“Evil appears on land and sea as a result of the evil which men’s hands have done. This is so that they may taste the evil of their own works and mend their ways.” (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. The attack on Pearl Harbour by Japanese carrier-based aircraft operating from over 3600 nautical miles and the subsequent battles in the Pacific more than demonstrated the irrefutable advantages of this floating airfield. 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 effective sea-based air element, capable of countering air, surface and submarine threats.
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” programme at least one of the super-powers has now signalled its intent to acquire military capacity in space.
God entrusted the charge of His earth to man, but man failed in this task; he polluted the land, sea and air. God gave man an immaculate world in which to live, but man contaminated the perfect world of God. Man has thus forfeited the right to retain possession of the world in future. The only thing that enables man to rebel against God is the power that he has been given on earth. What awaits him is that he should be divested of all power, leaving God to take over direct control of the earth as he already has done with the rest of the universe. When this happens, evil-doers will be displaced; only those who conformed to the will of God shall be adjudged fit to live with Him in eternal peace.
By J.M. Butt
