUT IT WAS TOO LATE! ALAS!
THE ATHAAB TOOK ITS COURSE TO ITS PRESCRIBED LIMIT
The following is a brief account of a devastating plague which hit and devastated Muslim lands in the year 449 Hijri. It is an account by Sibt Ibn Al-Jawzi (Rahmatullah alayh):
“In Jumāda ‘l-Ākhirah [of the year 449] a letter arrived from Bukhārā from Transoxiana that an unprecedented and unheard of pandemic occurred there such that 18,000 caskets (Janaazahs) came out of this region in a single day! Those that died were counted and they were 1,650,000, up to the writing of this letter.
Those who survived passed through these lands and saw nothing but empty stores and locked doors. The pandemic spread to Azerbaijan and then to Ahwāz, Baṣrah and Wāsiṭ, and other regions. Large pits were dug and 35 people would be dumped in them. The copy of a letter written from Samarkand to Balkh arrived at Baghdād stating that each day 5,000, 6,000 or more righteous Muslims are being buried, and the stores are shut, and the people are engaged night and day in burying their dead, and bathing them and shrouding them.
Every house in which death entered, it would overtake them all. From the houses of the heads and elite, more than 2000 houses of the city were shut, neither old nor young, nor free nor slave, nor heir remained.
All the people repented and gave in charity most of their wealth. They spilled wine and smashed musical instruments, and remained attached to the Masjids and reciting Qur’ān, and the women in the homes were doing likewise.
Every house in which was wine, its inhabitants died in one night. Whoever had an unlawful woman with him, both died together. The administrator of a Masjid who died had 50,000 dirhams and none accepted it. They were kept for nine days as they were in the Masjid, and then four people came and took them and died with them. Everyone who bequeathed to another, the one bequeathed to died before the testator. Each pair of Muslims between whom was distance (i.e. had become enemies), but did not reconcile died. 700 jurists were with Faqīh ‘Abdul Jabbār ibn Aḥmad and ‘Abd al-Jabbār and other jurists died.
We came upon a sick person whose death throes extended for seven days and he pointed with his finger to a room of the house which we entered and searched and found wine in a container so we turned it upside down and Allāh saved him from death.
It has been said from the start of Shawwāl to the end of Dhu ‘l-Qa‘dah, the caskets (janaazahs) that came out of the doors of Samarkand were counted, and they came to 236,000. (This is besides the mass burials). This pandemic originated in Turkistan, a land of disbelievers, and then came from there to lands of Sāghūn, Kāsghar, Shāsh, Farghānah and those regions and reached Samarkand on the 27th of Ramaḍān of this year.
(Mir’āt al-Zamān, 19:12-14)
(Translation, not by The Majlis)
COMMENT (By Mujlisul Ulama):
“Verily, the Athaab (Punishment) of your Rabb is dreadfully severe.” (Qur’aan)
In the entire history of Islam, from its very inception, to a few weeks ago, NEVER were any Musaajid closed by Muslims, neither by Muslim governments nor by the mutawallis nor by the communities. In our era in close proximity to Qiyaamah, the villainy of the closure of the Musaajid and the cancellation of Salaat are the satanic handiwork of the Munaafiqeen in our midst. Allah Ta’ala has made manifest the Munaafiqeen. They are the rubbish molvis, sheikhs and zindeeq doctors masquerading as Muslims. There nifaaq has been advertised by Allah Ta’ala for all and sundry to see and to recognize the traitors lurking within the community.
Whenever Musjids closed in any epidemic, it was not a closure by Muslims or the authorities, it was due to the total or near total decimation of the populace. Bodies were being dumped unceremoniously in mass graves. There was no choice – no option other than to act as they did. No one locked the Musaajid. There were just no Muslims remaining to attend the Musaajid. On the contrary, where there were communities, still alive, they flocked to the Musaajid, supplicating and pleading to Allah Ta’ala. But it was too late. The decree had already gone forth. There was no turning back. The Athaab had to take its course.
Where it was possible, all Muslims flocked to the Musaajid, those affected and those unaffected by the disease. They flocked into the Musaajid, crying and repenting. But once the decree of Athaab has been issued, it followed its trajectory. No dua and no repentance can then avert it. The time for averting the Greater Athaab which brings obliteration in its wake, is when Allah Ta’ala gives us a mild taste of His lesser punishment in order to jolt us into realization. In this regard, the Qur’aan Majeed states:
“Most certainly We shall give them to taste of the lesser Punishment, not the greater punishment, for perhaps they may return (to the Path of Rectitude).”
When the Athaabil Adna (Lesser Punishment) is ignored, then the Divine Ordinance stated in the following Qur’aanic Aayat becomes applicable:
“When We intend to destroy (the people of) a settlement (village, town, city, etc.), then We command its affluent people (i.e. give them unbridled freedom to wallow in their filth of sin and immorality). Thus, they (recklessly) and flagrantly indulge in fisq. Then We utterly destroy them.”
Today, all over the world, Muslims are ignoring the Athaabil Adna, and on the contrary are justifying their fisq, fujoor and kufr. This is the scariest part of the prevailing saga. It is the indication for Athaab of a horrendous and shocking kind which is overshadowing us.
