Zalzallah (as Grandma keeps saying)
Thursday 13th October 2005 07:57:00 AM
We all know about the tragic incident that has taken place in Pakistan. An earthquake struck Islamabad and Muzaffarabad on Saturday 8th October reaching 7.6 on the richter scale leading to thousands of deaths (40 the last I heard).
The first action everyone took in my family (and I imagine other families doing the same) was to ring and find out if their loved ones were in good health.
I haven't mentioned it here that we have Grandma (Mum's mum) living with us for two weeks now, so she was in panic mode as one can expect. Although she is fine about leaving her homeland for the first time in her life, she is in constant contact with them nearly everyday and was hysterical when she heard the news.
Obviously she couldn't get through on the day of the earthquake as the rest of the UK desi's were doing the same thing ineffect jamming the lines. When she did get through she was speaking to her 22 year old son. I was surprised at the conversation especially about her theory for the quake.
After numerous assurances from her son that everyone is ok and him telling her that there is luckily enough only 1 person injured and no deaths in the village, she began to calm down.
As you can expect from the older generation she then started telling him to pray especially now that it is Ramazan, and as she said that she followed it up with her beliefs of why the quake occured.
Her theory was Allah was punishing the muslim's because they were doing every haram (wrong/sinful) thing in the book and then went through a list to prove her point, e.g. premarital sex, gambling, drinking (alcohol), neglecting parents/family, etc.
Isn't it weird how old people have thier own theories to everything? I, for one, don't agree with her because I believe God would not punish his own people for any reason whatsoever. I was kinda annoyed by her views and no, I don't have an opinion on why this stuff happens (and I don't want to).
Moving on a bit, a friend at work told me how a girl and her father from his street (in Bradford) had died in the Muzaffarad earthquake and that his area was chock-a-block with cars as people visited the grieving family. He went on to say the girl went to Pak to get married and her father had gone alongside her to give her away.
Sooo sad I know. To make matters worse she was only 23-24 years old and had only just finished her degree. Poor girl didn't live to see her wedding. May father & daughter rest in peace and may Allah grant them paradise, Ameen.
Posted by Piniyini
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It's so sad.
Old people do tend to develop these silly theories about stuff. I think it just happens with no rhyme or reason. Glad everyone in the village is okay!
it's just horrible. :-(
You will not believe the various reasoning i am hearing over here. Everything from the taliban to the party in margalla towers the previous night. How does anyone know God's reasoning? And if people think Pakistan is bad, how about saudi arabia hu?
I think i am just around older people, and i have to ignore it...
Oh Toseef, you're so good for my ego. It's unfortunatley that the family thing with beau is only part of the prob. Denial doesn't help. Anyway, it's a sad thing to experience, especially if one is afraid of eternal spinsterhood and consequently having no babies to play with!
Anyway, where have you been all this while? My rozas are terrible. I only fasted last weekend and now i'm on the rag, so this has probably been the worst observation of ramzan in my life. Working and fasting is just something i am really afriad of doing. I am going to gather up the balls to do it at some point. Anyway, great to hear from you. Keep writing!
S
there is some updates on the situation in pak earthquake zone by a brother who is currently visiting the area
http://islamiblog.blogspot.com