A clear lesson from the earthquake: whoever helps, helps themselves

When signs come from the heavens, even if the sign is so clear, so plain, so simple that no one could ignore it, who can say that it will open all eyes in the same way?

We are astonished at those who do not see it even when the truth of death, which lifts the veils above all ideologies and divisions, has appeared. The earthquake came with not one but tens of thousands of deaths, suddenly, at the moment when man feels himself most comfortable, most secure, most powerful and most certain. It showed not only the dead but all of humanity its helplessness, its powerlessness, that it possesses nothing, that what it possesses is not its own. If such a sign does not show that wealth, property, class, cultural and geographical belongings can all come to nothing in an instant and at any moment, what will?

We all belong to God and to Him we shall return again. What do we have in this world? How far will the things we know to exist go with us? How can we live so sure that the sky standing above our heads, with its stones, its clouds, its fire, will not fall upon us at any moment?

In fact, how much do we really comprehend of the order underground that we take to be a balance of faults? Is this order, this balance, settled only by physical causes, outside the will of God? We see with earthquakes what a small movement can cause, do we not? Being cautious against earthquakes, building stronger buildings that conform to the rules, and thoroughly inspecting what has been built is of course a very, very important lesson to be taken.

But is there not one more lesson to be taken beyond this one? This world gives people no right or permission to be arrogant toward one another, to swagger, to see themselves as superior to others, let alone to crush others with this claim of superiority. And of course this world does not permit servitude to others either. No one other than the Exalted Lord, who keeps our own bodies alive through thousands of miraculous processes every moment, is worthy of servitude.

But the Exalted Lord, to whom we are subject, has nevertheless ordained that people love one another, and has said that the world will become more beautiful through that love and friendship. Love of people is not an alternative to love of God; it is a love that complements it, to the extent that it does not turn into servitude.

With all its pains and deaths, the earthquake makes us witness another miracle of our existence through the embracing of one another by loving people, people burning and kindled with love of humanity. The compassion, tenderness and helping hand born of this love bring a person closer to his Lord, and carry the Lord, through the hands of those people, to the hands awaiting rescue.

That volunteer extending his hand to rescue people from the rubble could himself have been a hand asking for help. Indeed the miners who work with heart and soul in that rubble as if risking their own lives are very aware of what they are doing.

The volunteers whose hearts' eyes have been opened to the fullest by this earthquake, whose consciences have risen up, who have rushed with great motivation to help in the disaster zone, are in fact answering an invitation that revives them. With all these tragic consequences, its dreadful images, its deaths, the earthquake is also an invitation to those who remain: an invitation to an act that will revive. The volunteers who rush to help, by answering this invitation, are in fact saving themselves. Those who suppose that nothing falls upon them from the responsibilities this earthquake has caused, on the contrary, are the ones truly under the rubble, and it is far harder to rescue them.

And above all those who turn rushing to help into an advertisement and an occasion for swaggering over others, even for establishing superiority over others. This is one of the most wretched situations this earthquake has revealed. What is to be said is simple: if you are helping, you are helping yourselves; do not reproach people with it and render your deeds void, so that what you have done may be appreciated, accepted and made easy. But do not squander your deeds by reproaching with what you have done with your own hands, do not make people say it would have been better if you had not done it at all. No one needs a deed to be thrown in his face, a favor that demands a price.

And above all those who go to the disaster zone only to criticize someone, and without seeing at all what has been done, cite as a pretext a point that could not be reached, an aid that could not be given, a job done incompletely... Those who, in that earthquake environment, describe perfect and ideal models of rescue and response operations... Those who, without putting a hand under a stone, without touching a person's wound, without making a speck of contribution, try merely by criticizing to open a space for themselves, to snatch from the earthquake rubble a share of moral superiority and swagger...

Some of the people whose eyes this earthquake, with all its truths, has not been able to open, whose eyes it has closed all the more, whose hearts it has darkened all the more, also confront us in hostility toward Syrians. When the earthquake and death have shown themselves as such a plain truth, with their equality, their indifference, their indiscriminate hit... People like Ümit Özdağ, so devoid of any share of the truth that on a TV program he took part in he could throw out the slander that the rescue teams rescued AK Party members first, have evidently shown that if they took part in the rescue they would themselves make such a distinction.

Evidently the Syrian oppressed expect this wickedness from people like him. That is why the statements of a family who, at the threshold of death under the rubble, did not answer even the call "Is anyone there?" made to them, out of the fear that "they will realize he is Syrian and no help will be given," are another human wretchedness the earthquake has exposed.

Whoever is not ashamed of his humanity at least a little at these words has already been left under the rubble of that earthquake. Let no one worry: the account will be seen in the most just way by Almighty God, the Owner of everything, the Owner of the Kurd and the Turk and the Arab, the poor and the rich, and the Syrian oppressed.

But humanity has not been left to them. With this earthquake, millions of people whose eyes were opened and whose consciences rose up rushed to lend a hand to their own salvation, to the salvation of Turkey, to the salvation of the humanity that the racists trample underfoot.

They saved, thank God. Both themselves and all humanity.