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News and Views About the United States
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Your Most Trusted Source of Foreign
News and Views About the United States
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By Abid Ishaq
September 9, 2005
THREE-story casinos were picked up and hurled as far as a mile onto streets and sidewalks when Hurricane Katrina came blasting through over a week ago. According to eyewitnesses, some were split in half, their slot machines spilling out into the Gulf of Mexico. These casinos were responsible for the Gulf Coast’s economic rebirth in the early 1990s and have now mostly been reduced to a tangle of broken rods and twisted metal beams, leaving 14,000 employees without jobs and the waterfront a colossal mess.
To add to these woes, all 13 of the region’s casinos in neighboring areas of Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis are closed, costing the state of Mississippi $500,000 in gambling taxes every day. The state’s offshore gambling industry provides $2.8 billion a year in revenue and $333 million in tax revenue, according to the American Gaming Association.
Dear readers, what I find most appalling during this week-long media coverage is the term “Mother Nature.” Surrounded with all the wreckage and destruction, facing insecurity and loss, residents must be questioning the term. Mothers are caring, loving, nurturing and above all, a source of security and not mayhem. Nature in the same manner points to something relaxing and we often refer to the beauty of nature. Well now, all this really has us questioning the media’s use of the term Mother Nature.
So what exactly is Mother Nature? For Muslims, Hurricane Katrina is a lesson learned. "And none can know the Forces of your Lord, except He." (Quran, 74:31)
"For to Allah belong the Forces of the heavens and the earth." (Quran, 48:7) "Such is the Seizure of your Lord when He seizes the towns while they are doing wrong. Verily, His seizure is painful and severe." (Quran, 11:102)
"When We decide to destroy a town, We (first) send a definite order (to obey Allah and be righteous) to those among them who are given the good things of this life. Then, they transgress therein, and thus the word (of torment) is justified against (them). Then we destroy it with complete destruction." (Quran, 17:16)
Apart from gambling and other vices found in these casinos, many of the residents were completely oblivious to the teachings and commands of the Lord of the Nature. With Hurricane Katrina, the Creator has made clear to His servants a plain reality, that the kingdom of the heavens and the earth is in His Hands, and that He is the Irresistible and Dominant One over His servants.
The aftermath of this hurricane clearly paints the image found in the Quran. "O mankind! Fear your Lord and be dutiful to Him! Verily, the earthquake of the Hour is a terrible thing. The Day you shall see it, every nursing mother will forget her nursling, and every pregnant one shall drop her load, and you shall see mankind as in a drunken state. Yet they will not be drunken, but the Torment of Allah will be severe." (Quran, 22:1-2)
Now imagine the growth and income that these areas have tasted through gambling and the loss they are currently facing. With all these evils in society mushrooming there are many lessons to be learnt for the fortunate. At the same time it is crucial for all of us to recognize the reality of the Lord and not substitute it with terms such as Mother Nature. It is Allah alone who creates and then warns His creation through numerous signs and losses.
"Evil and mischief have appeared on land and sea because of what the hands of men have earned, that Allah may make them taste a part of that which they have done, in order that they may return (by repenting to Allah)." (Quran, 30:41]
"And We sent not the signs except to warn, and to make them afraid (of destruction)." (Quran, 17:59)
Have we been warned enough?
