The earthquake in Turkey and Syria is undoubtedly the main news of the day, overshadowing many political and even military events, especially for the Muslim information space. We once again express our condolences to all the victims and their relatives and ask the Almighty for His mercy and support for them. And as they say in Turkey in such cases, geçmiş olsun — let it remain in the past.
But even though this event has overshadowed political issues from a human perspective, attempts have been made to politicize it and sometimes even to make religious judgments or accusations based on it, often of a specific nature. Some remembered that Turkey helped or did not help this or that, or that this or that is happening there, for which it could have suffered such a fate.
People! There is no doubt that everything that happens is from Allah, and that He gives meaning to everything that happens. Sometimes it is a punishment, sometimes a test, and sometimes it is something whose meaning is revealed only after some time. And in such a situation, those who attribute an arbitrary and limited meaning to the phenomena sent by Allah from their own minds are in fact claiming to act as the Creator and Judge, may Allah protect us from this.
It should also be understood that the area where this happened is seismically active, and this is not the first, and unfortunately not the last earthquake to occur there, although it is the most destructive in several decades. Furthermore, seismologist Frank Hugerbiths, based on his observations of the seismosphere in this region, predicted as early as February 3 that a magnitude 7.5 earthquake would occur there in the near future.
Certainly, there are those who would like to speculate as to why the authorities did not take action at that time. But what can be done in this case? An earthquake never announces in advance that it will occur at a specific time in a specific area, and no country can afford to evacuate the population of entire provinces from their homes for an indefinite period of time based solely on individual predictions that are sometimes justified, but often not.
There is also the question of construction standards in terms of the seismic resistance of buildings. But here it can be said that in some cases new structures withstood the impact while old ones did not. This indicates that something is being done to improve this area.
In short, the Turkish (and Syrian — let’s not forget it) people will have a lot to discuss in this context, also within the framework of the pre-election campaign that is starting in the country. But right now, what they need is human sympathy and support, especially from fellow believers around the world, not gloating, judging and accusing against the backdrop of smoking ruins and the cries of people who have lost their loved ones.