In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent the Merciful'O you who have attained to faith! Seek help through steadfast patience and prayer: He is with those who are patient-' (2:153)WHENEVER the Almighty decides to put His wishes to action, our Prophet (s.a.w) reminds us, He deprives men and women of their intuition; wisdom becomes folly, knowledge becomes ignorance. Once His Will is eventuated on His creatures, humanity scampers right and left in disarray, in complete quandary, in utter helplessness.We begin to look for explanations where we cannot find one; we desire to know what we could not have known ab initio. As humans we begin to ask the why question' Why has this happened here' Why has this happened today' In the heat of the moment, when emotion overtakes reason, when reason trumps revelation, the victim or his relative might even question the Almighty: why me' Why me' Why has this happened to me'Brethren, our religion teaches us that the Almighty commands that which is good and allows same to happen as an end in itself. He does not command evil but does allow it to occur not as an end but as a means towards a noble end. In other words, when disasters occur, humans by nature become manacled in the limited experience of the now; we are unable to see beyond the now. We are weighed down under the seemingly ineluctable gravity of the portentous tragedies of the present. Our emotions consequently purblind us to the other reality: that life is like an open book, that while humans can only read and relate to the 'present', our Creator, the author of the book, actually knows what the future looks like. He knows how the tragedy of the now will give way for the happiness of tomorrow.Not to recognise this in the way our Creator relates to us is to gloss over two of His attributes- the Beneficent, the Merciful. Both words come from the same root al-rahm, which literally means the 'womb.' In effect, we are reminded that just as the womb seeks the preservation of the fetus through care and nurturing, so does the Almighty cares and seeks our preservation and even more.In a Divine communication to our Prophet, our Creator tells him to tell us that His wrath is inferior and limited when compared to the inimitable and inexhaustible verities of His compassion and mercy. Imagine if the scale were to be the other way round; imagine the number of flights the aviation industry records per day and the millions of passengers who challenge the law of gravity each time they step inside the aircraft; imagine a situation where the Mercy of the Almighty were to be as scarce as the attention of those ruling over us pay to our comfort, then air disasters would have become more frequent than it is presently.Our Prophet says that the Almighty 'divided mercy into a hundred portions. He kept ninety-nine portions for Him, and released one portion onto the earth. It is from this portion that creatures have mercy (towards each other), such that 'a mare would lift her hoof lest it hit her child.'In other words, despite the greatest risk that air travels is, it is still deemed to be the safest. Thus when disasters like that of the Dana Air of last Sunday occurs, we should exhibit the greatest fortitude that such events demand; we should premise our reactions on the interplay of the unknown and the known.Brethren, for me the unknown in the event of the disaster of last Sunday is hinged on Quran 31 verse 31 to 34 where He says: 'O mankind! Have fear of your Lord and that Day when no father shall avail his son nor a son his father. Surely the promise of Allah is true. Let not the life of this world deceive you, nor let the Deceiver (Satan) deceive you concerning Allah. (33). Surely Allah Alone has the knowledge of the Hour, He is the One Who sends down the rain and He knows what is in the wombs. No one knows what he will earn the next day; and no one knows in what land he will die. Surely, Allah knows all this and is aware of everything.'This verse eloquently speaks to the reality against which we are positioned. In other words, aside from functioning in returning humans back to their origin, their Creator, disasters occur to awaken us to the unseen which undergird our movement; it reminds us that much as we posture to be subjects which enjoy freedom in the phenomena, we are, however, entities fashioned against certain destinies the knowledge of which is with our Creator; we are puns in the chessboard of His Majesty.Brethren, the above is with reference to the unknown. What about the known' This refers to the human factors and to our inadequacies as a nation. Travelling round this country either by road or by air has become a devil's option: none of them is hassle-free. To attempt to travel by road is to be reminded of the failure of governance all around the country. This is because it is no more news that our roads have suffered neglect. Just before the Dana air crash, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway played host to yet another destruction of lives and property when vehicles were caught in a conflagration, which was ignited by a tanker carrying petroleum.Reports of the incident give credence to our reading of the events in the phenomena and the interplay of the supra-normal with the normal. The tanker caught fire in motion. As it did, droplets of fireballs, which trailed its path, were inadvertently taken up, as if in race-track, by vehicles coming from behind. Thus, a big conflagration ensued and, as a result, many souls were lost. One question Nigerians want answered is this: what has happened to the agreement between the federal government and the Bi-Courtney Limited on the reconstruction of the road'Brethren, similar questions are being raised by Nigerians on the air mishap of last Sunday: who could have given clearance for that plane to fly on Sunday despite its 'health' status' How could a pilot, a professional of many years standing, agree to fly a plane whose engine is decrepit' What has happened to reports of previous air disasters in this country' Is it not the case that aviation officials whose duty it is to ensure compliance with aviation rules have succumbed to malaise corruption such that they have become incapable of enforcing safety rules anymore'Brethren, some Nigerians actually missed that flight on Sunday for which they were temporarily sad. When they heard about the disaster they became happy. They did not board the plane because it was not in their destiny to die in that crash. Ali b. Abi Talib says: 'Bear patiently a task whose reward is indispensable to you, and desist from an action whose punishment you are not capable of bearing; withstand the judgment of someone who has nothing but that on which to rely and take refuge in. If trials are met with contentment and patience they are a constant blessing, and if blessings are devoid of gratitude they are an ever-present trial.'(guardianfridayworhip@gmail.com)
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