Introduction
Alhamdulillah… All praises and thanks are due to the Almighty Allah, Who created death and life, to test us, as to whom among us is best in deed. I send peace and blessings upon Habibi Muhammad, his household, companions and all those who follow his guided path.
In part 1 of this series, we agreed to review our etiquettes of travelling as Muslims. That was important because the Prophet’s way of planning a trip is that we arrange all the necessary in human capacity and then submit ourselves, as well as all our affairs, during and after the trip, to the Almighty God. In this article however, we are discussing why we have to submit ourselves and all our affairs to God all the time. To make more sense of this article, consider reading Part 1 first (click here to read it).
Why Do We Submit Ourselves to God?
To answer the above question, it is worth that we pay a visit to Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:255, to ponder the meaning of the greatest verse in the Qur’an.
The verse reads:
اللَّـهُ لَا إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ، لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ، لَّهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ، مَن ذَا الَّذِي يَشْفَعُ عِندَهُ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِهِ، يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ، وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلَّا بِمَا شَاءَ، وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ، وَلَا يَئُودُهُ حِفْظُهُمَا، وَهُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْعَظِيمُ
It means: “God: there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of existence. Neither drowsiness nor sleep overtakes Him. To Him belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is on the earth. Who can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows all that is before them and all that will be after them. They can grasp only that part of His knowledge, which He wills. His throne extends over the heavens and the earth; and upholding them does not tire Him. He is the Most High, the Most Great!”
When we submit to the implications of the meaning this verse carries, we come to realize that the missing flight was just one tiny making of the smallest creation of Allah (man). Thus, protecting it from accidents has never been a matter of tiredness to Him, the same way that nothing in the heavens nor in the earth troubles Him with its upholding.
Regardless of the reason that might be behind the mystery of flight #MH370, we assume that it had to go faulty that resulted into it ending its journey in the Indian Ocean. Human’s control over it became more limited. The might of the pilot couldn’t go beyond the flight and its flying route (this is if we assume the pilot possessed might of his own). Anything beyond that had someone else to take care of. That is why there were air traffic controllers at both ends of the flight’s route. On the ground, there was airport staff to facilitate the flight and its crew and passengers. There was also a cabin crew, to ensure a smooth and safe flight.
Since the announcement of the tragedy, the number of countries involved in locating flight MH370 started to grow, from four (Malaysia, China, Vietnam and Singapore) to more than twenty-four today. All of them are searching for one flight, in a location that is believed to be about 319,000 square kilometres (123,000 square miles). That is roughly the size of Poland and Mexico combined. It’s as deep as 5,800 metres (19,000 feet). That is such a huge area! Indeed, it is… to us, human! But to God, that area equals to less than a square centimetre.
وَإِنَّ يَوْمًا عِندَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا تَعُدُّونَ
It means, “Indeed, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of those which you count.” [Surah Al-Hajj, 22:47]
As a matter of fact, this area is 24 times bigger than the size of the area where Air France missing flight AF447’s black box was found. It took 2 years to find that black box in that area. Air France flight AF447 departed Rio de Jeneiro on 1/6/2009 bound for Paris and crashed in the Atlantic Ocean with 228 aboard.
Japan, France, China, Thailand and other countries have provided satellite images, which indicated objects that were thought to be from the wreckage of the MH370. Usually, investigators are unable to identify these objects based on the captured images, until the objects are located and examined. Reaching these locations has been the most challenging task for all SAR teams. Unfortunately, after locating these objects, none of them happened to be from flight #MH370. As I write these lines, Today Online reported that a United States Naval Officer suggested that “the search for missing the Malaysia Airlines Flight #MH370 could take years.” It seems man has done all he can, and started to give up, for nature to take its cause.
All the difficulties, which the SAR teams, most of which are from developed countries (using the most advanced technology) have to experience is just to search the southern Indian Ocean. In fact, the Indian Ocean, just like any other ocean, is difficult to search, based on human capacities. This should make us think of how can human make it if we are put in a situation where we have to search all oceans on our planet?
All this while, these developed countries have succeeded in giving us good impression of the advancement of their technologies: not only that they are able to monitor all that we do, they have the best technologies to discover a falling pin which falls off a plane into an ocean. They ‘can’ detect the moment it falls, know the reason why it fell, and the minds behind it, let alone restoring it. Flight MH370’s tragedy has proven this impression wrong. Flight MH370’s tragedy has indeed reminded us that only God can do that. God is in-charge!
The Qur’an has indicated in Surah Al-An’am, 6:59 that God knows all that happen, the moment it happens, the reason and wisdom, and the solution should it need one.
The verse reads:
وَعِندَهُ مَفَاتِحُ الْغَيْبِ لَا يَعْلَمُهَا إِلَّا هُوَ، وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ، وَمَا تَسْقُطُ مِن وَرَقَةٍ إِلَّا يَعْلَمُهَا وَلَا حَبَّةٍ فِي ظُلُمَاتِ الْأَرْضِ وَلَا رَطْبٍ وَلَا يَابِسٍ إِلَّا فِي كِتَابٍ مُّبِينٍ
“It means, “He holds the keys to the unseen; none knows them but He. He has knowledge of all that land and sea contain. No leaf falls without His knowledge, nor is there a single grain in the darkness of the earth, or anything, wet or dry, but is recorded in a clear Record.”
Another verse in Surah Al-Hadeed, 57:4-5 reads:
هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ، يَعْلَمُ مَا يَلِجُ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَمَا يَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا وَمَا يَنزِلُ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ وَمَا يَعْرُجُ فِيهَا، وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنتُمْ، وَاللَّـهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ ﴿٤﴾ لَّهُ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ، وَإِلَى اللَّـهِ تُرْجَعُ الْأُمُورُ
It means, “It was He who created the heavens and earth in six Days, and then established Himself above the Throne. He knows what penetrates to the earth and what emerges from it; what descends from the sky and what ascends to it. He is with you wherever you are; He sees all that you do; He has sovereignty over the heavens and the earth. All affairs will return to God.”
The implication of these verses, in the context of this article, is that we are servants (creatures). We can’t go beyond what human being is ordained to.
Among the planets discovered in the solar system so far, earth is far smaller compared to the biggest planet, Jupiter. We are purposefully created to live and make use of it (earth), and thrive for heaven. In fact, the creation of heaven and earth and whatsoever in them, which took place in six days (God could do that in a blink of an eye though), was greater than the creation of man, from the strongest nation to the weakest.
لَخَلْقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ خَلْقِ النَّاسِ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
It means, “Certainly, the creation of the heavens and the earth is greater than the creation of mankind; but most people do not know this.” [Surah Ghafir, 40:57]
It was reported on Sunday 30/3/2014, that “ten ships and as many aircraft will search for #MH370 in Indian Ocean in the operations, but weather was forecasted to worsen.” Searches were suspended on some previous days, due to ‘bad weather’ and it’s likely going to be suspended for the same reason in future, unless the debris of the missing flight is found. In the dealings of God, there’s no such thing as a bad weather. No good or bad condition determines His actions. In fact, His Will and Wisdom determine our experiences, which we refer to as good or bad. It is unfortunate that when happy things happen, we take the pride and credit as to we were wise and clever in achieving it. And when sad things happen, we surrender to nature and bad weather. Seldom do we refer to the Will and Might of God.
Why Did the Tragedy of Flight MH370 Happen?
The simple and most convincing answer to why the tragedy of MH370 occurred is that, it happened because God allowed it to happen. It is a calamity. Calamities are meant to test our belief and faith. Certainly, MH370’s tragedy is not the first calamity in human history. It may not be the last to have happened. We have to remember that calamities are inevitable.
Sometime a go in Ghana, a woman lost her husband and all her children to a car accident. As a result of the trauma, she decided never to ride any vehicle made from metal. True enough; she didn’t. Obviously she was afraid she too might end up in a car accident. One day, a heavy truck, collided with her house, penetrated the walls of the house, and took her life. This the end of the story. And it is a true story.
It was not an ordinary accident, but it has happened. And it happened because God allowed it to happen. It doesn’t matter whether or not human error was involved or there was conspiracy behind it. Many conspiracies fail to take effect, and its targeted victims go free and are safe.
Away from human errors and conspiracies, but close to God’s Will and Decree (Qadar), a whale, to the command of God, swallowed Prophet Yunus, alaihi al-Salam. Whales live in oceans and some coastal areas. Oceans are unimaginably deep in feet and metres. There’s no authentic narration from the Qur’an or Sunnah that indicates how long Prophet Yunus remained in the whale’s belly, but in normal circumstances, a whale swallowing a man means he has met his fate. But Allah had caused the whale to heave Prophet Yunus safely at a shore. How long did he spend in the whale’s stomach? How did he survive without food, water, air and sunlight? All that was taken care by God.
Imagine the error that might has occurred to flight MH370 to occur to our rotating planet or any of the planets around ours. What could happen? We experience disasters, from time to time, for us to reflect, repent and turn to Him. Such experiences should teach and remind us that God is in-charge
Conclusion
Many people know that God is the creator and perhaps the Sustainer of existence. But significant number of us is not convinced about what they know. In other words, a person may not believe in what he knows. When he starts to believe, that is when he starts to seek the true religion, through which he can humbly submit himself to God, the Creator, and worship Him the way that pleases Him.
Whether or not you are a Muslim, it is important that you worship God based on authentic knowledge. Worshiping God based on authentic (revealed) knowledge leads the Muslim to develop confidence and concentration in the way he worships Him. He is also able to apply God-consciousness in all his endeavours. As for the non-Muslim, he realizes that the true religion can only be Islam, because it is only in Islam that believers apply the teachings of their religion (knowledge) in their everyday life. So, if you are a Muslim, and fail to live Islam in your daily life, it’s time to take action. God is in-charge and He will take care of your worries.
Stay tuned for part 3 of this series. To get updates from this blog delivered right to your inbox, click here sign up for my newsletters today.
Allah knows best.
Allahu Hafiz 
Thanks the insightful reflection