The Destruction of Great Cities: Wars and
Disasters
One of the pronouncements given to us by
the Prophet (saas) about the End Times is
the following:
Great cities will be ruined and it will
be as if they had not existed the day
before.(Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi
Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir al-Zaman)
In the hadiths,
it is revealed that, in the End
Times, big cities will be destroyed
as if they had never existed. In the
past century, many cities were
destroyed in such a manner. Only two
examples here suffice, Hiroshima
after the atom bomb (above), and
several cities in Chechnya. (right)
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Experts
maintain that the worst natural
disaster the world has known was
Hurricane Mitch in Central America
in 1998.
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The ruin of great cities spoken of in this
hadith brings to mind the destruction that
now arises from war and various natural
disasters. Recently developed nuclear
weapons, aircraft, bombs, missiles, and
other modern weapons, have caused untold
destruction. These terrible weapons have
brought about a degree of destruction
never before seen. Indeed, the great
cities targeted are most affected by this
destruction. The incomparable destruction
of the Second World War is an example of
this. With the use of the atom bomb in
world's greatest war, Hiroshima and
Nagasaki were completely destroyed. As a
result of heavy bombing, European capitals
and other important cities suffered a
great amount of damage. The
Encyclopedia Britannica describes the
damage caused to European cities by World
War II:
The resulting
devastation had turned much of Europe into
a moonscape: cities laid waste or consumed
by fire storms, the countryside charred
and blackened, roads pitted with shell
holes or bomb craters, railways out of
action, bridges destroyed or truncated,
harbors filled with sunken, listing ships.
"Berlin," said General Lucius D. Clay, the
deputy military governor in the U.S. zone
of postwar Germany, "was like a city of
the dead."6
In short, the unprecedented destruction
caused by the Second World War conforms
entirely to that described in the hadith
of the Prophet (saas).
Another cause of the
destruction of major cities is natural
disasters. It is a statistical fact that
the age in which we live has seen an
increase in both the number and the
seriousness of natural disasters. In the
last ten years, disasters caused by
climactic changes are a novel phenomenon.
A dangerous and unwanted by-product of
industry is global warming. Industry is
gradually disturbing the balance in the
world's atmosphere, giving rise to
climactic changes. The year of 1998 was
the hottest on earth since records have
been kept.7
According to the information of the
American National Climate Data Center, the
greatest number of weather-related
disasters occurred in 19988
For example, Hurricane Mitch has been
referred to by a number of observers as
the world's worst natural disaster ever to
strike Central America.9
In the last few years, hurricanes, storms,
typhoons and other such disasters have had
a destructive effect on the American
continent as well as in several other
places in the world. In addition, floods
have caused mudslides, which have engulfed
certain centers of population.
Furthermore, earthquakes, volcanoes and
tidal waves have also caused great
devastation. Therefore, all this
destruction brought on upon the great
cities by these calamities is an important
sign in each case.
In the last
century, a great number of disasters
have occurred. In numerous
countries, destruction has taken
place as a result of which millions
have lost their lives. These events
are a striking parallel to that
mentioned in the hadiths as signs of
the End Times. People should now
take lessons from these occurrences
and adopt the moral teachings of the
Qur'n.
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2001 CAME WITH DISASTERS
The twentieth century is most
frequently characterized as the
century of disasters. Many deaths
were caused by natural disasters
such as earthquakes, hurricanes and
floods; while many others were
caused by civil war, conflicts and
by great accidents on the sea and in
the air. And this situation has
remained unchanged in the first
years of the twentyfirst century.
The destruction of cities and the
annihilation of its peoples appears
in the hadiths as signs of the Last
Day.
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2001 CAME WITH
DISASTERS
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USA
11 persons of the same family died in
a fire. In a fire in California, at
least 2320 hectares of land was
destroyed and thousands of people left
their homes. |
NORTHERN EUROPE
The coldest weather ever seen grasped
Denmark, northern Germany, Norway and
Sweden, many traffic accidents
occurred, public transportation came
to a halt. |
HOLLAND
9 people died in a cafeteria fire. |
POLAND
28 people froze to death. |
THE UKRAINEA
Ukrainian ship sank in the Black Sea,
20 people died. |
RUSSIA
150 people froze to death. |
COLOMBIA
A clash between leftists and
rightists, and conflicts caused 116
deaths. |
SPAIN
A train collided with a van on the
tracks. 11 people died. ETA's
terrorism continues. |
FRANCE
6 people die in a fire. |
GERMANY
4 people die in a plane crash. |
BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA
16 people die in a bus accident. |
CHINA
56 people die in sea accidents, 21 die
in two plane accidents and 37 are
killed in a methane explosion. |
COSTA RICA
23 persons died over New Year's. |
ALGERIA
59 die in five assaults, and 8 die in
skirmishes. |
ITALY
4 people died while celebrating the
New Year, more than 800 were injured
by fireworks. |
KAZAKHISTAN
The temperature falls to 52 degrees
below zero, 4 people die. |
THE MIDDLE EAST
Violent skirmishes between Israel and
Palestine. |
CHECHNYA
50 die in bloody skirmishes. |
THE SEA OF OMAN
A Pakistani vessel sank, 35 people
die. |
AFGHANISTAN
In 10 days, more than 700 Afghans died
of hypothermia. |
KOREA
10 die in a snow storm |
EL SALVADOR
2000 die in an earthquake. |
EQUADORE
A tanker run
aground off the Galapagos Islands
released hundreds of tons of oil into
the sea. It was an environmental
disaster that shocked the whole world. |
BRAZIL
Hundreds of people are injured in a
fight that broke out in a square in
Sao Paolo where 1 million people were
celebrating the New Year. |
SUDAN
22 persons die in a minibus accident. |
HONDURAS
24 persons were killed, most of them
with firearms. |
PARAGUAY
In a month and a half 33 people were
murdered, or died as the result of
traffic accidents, electrocution, and
drowning. |
THE CONGO
50 dead in a train accident. |
ZAMBIA
A ship sank claiming 16 lives. |
SOUTH AFRICA
70 die of cholera, 14 die after being
struck by lightening. |
VENEZUELA
24 passengers died in an airplane
accident. |
IRAN
18 die in a snow storm. |
KENYA
30 villagers die in an attack by
cattle thieves. |
PAKISTAN
24 die in a bus accident, 15 in a
train accident. |
ETHIOPIA
7 fall victim to religious clashes. |
MOZAMBIQUE
8000 people homeless after violent
rain storms. |
INDIA
More than 30 thousand die in an
earthquake that measured 7.9 on the
Richter Scale, 125 die of hypothermia
and 4 die in a helicopter accident. |
BANGLADESH
31 persons die of hypothermia and 250
perish in traffic accidents. |
JAPAN
No day passes without an earthquake. |
SRI LANKA
108 people die in clashes. |
THE PHILIPPINES
Violent rain storms paralyze the
economy. |
Natural
disasters, which have not been
preventable despite advances in
modern technology, have shown just
how helpless humanity can be.
Earthquakes, mudslides, volcano
eruptions, floods, and especially
the destruction of large cities, are
all important signs.
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