A summary of the concepts held by the Ahl al-Sunnah.
The proliferation and widespread nature of sins inevitably lead to divine punishment.
When sins become rampant and widespread within any nation,
it serves as a harbinger of its punishment or destruction.
Allah the Almighty says:
“And when a token cometh unto them, they say: We will not believe till we are given that which Allah's messengers are given. Allah knoweth best with whom to place His message. Humiliation from Allah and heavy punishment will smite the guilty for their scheming.” (6:124)
“And when a token cometh unto them, they say: We will not believe till we are given that which Allah's messengers are given. Allah knoweth best with whom to place His message. Humiliation from Allah and heavy punishment will smite the guilty for their scheming.” (6:124)
And He says:
“See they not how many a generation We destroyed before them, whom We had established in the earth more firmly than We have established you, and We shed on them abundant showers from the sky, and made the rivers flow beneath them. Yet we destroyed them for their sins, and created after them another generation.” (6:6)
“See they not how many a generation We destroyed before them, whom We had established in the earth more firmly than We have established you, and We shed on them abundant showers from the sky, and made the rivers flow beneath them. Yet we destroyed them for their sins, and created after them another generation.” (6:6)
“See they not how many a generation We destroyed before them, whom We had established in the earth more firmly than We have established you, and We shed on them abundant showers from the sky, and made the rivers flow beneath them. Yet we destroyed them for their sins, and created after them another generation.” (6:6)
His statement, "So We destroyed them for their sins,"
establishes the reality that sins are the cause of the destruction of those who commit them,
and that it is Allah who brings about their destruction.
This is an established Sunnah of Allah,
even if an individual or a generation does not witness it within their short, limited lifespan.
It is not a condition that destruction must arrive through an immediate calamity from Allah,
as used to happen to the nations of the past.
Rather, it may come through a slow moral decay
that spreads through the body of the Ummah as it sinks deeper into the labyrinth of sin.