On an early summer’s morning, in late July 1984, an earthquake shook large portions of Britain. Measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale, it was the most powerful tremor felt in Britain for a century: the last comparable earthquake rocked the eastern county of Essex in 1884.
The latest earthquake affected the western part of the land. Its epicentre was in the little inhabited mountain region of Snowdonia in North Wales, but it was felt across a wide area from North Ireland to Leicestershire, and from North Lancashire to Bristol.
Earthquakes are a very rare occurrence in the British Isles. Usually the ground rests firm beneath people’s feet. But sometimes, once in a while, it is shaken. Thus God shows mankind His power. Under what miraculous conditions he has set the ground in place! Resting on molten rock, and whirling around space at a phenomenal speed, it is nevertheless firm. God, who is responsible for this marvellous feat of creation, is quite able to shake the very foundations of the earth.
When man remembers this, he humbles himself before the Lord; he sees his true position in the world—that of God’s humble servant. But one who feels the earth shake, and is not moved into submission to God, will need to feel the final earthquake that heralds the Day of Judgement, to be shaken to his senses.
People who are alive to God’s silent but poignant message in nature, humble themselves before Him when signs like earthquakes manifest themselves. It is such people who will respond positively to the call of Islam. For when man’s inner nature yearn for submission to the Lord, Islam is there to put it into faith and action; when man hears God’s call in nature, the Quran is there to decode that message, to put it into words.
There are many people in the world who are yearning for Islam in this way. Relating the incident on BBC Radio, Tim Richards had this to say on the weekly programme, “The Week in Wales”:
“I think we are all much humbler as a result (of the tremor), and more respectful of nature.”
If the message of Islam is addressed to such people in its purity, then they will surely react to it as they react to the message of nature. For the two messages are the same. Islam, the religion of submission to God, will make them humbler; it will increase them in respect for God, as well as nature. □
