BANDA ACEH, Indonesia : In Indonesia's tsunami wastelands on the northern tip of Sumatra island, little remains of whole towns lost to the colossal forces that came thundering in from the ocean.
But across these battered shores, dozens of mosques still stand, their minarets glinting defiantly in the sun - a phenomenon survivors in the deeply Islamic region credit as much to divine intervention as robust architecture.
"God's invisible hands prevents the mosque's destruction," said Mukhlis Khaeran, who saw the sea sweep away his home village of Baet outside the north Sumatran city of Banda Aceh, but leave the neighbourhood mosque relatively intact.
"He punishes us for our greed and arrogance but He will protect his house," Khaeran told AFP, his arms covered with injuries sustained in the disaster that killed at least 100,000 people around the north Sumatran province of Aceh.
Mosques are an everyday sight in most of Indonesia, but especially in Aceh, credited with the being one of Islam's main gateways into the archipelago of islands which now forms the world's largest Muslim-populated country.
Despite a long-lasting independence struggle, Aceh, parts of which are under traditional Islamic sharia law, has remained a Muslim heartland for Indonesia, which mostly practices a very relaxed interpretation of the faith.
Spiritual beliefs in Aceh and around the Indian Ocean were tested to the limit on December 26 when an epic earthquake sent towers of water crashing ashore, obliterating virtually everything in their path.
But while some spoke of "God's wrath", hundreds turned to their mosques, in panic for shelter from the advancing tides and later for spiritual comfort in a time of desperate need.
In the village of Kaju, also outside Banda Aceh, hundreds of homes were annihilated while the local mosque suffered only a few cracks in the walls.
"There is a saying among Acehnese that a mosque is God's house and no one can destroy it but God Himself," said Ismail Ishak, 42, who was digging rubble from his crumbled house while searching for seven of his relatives.
In Pasi Lhok, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of the north Aceh town of Sigli, 100 frightened people sheltering inside their mosque were spared while almost every house in the surrounding five villages was pulverised, according to chief cleric Teungku Kaoy Ali.
In Meubolah, a town on Aceh's western coast less than 150 kilometres (95 miles) from the quake epicentre which bore the full force of the tsunami, leaving at least 10,000 dead, mosques stand sentinel over a vanished town centre.
Banda Aceh resident Achyar said when he saw the waves pounding in from the sea, his first instinct was to turn and run for the nearest mosque.
"I climbed the mosque tower and hung on to an electric wire until water receded," he said. "Many of my friends, many of them ethnic Chinese, died because they climbed to the second floor of their shops and were trapped there," he said.
Another, less divine, explanation for the survival of the mosques is that many are built much more sturdily than most of the other structures in the towns and cities of Aceh.
However one mosque in Sigli was made only of wood but still survived unscathed despite all the other buildings around it being destroyed.
Banda Aceh's grand Baiturrahman mosque suffered partial damage from the quake and tsunami, but proved invaluable to the city's survivors in the minutes, hours and days that followed the cataclysm.
For many it became a rallying place to search for missing friends or relatives, a makeshift hospital to treat the injured and a morgue to collect the dead.
With much of Banda Aceh likely to remain in ruins for months, residents were quick to repay their debt to their cherished religious buildings, working swiftly to ensure the Baiturrahman mosque was one of the first places restored.
On Sunday, some 300 survivors gathered for their first prayers since their five-times daily ritual was halted - a major step on the long road back to normality in Aceh. - AFP
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The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Surely I was sent to perfect the qualities of righteous character" [Musnad Ahmad, Muwatta Mâlik]
Guess I am blind then. Seems the building had a good foundation like the tree's u see so close to the building.
the majority of the trees look like coconut trees to me.. n coconut trees ARe REALLy STRONG n SUPPORTIVE .. dnt think they wud fall down easilyyy ... whereas Buildings especially depending on how OLD they have been,they can easily collapse ..
Fair enough if u sayin the building had a good foundationn.. then theres other thing to b noticed about.. theres nt even a SCRATCHH or CRAK or any kind of Mud on it .. SubhanAllah.. its just UNTOUCHEDD ...
The Prophet said, "Nobody who enters Paradise likes to go back to the world even if he got everything on the earth, except a Mujahid who wishes to return to the world so that he may be martyred ten times because of the dignity he receives (from Allah)."
The Prophet said, "Nobody who enters Paradise likes to go back to the world even if he got everything on the earth, except a Mujahid who wishes to return to the world so that he may be martyred ten times because of the dignity he receives (from Allah)."
for those who believe in him and his existence:
this truly is the power of god - he saved all the places of worship
for those who do not:
i wish not to offend those who do not and thus i am unable 2 say anything apart from this - see evidence with your OWN eyes. Your OWN heart and your OWN mind.
Now, I don't mean to be sceptical, but are you sure this is true? Because it is not my wish to criticise my own people but sometimes people really go to extreme lengths and produce things like this which is all too easy. Why? God knows.
But forgive me if this really did happen. Subhanallah! Praise be to Allah!
"I spent thirty years learning manners, and I spent twenty years learning knowledge."
If you read the article itself, it shows how the Buddhist statues were protected in walls and were very sturdy. Furthermore, they did not recieve as heavy a hit.
But the Masjid made out of rickety wood survived the full force of the impact.
Last edited by Ansar Al-'Adl; 09-04-2005 at 01:29 PM.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Surely I was sent to perfect the qualities of righteous character" [Musnad Ahmad, Muwatta Mâlik]
subhanallah this are signs from allah and also sign for the end of the world as we know it ( the increase of natural disasters that it). but allah give us clues to where to look for prove for the existence of god and that is us. looking at how we are made subhanallah. when you do biology you really shows you how great allah is.
e.g.
blood clotting goes through 90 or so reactions and if one of those reactions doesn't happen your blood would not be able to clot at all ( haemophilia). Therefore you could bleed to dead from a minor wound >> SUBhANALLAH.
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