The Quran Is A Siren

A forecast was made for Wednesday for severe scattered thunderstorms. So about the only preparation for that on my part was to explicitly decide not to head out with the kids that day. And honestly I have to get out of the house at least once every day, otherwise the cabin fever sets in. New town. No friends. Everything is still so new so my highlight is going out and getting lost. Lost until I’m just tired and want to go back to this new artificial structure I call home. Four sided brick home. And it is a beautiful home, alhamdulillah. Just … it will take time to settle in.

Thus I sent the man out to get a gallon of milk as we were running low. And that night was a little restless for me for no other reason but all the cleaning I had to do that day. Thunderstorms. No big deal. It’s really romantic weather. Cozy up with the kids and relax. When I finally hit the sack, I don’t think I was asleep for more than two hours when I awoke to blazing-ridiculously-loud-obnoxious-scary-scary sirens. First I thought they were in my head in the form of a head ache, but then I was able to convince myself otherwise. I woke up. Opened the front door. Looked up and down the street. Nothing. No rain. No wind. No bombers in the sky. I was serious. Were we being attacked? What on earth was that noise. At 4 am? And why was there no one else peering out their doorways like myself. My husband slept on as did my two small children. While I just paced back and forth from room to room trying to figure out what on Earth was that siren for.

Then it hit me. If it was a storm or an attack, avoid the windows. So like a crazy person, I started to dodge the windows, 4 am, while my family slept on. Yes me. A sleep-deprived-tired-crazy person was on all fours crawling around trying to make it back to my kids’ room. Then. The real freak-out set on. After asking my husband for the third time to explain the siren, I just had to put myself into action. I ran upstairs, opened a few boxes in what seemed like few seconds. Whipped out a few comforters and muscled them along with some floor cushions and man-handled them down the basement. Not exactly down. I threw them down like the end of the world was coming. And then I woke my husband for the fourth time.

“I don’t care if you want to sleep here but grab one kid, I’ll grab the other, I prepared the basement for us to sleep. Help me.”

My old man would just roll over and mumble something incoherent. But this man understood the quiver in my voice. We grabbed the sleeping kids and took them down. And it was not two minutes before the sirens were silenced by howling wind. So loud and ferocious, I could feel the brick house tremble. And I grabbed my kids until the sweat beaded up on their foreheads. I grabbed them and every time I felt my eyes shut I opened them wide for fear that this was my last view of those kids I sacrificed everything I love for. I remembered that baby that was found in a field in the last storm. She was rushed to the hospital and no one could identify her. That’s because her entire family died in their house, and this baby was grabbed by the wind and thrown out the window like a paper plane. To Allah we belong and to Allah we return. However He decrees.

I prayed to Allah. Not like the last time I had a virus and throwing up. I had prayed then that I promised to change if He helped me. There was no help but HIS. I prayed even more fervently. I’m not ready to die. I have to fix all the wrong that I have done. My book. My hisaab was in terrible shape. Please give me time to fill it with khayr instead of all the sins upon sins that were whirling around in my brain howling and attacking my person. I could not hear anything but smell all the sins that were sickening me to my stomach. The last ayat I had studied was staring me in the face.

Sahih International

Would one of you like to have a garden of palm trees and grapevines underneath which rivers flow in which he has from every fruit? But he is afflicted with old age and has weak offspring, and it is hit by a whirlwind containing fire and is burned. Thus does Allah make clear to you [His] verses that you might give thought. {Al Baqarah 2:266]

إعصَارُُ فِيهِ نَار Not a tornado of wind. But a tornado of fire. Even the three little piggies could not withstand this. Think about it. Brick house  = oven. Think pizza. Think scorching smoke that will burn your sense of smell forever.  I could almost say I was nauseous with fear. True fear. Life/death. Sickness/health. I facebooked that I was scared. And someone responded, hurry and take cover, tornadoes spotted in KY. Download weather app on phone. I texted the only 502 number I had in my phone, and they replied that they too were taking shelter in the bathroom. I told her that I loved her and that she was my sister for replying to me in need and that I prayed that when this was all over we could be real friends.

When it was all over, about all we could account for was a pile of leaves about three feet high in our drive. It was confirmed that two tornadoes touched down that early morning, caused quite a lot of damage, but only people living in trailers and insecure homes were damaged. No none died. Well. A man died in Georgia when he took shelter in a shed, as the storm reached them later that afternoon. He was the piggy that made his house of sticks. That afternoon when we were supposed to be having scattered thunderstorms. And my road…the road that was eerily quiet and gloomy only a few hours earlier, looked like nature had just about thrown up all over the place. I asked friends around about their night and they had no idea there were even sirens.

And then I waited. I waited fervently that my friends in the central time zone wake up so I could warn them. I called my friend. I said,

THE QURAN IS A SIREN…WE NEED TO CHANGE AND TAKE COVER RIGHT NOW. RIGHT NOW. RIGHT THIS MINUTE.

Are you ok?

NO I’M NOT OKAY. WE THINK WE CAN JUST SIT BACK AND LEISURELY READ THIS BOOK? ARE YOU KIDDING. THIS IS NOT A FIRESIDE READ. THIS IS A LOUD SIREN THAT SAYS THIS IS YOUR CHANCE. TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT. TAKE COVER RIGHT NOW?

What is wrong with you. What happened?

DUDE. WE HAVE A TORNADO IN OUR LAPS. THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED. THAT’S WHAT IS HAPPENING. CAN’T YOU SEE?

Girl. Figure yourself out. What happened?

DON’T YOU KNOW..WE HAD A TORNADO LAST NIGHT IN KENTUCKY. BUT ALL I COULD THINK ABOUT WAS THAT THIS QURAN ..LOOK. BANI ISRAEEL. WARNED FOR YEARS AND YEARS. BUT THEY DIDN’T HAVE A SIREN TO WARN THEM WHEN THEY WERE TESTED AND TRIED. THAT’S WHAT WE THINK. BUT THEY DID. THEY HAD THEIR SCRIPTURES. IT’S A SIREN. ITS WAILING. TAKE COVER. GRAB YOUR BELOVED ONES. GRAB THE WEAK ONES. TAKE COVER AND PROTECT YOURSELF. IF YOU SLEEP ON AND IGNORE IT, YOU MIGHT BE DESTROYED. AND NO ONE IS GOING TO TAKE PITY ON YOU BECAUSE YOU IGNORED THE SIREN. YOU WERE WARNED.

Wow. That’s deep.

THINK ABOUT IT. WHAT IS A SIREN. OBVIOUSLY I WENT CRAZY WHEN IT HAPPENED. I COULDN’T THINK STRAIGHT.COMMON SENSE TELLS YOU THAT THIS SIREN IS FOR A TORNADO. HOW MANY TORNADO WARNINGS HAVE I LIVED THROUGH. DUH! BUT YET I WAS LOOKING AT THE SKY WONDERING IF WE WERE BEING ATTACKED. COMMON SENSE TELLS YOU THAT GO TO THE LOWEST LEVEL AWAY FROM WINDOWS. BUT I PACED BACK AND FORTH TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHY OTHER PEOPLE WERE’NT REACTING. THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO WONDER WHY AREN’T OTHERS RESPONDING TO THE WARNING. THIS QURAN IS A WARNING FOR YOU AND ME AND WHOEVER HEARS IT. AND THEN YOU HELP AND RESPOND TO THOSE THAT NEED HELP RESPONDING TO IT. THE ONES THAT ARE SLEEPING ON, DENYING THE RELEVANCE OF THE QURAN IN THEIR LIVES. THE ONES WHO ARE YOUNG, OLD, WEAK, POOR, THAT NEED TO BE ENCOURAGED AND HELPED IN UNDERSTANDING. DON’T YOU GET IT?

Girl. You crazy..but I really like that..you are right.

Of course I’m right. Allah warned me. On Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 4:12 am.

And that is exactly what happened. A few days back, two tornadoes touched ground in Kentucky and Indiana. They were less than a mile wide, and most of the state got the effects of the tornado in the form of high winds. Ummahs past had no siren as such. But their fear was just as real. And their tornadoes demolished entire lands and generations…not just a small footprint. Time and time again we have been warned to take heed from their lessons. They are no different than us. And what about our own lesson. Our lesson that encompasses their many lessons. The lesson we are sluggish to study. The lesson we assume we already know. The lesson we know but don’t act upon. And the lesson we know but don’t share with those that don’t know. What cover have we taken to prepare for the siren that is sitting on our shelves? What preparation have we made to be truly ready for the day in which there is no doubt. A thunderstorms in mid afternoon versus a tornado four o’clock in the morning..there is doubt when and where. But we have no doubt that yawm al qiyaamah is coming. Allah says in Quran 2:254:

Sahih International

O you who have believed, spend from that which We have provided for you before there comes a Day in which there is no exchange and no friendship and no intercession. And the disbelievers – they are the wrongdoers. [Al Baqarah 2:254]

…before a day comes when there will be no bargaining….just like me..I wont have another chance to beg Allah that if You give me another chance, I’ll change. No bargaining. Will we be standing ready to meet our Lord and Creator eagerly? Or will we be running around, making excuses, and wondering about who will help us  on a day when there will be no help? No basement level with no windows. No shelter. If we do doubt such a day, then we need to really check what other warning we need. The signs are everywhere. Open your eyes. Take cover. Don’t sleep on. While you are alive and able.

[Guest post written by Javeria, a dear friend who is also on the ‘Quran train’.] Jazakillah khair Javeria.