Earthquakes and disasters: are they punishment? (Türkiye, February 2023)

What the Quran says

64:11 — permission, and guidance for the heart. "No disaster strikes except by permission of Allah. And whoever believes in Allah — He will guide his heart. And Allah is Knowing of all things" (64:11), from Sura al-Taghabun (usually counted as Medinan). The verse is not about why the disaster happened, but about how a believer meets it. Ibn Kathir reports Ibn ʿAbbas: "By the command of Allah", i.e. by His decree; and, on "He will guide his heart": "Allah will guide his heart to certainty." Ibn Kathir explains that the person who suffers, knows it came by God's decree, and patiently awaits the reward is the one whose heart is guided.

42:30 — "what your hands have earned". "And whatever strikes you of disaster — it is for what your hands have earned; but He pardons much" (42:30), from Sura al-Shura, Meccan, addressed to people in general. Ibn Kathir reads it: "whatever disasters happen to you, O mankind, are because of sins that you have committed in the past", and on "He pardons much": "He does not punish you for them, rather He forgives you." He then cites hadith that turn the verse toward mercy: "no believer is stricken with fatigue, exhaustion, worry or grief, but Allah will forgive him for some of his sins thereby", and a report in Imam Ahmad: "No physical harm befalls a believer, but Allah will expiate for some of his sins because of it." So Ibn Kathir reads the verse first as causal — disasters come because of sins, most of which God pardons — and then, through the hadith, as a promise that hardship wipes away a believer's sins. Neither names any particular victims as deserving. The two hadith he cites have not yet been checked for collection or grade here.

What 42:30 does not say. It speaks of what strikes "you" in general; it does not say that every person struck by a given disaster is being punished for their own sins. It cannot apply to children, who are not accountable (see below). Applying it to the victims of a particular earthquake, as a verdict, is something the verse does not do and the hadith on martyrs contradicts.

57:22–23 — written, so that you do not despair. "No disaster strikes upon the earth or among yourselves except that it is in a register before We bring it into being — indeed that, for Allah, is easy — In order that you not despair over what has eluded you and not exult [in pride] over what He has given you" (57:22–23), from Sura al-Hadid. The purpose given for knowing that disasters are decreed is to protect the heart from despair, not to blame the victims.

2:155–157 — testing. "And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient, Who, when disaster strikes them, say, 'Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.' Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy" (2:155–157). Here loss is a test, and those who suffer it are promised blessing and mercy.

30:41 — human corruption. "Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea by [reason of] what the hands of people have earned…" (30:41). That is a modern application: the verse speaks of corruption (fasād) caused by people. It is better used as a general reminder that people answer for the harm they cause than as a statement about the 2023 earthquake.

The punished peoples (ʿĀd, Thamūd and others). The Quran describes the destruction of specific peoples after they rejected a prophet sent to them.