"Sheikhs Feel Tremors From Earth Quake Hundreds of Miles Away"

It was early morning before 7:00 AM in Bangalore, India. Sheik Yusuf Estes and Dr. Jaafar Shaikh Idris were in their rooms at the Empire Hotel not far from where they had just concluded a very successful week of presenting the message "Vision of Peace - ISLAM" at the Palace Grounds Exposition.

Sheik Yusuf says he felt something moving his bed a little, as though someone were tapping on the side. He got up, looked around and then layed back down. Then he felt it again. "What is going on here?" he thought, jumping out of the bed again. This time he went to the window to look down three stories below to see if there was anything strange going on. No. Everything seemed quite enough.

Only a few people passing by, after all it was the day after Christmas and most of the people in that area had been out all night at parties.

Still, there was something going on here. He layed back down again, and sure enough there it was again. Vibrating to a rhythm and slightly moving the whole bed.

"Was this a jinn?" he thought? It might be possible. After all, Sheik Hussein an Indian brother who studied in Madinah was there in the room just past Sheik Jaafar's reading Quran on people and trying to get the jinn out of them.

People were lined up and sitting there waiting their turn in the hallway all night long. Sheik Hussein was taking them in and trying to help them. Could this have been some of the jinn coming out and now taking their revenge?

Later in the day when the news of what had happened reached the internet and news media had begun to pick it up, Sheik Yusuf came to know about the earthquake and subsequent tidalwave that took the lives of so many people and destroyed property in many countries. But somehow, all of this news had missed Dr. Jaafar.

He mentioned to Sheik Yusuf having felt someone shake his bed and wondered whether or not it may have been a jinn coming over from Sheik Hussein's room. And when he found out what had actually happened, he realized something much worse had taken place.

While the incident of the bed's shaking and the possibility of it being a jinn was immediately mused over and dismissed, the severe gravity of the situation facing so many in the aftermath of this devestating series of events left the scholars in a state of quiet prayer for all concerned.

"Inna lillahi wa inna alayhi rajiuun" (From Allah we come and unto Allah is the return."

Our prayers are with those who are seeking answers in these difficult times, and may Allah guide them to all truth, ameen.