An Increase in the Number of Earthquakes

There is no doubt that there have been no other natural events in history that have affected people to the extent that earthquakes have. They can happen anywhere and at any moment. Throughout the centuries, they have caused many deaths and great material loss. For this reason, they have been greatly feared. Even the technology of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has been able to prevent earthquake damage only to a certain extent.

The 1995 earthquake in Kobe serves as an example to those who are deluded by the thought that technology will make it possible to harness nature. It will be remembered that this earthquake caused unexpected damages upon Japan's largest industrial and transportation center. In spite of the fact that it only lasted 20 seconds, as Time magazine reported, it caused about 100 billion dollars in damage.

All such events bring to mind what the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) said 1400 years ago:

 

The Hour (Last Day) will not be established until... earthquakes will be very frequent. (Sahih Bukhari)

 

 

There are two great hadiths before the day of Judgment... and then years of earthquakes. (Narrated by Umm Salama (r.a.)

  

 

'The days when you can find no homes to shelter or animals to carry you have come close. Because earthquakes will demolish your houses. (Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rasul Barzanji, Al-Isha'ah li-ashrat al-sa'ah, p. 146)

 

 

There will be disagreements and frequent earthquakes. (Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rasul Barzanji , Al-Isha'ah li-ashrat al-sa'ah, p. 166)

 

In the last few years, major earthquakes have occurred repeatedly and are among the foremost fears of people around the world. According to the data collected by the American National Earthquake Information Center for 1999, we find that 20,832 earthquakes happened somewhere in the world. As a result, an estimated 22,711 persons lost their lives.2

The Kobe earthquake in 1995 reduced the entire city into rubbles.

When the figures of the past are examined, we see that the number of earthquakes was very few. According to the USA Geological Research Institute (USGS) reports, the number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.0 or greater than 5.0 that took place during the four hundred years between 1955-1975 was only 110. According to the data of the same institution, within only 23 years between 1980 and 2003, the number of earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.5 or more is 1685.3 These figures surely reveal the increase of the number of earthquakes that happened by the beginning of the year Hijri 1400.

In the Qur'an, there are certain verses that point out the relation between earthquakes and the End Times. The 99th Surah is called Surat az-Zalzala; zalzala means great shaking, or earthquake. This Surah, composed of eight verses, describes the violent shaking of the earth and states that, following it, the Judgment Day will arrive, people will be raised from the dead, will give account of themselves to God, and receive their just rewards, even for the slightest thing that they have done:

When the earth is convulsed with its quaking and the earth then disgorges its charges and man asks, "What is wrong with it?" on that Day it will impart all its news because your Lord has inspired it. That Day people will emerge segregated to see the results of their actions. Whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it. Whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it. (Qur’an, 99:1-8)

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1. Time, 6 şubat 1995, "Economic Aftershock"
2. US Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center, "Earthquake Facts and Statistics", 2000, http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqstats.html http://wwwneic.cr.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/1999_stats.html
3. U.S. Geological Survey (ABD Jeolojik Araştırma Kurumu) http://neic.cr.usgs.gov:1711/neis/eqlists/