Earthquake in Pakistan: Making sense of Saturday

Don’t blame me

There are events that seep into the consciousness of men, waken them from slumber, and, for better or worse, make them view the world anew.

For many in Pakistan, Saturday’s quake did just that. It was around 8:50 in the morning Pakistan time. Children were settling in their desks at school, their foreheads still moist from a kiss from mom, men were heading to their places of work, and women were tending to their homes. Then, suddenly, the earth shook asunder, and within seconds, walls and roofs collapsed, and what formerly served as shelter now had become a prison.

Forty thousand dead. Maybe more. Some speak of a generation lost in areas such as Balakot, where hundreds of schoolchildren died in the area’s government school. The window for the period of rescue has essentially closed, and recovery in many places remains untenable. All some can do is turn through the pages of a lost child’s textbook, or stare at the tiny foot of a young girl, protruding from a colossal pile of stone and earth.

Why did this happen? Why in the month of Ramadan? Soon the race to determine God’s Intent will begin. He punished us for helping America, some will say. Others will add the supposed causative role of beginning the normalization of relations with Israel. Some may say we are impious – heedless of God’s Laws and Commandments. Yes, God determines all; but we can’t determine God. Nor can we simply attribute this to nature. It is true that this is about the movement of landmasses and the positioning of areas along volatile plates. But this is not a matter for scientists to give us meaning. These are moments, tragedies marked by immensity of meaning, as much as immensity of pain.

For the living, the death of others should cause the death of their own self, the recognition of one’s fragility and lack of control, and the insignificance of our regular wonts. Relinquishing one’s own desires to serve the lost, the bereaved, the desperate, and the injured. Trials are moments of passion. But the passion should not dissipate in full. Store as much as one can. Don’t let it go away once the tragedy slides away from one’s immediate consciousness, when the pain subsides, and when Ramadan says goodbye.

One might ask, why did God take so many children? The Prophet Muhammad (may God’s Peace and Blessings be upon him) tells us that those who die taht ar-radm, or under debris, are shuhada, or martyrs. They shall meet their Lord in Heaven. Though they departed from us in a painful way, and the vacuum that is their absence is a void filled with hurt, a bounty awaits them. We are told by God in a Hadith Qudsi that His Mercy outweighs His Wrath. He is ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim. And so the innocents will enjoy a splendor that outweighs the violence that took them that morning.

From the living come stories of hope. The 75-year old grandmother who was rescued today from the Margalla Towers, Islamabad’s Ground Zero, without a broken bone. The man in Muzaffarabad who dug through the wreckage of a building with his own hands and successfully retrieved his son.

The power of love – paternal, maternal, and other – and the strength of the collective have been displayed. Witness the instinctive reaction of parents to tend to their children, ignoring their own needs. And the efforts of those thousands of miles away who care and are doing something about it. Pakistanis abroad who have donated tens of millions of dollars on behalf of the relief and recovery operations. Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing, who donated $500,000. The British, Russian, and Turkish rescue teams. The Indian offers of help to Pakistan. The Kuwaiti and Emirati pledges of $100 million each. And the compassion of caring people across the globe.

Telethons are occurring in Pakistan. Local communities, student groups, universities, and others are pitching in, collecting funds. This is unprecedented in the country’s history. Only if this collective spirit could remain and extinguish the vanity, the corruption, and the cold utilitarianism that murders souls there every day. In Pakistan, the modus operandi is ‘every man for himself.’ It should be ‘every man for every self.’

Yes, there is a ton of irony. It was nature, not nukes that devastated Kashmir, the basis for two Pakistan-India wars. The territory, divided by Pakistan and India, is united today in its suffering. Though centered in Pakistan, the quake hit Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and reportedly could be felt as far as Bangladesh. The people of this region have killed one another in ’47, ’65, ’71, and throughout the 90’s. But today they share victimhood from acts not perpetrated by man. And the beauty that is Kashmir and Sarhad – the soaring mountains and valleys – were formed by the very geological phenomenon that caused the recent carnage.

But what remains important, what should remain in the hearts and minds of people, is an understanding of individual human fragility and collective human strength. Disaster and death can strike anywhere on earth today. New Orleans and Islamabad today. Perhaps San Francisco and Tokyo tomorrow. While some may tire over the seemingly endless cycle of one natural disaster after another, it can happen anywhere – including wherever here is for you. These are moments to act and to reflect. And these moments, filled with the tragic deaths of others, are God-given second chances for us to be human.

The Polemicist writes about politics, culture, and Yankee baseball on his self-titled weblog.