Meaning of recent earthquake

13/03/2011| IslamWeb

Question:

How should we as Muslims view the earthquake that has happened recently?  And is there a Hadith mentioning one of the signs of the end of time there will be three earthquakes?

 

Fatwa:

 

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His Slave and Messenger.

 

The happening of many earthquakes is among the minor signs of the Day of Judgement. The Prophet said: "The Hour will not happen until knowledge will be uplifted and many earthquakes will take place." [Al-Bukhari] Also, among the signs of the Hour is the occurrence of three major landslides. The Prophet when mentioning the ten signs of the Day of Judgement said: "… and three major landslides, one in the East, one in the West and one in the Arabic peninsula..." [Muslim]

 

 

The earthquakes and other signs in this universe are a lesson for the believer. Allah frightens his slaves with such occurrences so a Muslim should take heed and repent, and fear that what happened to others could have happened to him because of his sins.

 

Besides, among other lessons that a Muslim learns from such an incident is that in the eye of Allah the creation will have no value when they disobey Him [He would careless if they are destroyed or vanish] and should remember by the occurrence of such earthquakes the horror of the Day of Judgement and the destruction that the whole universe will undergo.

 

Allah knows best.

 

Fatwa answered by: The Fatwa Center at Islamweb