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]
What I'm saying is that there are Muslims who will interpret every sound of an animal - from the meow of a cat to the moo of a cow - into some Islamic phrase and then send it everywhere on the internet labelled as a 'miracle'. The video with the lion just had a lion making normal growls etc. and to claim that it was actually saying 'Allah' in arabic makes all Muslims look foolish. Besides, we already know that all animals praise Allah in their everyday movements and actions. Alhamdulilah, we already have so many miracles that we don't need to lower ourselves to the level of making such ridiculous claims.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Surely I was sent to perfect the qualities of righteous character" [Musnad Ahmad, Muwatta Mâlik]
salaam,
SubhanAllah....i think our everyday life is full of soo many miracles from Allah swt....once i was watching a documentary on the human body....andi must've sed SubhanAllah like a million times....and ever tried looking at ants and the way they work...u shud try it u know....its soo amazing....and the beautiful patterns and colors on butterflies...hmmm...i cud go on forever......
FiAmanillah
IF only i were a BIRD!!..aahh..but eating caterpillars???...:enough!:
i wanted to share with you this image of the waves of the sea that appeared after the earthquake in Tsunami.
and i remind you with what al-shiekh alalaama naser aldeen alalbany (rahimahu allah) mentioned in his book of the truthful hadeeth that :-
the prophet said "there will be in this nation khasf (means collapse or falling down inside the ground or cleave the earth under them) and qazf (means striking or throw something on) and maskh (means transformation or metamorphose) and all of this thing will appear if they drink the alcoholic drinks and had women singing and played on the musical instruments."
and there is another hadeeth that tells the same meaning without mentioning "there will be in this nation" and instead it says that "there will be"
and i guess these things and more has been done in the beaches of Sri Lanka
During last year tsunami about 60 people died in Malaysia, all in northern states (Kedah, Penang Island). It's something we never seen before and not prepared for it. For us big waves only happens when the wind blows hard. But during that ill fateful day, many holidaymakers went to the beach and dont realize tsunami is coming. But I've read in local tabloids that a man was performing salat on the rock by the beach at Pulau Betong, Penang that day and the wave didn't hit him. All Muslim victim bodies founded (buried with proper Islamic services), but until today they're still some chinese buddhists missing and can't be found and the Government just declared they're 'dead' last year (2005). They're some witnesses acccounts saying that Floating Tanjung Bungah Mosque escaped the tsunami even it's build on the top of seawater.
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