Floods: Is Allah Testing the People of Pakistan?

Although innumerable testaments from the Holy Quran explicitly prove that Allah has been unleashing His fury in shape of floods, earthquakes, droughts, rains and avalanches on various defiant civilizations since the advent of mankind, these undeniable facts also correlate directly with the major scientific and archaeological finds in recent times.

These destroyed civilizations include the communities where Prophets Moses, Noah, Saleh (AS), Lut/ Lot and Hud had been deputed by Allah to spread His message, but these societies had refused to pay heed to the Creator’s orders.

A cursory glance through the Holy Quran reveals that all these afore-cited prosperous nations were reduced to debris and ashes by Allah’s rage and ferocity, though those who bowed their heads to the divine commandments had survived.

Egyptian kings, known as the “Pharaohs” (Fir’auns) would regard themselves as Divine in the superstitious religion of ancient Egypt.

Moses, whose name has appeared more than any other Prophet in the Quran, was slandered and dubbed a magician by Pharaoh and his men.

Although Allah inflicted various disasters, including a drought to warn the Egyptians for their haughtiness, the non-believers  remained rebellious.

Quran (7:132) describes the response from non-believers:
“They said, no matter what kind of sign you bring us to bewitch us, we will not believe in you.”

Allah states, “We seized Pharaoh’s people with years of drought and scarcity of fruits, so that they would hopefully pay heed. (Quran: 7:130) and “We sent down on them floods, locusts, lice, frogs and blood, which are clear and distinct signs, but they proved arrogant and stuck to their evildoings.” (Quran: 7:133).

This is how Allah ordered Moses to cross the sea along with his followers:
“So We revealed to Musa to strike the sea with his staff The sea split into two, each part like a towering cliff. And We brought the others right up to it. We rescued Musa and all those who were with him. Then We drowned the rest. There is certainly a sign in that, yet most of them are not believers. Truly your Lord is the almighty, the most merciful.” (Quran: 26:63-68).

Naum Volzinger and Alexei Androsov, two Russian mathematicians, proved that Moses could indeed have parted the sea. Contrary to the scientists who had concentrated on the likelihood of such a miracle, the Russian mathematicians opted to examine the conditions leading to the marvel.

According to their study, published in the Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a reef did once exist close to the Red Sea. From there, the scientists set about establishing the speed of the wind and the strength of the storm needed to leave the reef high and dry at low tide.

Resultantly, it became apparent that a wind speed of 30 metres per second would have caused the sea to retract, leaving the reef exposed.

Naum Volzinger, working for the Institute of Oceanography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, had stated in his research paper, “If the East wind blew all night at a speed of 30 metres per second, then it would have left the reef dry. It would thus have taken the 0.6 million Jews around four hours to cross the 7-km reef that ran from one coast to another. In half an hour, the waters would have come back.”

Volzinger asserted, “I am convinced that God rules the Earth through the laws of Physics.”

In the 19th Century, a papyrus (document) was discovered in Egypt. The papyrus was taken to the Leiden Museum in Holland and translated in 1909. The details in this document regarding the disasters that struck the people of Egypt are just as described in the Quran.

This is how papyrus refers to these catastrophes, later described in the Quran: “Plague is throughout the land. Blood is everywhere. The river is full of blood. Lower Egypt weeps as grains have perished. Towns have been destroyed by the mighty tides.”

Regarding devastating floods in the time of Prophet Noah, this is what Allah states in the Quran (29:14): “We sent Nuh to his people and he remained among them for  50 short of 1,000 years; yet the flood engulfed them as they  were wrongdoers.”

Noah had warned people of his time that they should serve Allah alone, but non-believers rejected him and continued to associate partners with Allah’s Oneness.

Quran (7:64) describes destruction of Noahh’s people:
“But they denied him so We rescued him and those with him in the Ark. And then We drowned the people who  denied Our Signs. They were blind people.”

Before the great floods came, this is what Allah revealed to Prophet Noah: “Build the ship under Our supervision and as We reveal. When Our command comes and water bubbles up from the earth, load into it a couple of every species and your family, except for those among them against whom the word has already gone ahead. And do not address Me concerning those who do wrong. They shall be drowned.” (Quran, 23:27).

Apart from those who boarded Noah’s Ark, the entire tribe was drowned. The dead included the Prophet’s son. Following the destruction, Allah addressed the Earth and the Heavens:
“Earth, swallow up your water! Heavens, hold back your rain!”

Soon after this divine commandment, the water subsided and the Ark came to rest on Mount Al-Judi. German archaeologist Werner Keller has endorsed the fact that a flood had rocked this region once.

Allah says in Quran (54:11-13): “So We opened the gates of heaven with torrential water and made the earth burst forth with gushing springs. And the waters met together in a way which was decreed. We bore him on a planked and well-caulked ship.”

According to the Quran, which has till date been translated in 103 languages, the Pharaoh’s body and Nuh’s Ark have been kept as admonishing examples for future generations.

Lut was sent as a Messenger for a tribe that practiced sodomy. According to the Quran, when Lut told his people to abandon one of the greatest sins, they rejected him and refused to abandon their pervert lifestyle. As a result, the tribe was destroyed in a terrible disaster by Allah.

Quran (7:80-81) describes it: “And Lot/Lut asked his people if they committed an obscenity not perpetrated before them by anyone in all the worlds.  Lut told the people of the tribe that they had lust for men instead of women, dubbing them a depraved lot.”

Allah further says:
“We rained down a rain upon them. See the final fate of the evildoers!” (Quran, 7:84) and “We will bring down on the inhabitants of this city a devastating punishment from heaven because of their deviance. We have left a clear sign of them behind for people who use their intellect.” (Quran, 29:34-35)

Scientific evidence revealed that these people, who lived to the north of Red Sea, were destroyed in a manner compatible  with the description in the Quran. 

Archaeological excavations have revealed that the city lay close to the Dead Sea on the present-day Israeli-Jordanian border. According to scientists, the area is covered in large deposits of Sulphur, an element that oozes out after volcanic eruptions. For this reason, no life is to be found there and the region stands as a symbol of destruction.

Evidence from the Quran suggests that the method of destruction used here was earthquakes and volcanic eruption. German archaeologist Werner Keller writes:
The destruction of the city of Sodom came about through a great earthquake which was probably accompanied by explosions, lightning, natural gas and general conflagration. The subsidence released volcanic forces that had been lying dormant deep down along the whole length of the fracture.

In the upper valley of Jordan, there are still towering craters of extinct volcanoes; great stretches of lava and deep layers of basalt have been deposited on the limestone surface. These layers of lava and basalt are the most important evidence showing that a volcanic eruption and earthquake once took place there.”

Geologists revealed that the earthquake which wiped out the people of Lut, came about as the result of a long fault line. The Jordan River drops a total of 180 metres during its 190 km course. This, and the fact that the Dead Sea is 400 metres below sea level, combined to prove that that a major geological event did take place here once.

Long ago, the community of Saba was one of the four biggest civilizations which lived in South Arabia.

The Ma’rib Dam, which was one of the most important monuments of this civilization, gave ample proof of the technological advancement this community had reached.

The Sabaean state had one of the strongest armies in the region, making the Sabaean state one of the “super powers” of its era. This extraordinarily strong army of the Sabaean state is also described in the Quran.

An expression of the commanders of the Saba army relatedin the Quran, shows the extent of the confidence this army had in itself.

Quran (27:33) describes how Queen Saba’s commanders used to call out to her:
“We possess strength and we possess great force. But the matter is in your hands so consider what you command.”

Courtesy the Ma’rib Dam, the people of Saba possessed an enormous irrigation capacity and soil fertility. However, instead of thanking Allah for all this, the Quran revealed that these prosperous people actually “turned away from their Creator.”

This flood is described in the Qur’an (34:15-17) in the following verses:
“Allah had gifted two Gardens, one to the right and one to the left, to the people of Saba. But they turned away [from Allah] and We sent against them the Flood (released) from their dams and converted their two garden rows into “gardens” producing bitter fruit and tamarisks and some few [stunted] Lote-trees. That was the Requital We gave them because they ungratefully rejected Faith. And never do We give (such) requital, except to those who are ungrateful rejectors.”

The Holy Quran (15:80-84) also mentions about the destruction of the people of Al-Hijr, the nation of Saleh. “The people of Al-Hijr denied the Messengers. We brought them Our Signs but they turned away from them. They carved out houses from the mountains, feeling safe, but
 the Great Blast seized hold of them in the morning. So all they had earned was of no use to them.”

The Quran (7:74) had referred to the expertise of Al-Hijr  civilization in stonework as follows “Saleh asked his people to be thankful for Allah’s blessings bestowed upon them. Saleh told his people that they had built palaces on plains and had carved out houses from the mountains, which was a divine bounty upon them. Saleh had urged the people of Al-Hijr not to go about the earth, corrupting it.”

Hud, whose name has been mentioned seven times in the Quran, was deputed for the idol-worshiping community of A’ad.

According to Quran, A’ad became so proud of their physical strength that they completely forgot their Creator and fearlessly worshiped idols fearlessly.

Initially, the divine punishment for them was a drought, but despite Hud (AS)’s teachings and Allah’s warning, this nation was not ready to take note.

The promised punishment hence ensued. Violent tornadoes raged continuously for eight days and seven nights. All the buildings were decimated.

The powerfully built muscular men, who used to boast of their physical prowess, were left lying on the ground like the hollow trunks of fallen palm trees.

Hud and his followers were saved from this grievous punishment through Allah’s Mercy.

Not different was the fate of the Samood community, which was destroyed by an earthquake, for their arrogance.”