But what’s with the 26th anomaly?
Maverick looked petrified. It was the earthquake of October 26th 2015 that brought back memories of the earthquake in the same month a decade earlier that Maverick had heard about from his elders, because he was not born then.
“What kind of a Monkey Brigade Commander are you Maverick?” I asked. “Why are you so shaken? To make you feel better, let me tell you what God says in Surah 99 of the Holy Quran. The surah or chapter is called ‘Zilzal’ which means earthquake. We call it ‘Zalzala’ in Urdu. I am giving my own interpretation and understanding of the surah for which only I am responsible. That is why I haven’t had the temerity to put it in single inverted commas because I do not want to be accused of misrepresenting God like many mullahs do and have done.
“I call it ‘interpretation’ and ‘understanding’ because one cannot faithfully ‘translate’ God’s Word in another language. His Word can be translated in action alone. My interpretation is: When the earth is convulsed to its utmost and shaken to its core and throws up her burdens from within (like volcanoes). Then will humankind, distressed, confused and frightened, cry out, ‘What is the matter with her?’ On that Day shall the earth declare her tidings and for that thy Lord will have given her inspiration. On that Day will humankind proceed in companies sorted out, to be shown the deeds they have done. Then anyone who has done an atom’s weight of good shall see it and anyone who has done an atom’s weight of evil shall see it. End of interpretation.
“I don’t have space to give you my understanding of Zilzal, that I will tell you some other day, but I should tell you that ‘that Day’ referred to is not any day but Doomsday or the Day of Judgment when we will be shown our deeds good and bad and our skins and tongues and other senses and parts of our bodies will bear witness for and against us as to what we did.”
“I was only wondering whether you are still alive Humayun,” said poor Maverick, looking un-groomed and the worse for wear. “Great to hear your voice again. I would have missed our conversations had you bitten the dust.”
“Same here, Maverick my friend. You look shaken, not stirred,” I replied in a rather clumsy attempt at trying to sound funny. “No need. Take it as an incredible experience, getting to feel the power of nature first hand. I’ve been in a hurricane on a ship crossing the Atlantic. It was beautiful, the power of nature, seeing that the huge QE II was like a matchstick being buffeted around on that vast expanse of water. My 747 rammed into a cyclone over the Bay of Bengal. It was utter helplessness. My father and I were together and the first thing he said to me when he could was: ‘We should never travel together’.”
“Shaken is the word,” said Maverick. “My tree was shaking like a roller coaster. I thought the end of times were nigh.”
“The end of times, Maverick, is only the end of our little world. Time goes on in some form as do we in other dimensions. Our consciousness that we also call soul or spirit never dies because our spirit comes from God’s spirit. He says so Himself.”
So learn lessons, think hard, get over it and come out the wiser. Don’t dwell upon it. You and yours are alive, me and mine are alive
“Mine too?” asked Maverick plaintively.
“I wish I knew Maverick, but it would be quite a waste if it didn’t. You’ve got more commonsense than any Sapiens I know, a word that means ‘wise’ as we pompously call our species. We apes all come from the same genus, Homo, as in hominoid. If the Djinns can have immortal consciousness why can’t you, my friend? You know, Satan or Iblis is a Djinn, not a ‘fallen angel’, for angels have no free will. Djinns do, which is why Satan could refuse God. But God knows best.
“Be that as it may, Maverick, when time and space are one your consciousness is everywhere at the same time. There is no ‘before’ or ‘after’, no ‘here’ or ‘there’. Therefore to ask what was there ‘before’ God the Creator is not to understand infinity and the concept of limitlessness.”
“You’re making my head spin even faster,” complained Maverick. “I don’t mind if death is the end. But you’ve lived through the 2005 earthquake so were used to this. I was born after and didn’t know what the hell was going on. For once in my life I was frightened because I felt so utterly helpless. Not a nice feeling.”
“Helpless is right, Maverick, because our massive egos and untold arrogance make us forget how infinitesimal and weak we are and cannot control everything, not even ourselves. Natural calamities are good lessons and great reminders, but by the time things are honky dory again we forget. So learn lessons, think hard, get over it and come out the wiser. Don’t dwell upon it. You and yours are alive, me and mine are alive. Your trees are still standing; my house is still upright, though in the half century since it was built it has withstood so many earthquakes that I’m sure it must have been structurally weakened and damaged. I don’t know how much longer it can suffer being shaken by earthquakes. One gust of wind, I fear, could bring it crashing down. That will not be the time to be visiting me good friend.”
“I know about tectonic plates crashing and all that jazz,” said Maverick, “but what’s with ‘TSA’ the acronym we monkeys have given to the ‘Twenty-Sixth Anomaly’? Why do so many natural calamities occur on the 26th of a month?”
“I can tell you many more that have not happened on a 26th, Maverick. It is human nature to bring the supernatural into what it cannot understand, explain or predict. But, yes, it is somewhat intriguing that the 26th has figured in so many calamities.”
“I’ll tell you a few, Humayun. But first tell me: when everyone around you was panicking and running helter-skelter and furniture falling over, you just kept sitting in your chair in your 4th floor office telling people to remain calm. Why? How? Were you paralysed with fear, like me?”
“No Maverick, though there was a moment when the building tilted so alarmingly that I thought we were done. But at the risk of sounding insufferable, which I suppose I do quite often, let me tell you that this is the difference between a ritualistic cleric-rived believer by accident of birth and a mystic-believer made by deep thought using one’s Creator-given mind and free will. Whatever will be, my friend, but you are too young to know Doris Day’s famous song, ‘Ke Sera Sera’. There’s nothing you or I can do about fate – about what is not our hands. So relax and enjoy life while it lasts and include in it the experience of death when it comes, however it comes, wherever it comes and embrace that ‘imposter’ with open arms for a new and wonderful experience. It’s unavoidable anyway. Enjoy the power of nature while life lasts on the earth plane, which is a very important plane because our behaviour on it decides our place on the next plane or dimension. Most will say I’m a fatalist. Of course I am; it is realistic to believe in fate, meaning what you cannot control or determine. If you think you can change fate, go ahead, like stop smoking if you want to avoid cancer but you might still get cancer because of your DNA or air, water and food pollution caused by man’s perfidy or by eating processed red meat, the latest ‘wisdom’ being peddled by ‘scientist researchers’ who still don’t really understand cancer and many more diseases like AIDS and Ebola, Alzheimer’s, dementia, sclerosis, even the common cold, to name a few and thus don’t have the cures. So they fall back on the preventive that might or might not be correct, and on disease management – or they take surgeon’s cutlery and start carving you up when all else fails. Once they told us that ghee and butter were lethal; now they are the best. Still, the point is you cannot beat death and thank God for it. So relax, because death will come in the end. It is just a matter of detail: when, where and how. To live on forever would be the greatest punishment anyway.”
“I saw huge cracks in your office building,” said Maverick. “The Capital Development Authority or CDA that is popularly known amongst us monkeys as ‘Corruption Development Authority’ should check each building fast, residential and commercial, to determine whether they are still habitable.”
“When people don’t understand something,” I continued for a bemused Maverick knowing that the CDA would do little, “they fall back on the supernatural, which is not necessarily wrong but scientists would say ‘unscientific’. As for me, how can I call anything wrong when I am still trying to understand right? Pakistani mullahs, whom this newspaper called ‘top religious scholars’, urged the nation …to turn to God and collectively repent for their sins as the earthquake was a ‘warning’ from God. Sure, but which sins? What sins? The sin of believing misleading clerics masquerading as scholars trying to market their profession of peddling religions and their own interpretations of God’s Word many of which are far removed from God’s true intent? Should we repent for repeatedly ‘electing’ and tolerating plundering, misgoverning rulers who have driven the state to bankruptcy? What? There are sins that we are answerable for to God alone, not to man or mullah.”
There are things in heaven and on earth, dear Maverick, that no one knows. No point in getting into a titter over it. Better still, find a safe place to hide on the twenty-sixth of every month
“A lady said to me,” offered Maverick to stem my verbal tide that was fast becoming a rant, “that when loot and plunder are abroad and corruption stalks the land, God gives people such jolts. That is more like it. But Humayun, having depressed me further let me tell you about the anomaly of the 26th that two other ladies, both friends of yours by the way, emailed me, so it’s not just us monkeys. ‘Is it a coincidence?’ they asked. I call it an anomaly, I told them. Here are some:
“China Earthquake 26th July 1976.
Gujarat Earthquake 26th January 2001.
Tsunami in Indian Ocean 26th December 2004.
Taiwan Earthquake 26th July 2010.
Japan Earthquake 26th February 2010.
Nepal Earthquake 26th April 2015.
The Rhodes Earthquake 26th June 1926.
North America Earthquake 26th January 1700.
Yugoslavia Earthquake 26th July 1963.
Merapi, wherever that is, volcanic eruption 26th October 2010.
Bam in Iran Earthquake 26th December 2003.
Sabah Tidal waves 26th December 1996.
Turkey Earthquake 26th December 1939.
Kansu, China Earthquake 26th December 1932.
Portugal Earthquake 26th January 1951.
Indonesia’s Krakatau volcanic eruption 26th August 1883.
Tasik, wherever that is too, earthquake 26th June 2010.
Taiwan Earthquake 26th July 2010.
Mentawai Tsunami 26th October 2010.
Why is it always ‘26’? Is it just a coincidence?”
“I don’t know, Maverick. Pakistan’s 2005 earthquake struck on 8th October. 26 or 2+6=8. Make of that what you will. These are all numbers in man’s arithmetic that is based on cypher or zero in a time that is linear on the earth plane. When it is the 26th in some place, it is the 27th far in the east and still the 25th in the far west, though the time of ours was such that it was the 26th everywhere. Real mathematics is ‘Pure Mathematics’ that is based on infinity and is called the language of God. I don’t know whether it is or not, but there are earthquakes on the moon as well and on planets with no life that we know of. They are just part of the formation and evolution of heavenly bodies and perhaps the cosmos too. The fine balance of our universe has to be maintained.”
“Yes, but why so many times on the 26th?”
“There are things in heaven and on earth, dear Maverick, that no one knows. No point in getting into a titter over it. Better still, find a safe place to hide on the twenty-sixth of every month.”
“Very funny,” said Maverick and suddenly scampered off, as if giving up on me.
