3
And if you would count the graces of
Allah, never could you be able to count them.
It was still daylight, but the moon was opening like a second earth high above.
Waali pondered over the Surah. Nothing was at rest, he thought. The sands over the hills
were moving by the action of the wind; water was lifted to the sky by the action of the
sun; desert plants moved underground till they reached a wet spot, and palm-trees
reproduced from their root. Even the mountains did not stay in place and moved along
the magma of the planet. Everything was bound to die if created one day, and what
remained from the dead was given to the living. Not only this was beautiful as was
mentioned in the Surah, but it was useful, and plentiful! Why all this?
"This? So men could worship Allah and be thankful," Waali explained one day as for
himself. "If one thinks about it, each time men had shown pride and been stingy and
disobeyed Allah, they had to face consequences. " One day, I said to him:
"In the land I come from, there are many trees, beautiful trees from the developed
countries. Men are strong and well built, and there is plenty for everybody. But when
you look inside of each tree, you can see there is a disease. Trees and men have good
appearance, but at the first gush of wind, they fall down on the ground. Men have
diseases like cancer or asthma in correlation with breathing polluted air and trees are
eaten from inside. Because pollution, like indoor pollution, is not visible to the eye for
many years, people never care about what they waste on earth! They become proud and
act as if they were not responsible personally for the decline of the earth."
He answered:
"They act like this man Allah speaks about in the Qur’an [Al Khaf: verses32-45].
Set forth to them the parable of two men: for one of them We provided two gardens of
grape-vines and surrounded them with date palms; in between the two We placed corn-
fields.
Each of those gardens brought forth its produce, and failed not in the least therein: in the
midst of them We caused a river to flow.
4
The produce of one of the men was abundant, so he said to his companion: 'I have more
wealth than you, and more honor and power (many men follow me). That will never
perish. And the Hour of Judgment will never come.'
His companion answered him: 'Do you deny the existence of Allah Who created you out
of dust, then out of a sperm-drop, then fashioned you into a man? But I believe for my
part that He is Allah, My Lord, and none shall I associate with my Lord. Why did you not
say, as you went into your garden, that there is no power but with Allah. If you do see me
less than you in wealth and sons, it may be that my Lord will give me something better
than that garden.'
Allah was angry with the words of the first man, so He sent thunderbolts from heaven,
and make a slippery sand of the man's garden. The water of the garden ran off
underground so that its fruits (and enjoyment) were encompassed (with ruin), and he
remained twisting and turning his hands over what he had spent on his property, which
had (now) tumbled to pieces to its very foundations, and he could only say, 'Woe is me!
Would I had never ascribed partners to my Lord and Cherisher!'
Nor had he numbers to help him against Allah, nor was he able to deliver himself.
I thought about this story. The attitude of the proud man was so common in the
world, that it had led mankind to many trials. I thought farther about the main disasters
in the world. The first event I remembered was the rainy season in South-East Asia.
Malaysia especially, but also Borneo, Indonesia, Thailand were struck these last years by
many natural disasters. No wonder since one of the rain forest is located in South-East
Asia, and people keep on cutting it down bit by bit. In only a few years, the Rain Forest
had been cut in half! Many medicines came from the Rain Forest, medicines that cannot
be found elsewhere, and also many species of plants and animals that will completely
disappear from the surface of the earth with the deforestation. Forests give us oxygen so
we can breathe and be healthy, and they regulate rainfalls. But this was nothing
compared to the loss of hundreds of lives due to deforestation.
There were these tribesmen who witnessed their villages washed away by the
rain.
Not only everything was destroyed and carried away like people and cattle and
crops, but also their ancient way of life. Hundred of years of civilization were destroyed
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