Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Sunday Guardian | March 18, 2018

"Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of the evil which men's hands have done: and so He will make them taste the fruit of some of their doings, so that they may turn back from evil." (Quran 30:41)

When this verse of the Quran was revealed, and for centuries afterwards, wars were fought on land. It was not until the 16th century and the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) that human conflict came to span the oceans as well.

With World War II the aircraft carrier was introduced into naval warfare. Naval aviation dominated and dictated the war at sea and it was obvious that the carrier had arrived.

This mobile platform with its inbuilt security-system could be employed far out at sea to provide an effectivesea-based air element, capable of countering air, surface and submarine threats.

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Having thus invested land and sea with the tools of war, man spread destruction further afield by constructing air-to-air hit missiles.

Any future conflict between the super powers will be basically fought in the air.

And the destructive urge did not stop there: with its "star wars" program at least one of the super-powers has now signaled its intent to acquire military capacity in space.

God entrusted the charge of His earth to human beings, but they failed in this task;causing pollution in the land, sea and air.

They have thus forfeited the right to retain possession of the world in future. A day is bound to come when man will have to be accountable for the deeds he has wrought. When this happens, evil-doers will be displaced; only those who led a life od principle and moderation shall be adjudged fit to live with God in eternal peace.