What happened to Pastor Terry Jones and his Qur’an-burning day?

The pastor of a Florida church, who threatened to burn the Quran on the 9/11 anniversary to protest the 2001 terror attacks in the US, has been hit with a whopping $180,000 bill as cost of security cover for his stunt.

The city of Gainesville, Florida, plans to send a bill estimated at more than $180,000 to pastor Terry Jones for security costs, CNN has reported.

According to Gainesville police spokeswoman Cpl. Tscharna Senn, police agencies spent more than a month working on plans to provide security to the community surrounding Jones’ Dove World Outreach Center – the planned site of the Quran burning.
But, the Gainesville police department said it spent more than $100,000 while the Alachua county sheriff’s Office spent an estimated $80,000.

Jones later called off his plan amid pressure from world leaders.
‘If we had known this in advance, then we would have refused to have security,’ Jones said.
According to British newspaper Daily Mail, the security bill could bankrupt Jones and his church which has less than 40 members. The 20-acre site that houses the church is up for sale and Jones has said he wants to move to Tampa to a smaller site. TOPNEWS

How’s that for wanting to burn Qur’aans? Allah always takes care of everything in the end. This reminds me of the incident when Abraha ibn as Saba of Yemen who wanted to destroy the Ka’bah mentioned in Surah Feel.

When Abraha had already entered Makkah, he sat down to to speak to the chief ‘Abdul Muttalib (grandfather of Rasoolullah SAW ). ‘Abdul Muttalib asked him to give him back the two hundred camels he took from his property. “Is it possible?” Abraha said to his interpreter “Tell him: I liked you when I first saw you, handsome and huge, but now I abstain from you”. ‘Abdul Muttalib asked why. He answered “ I came to destroy a house that is your religion, your ancestors’ religion, your  honour, and dignity, and you did not talk to me about it, instead you talked about the two hundred camels”.
He (‘Abdul Muttalib) said to him “I am the lord of the camels, and the house (Ka’bah) has a Lord to protect it”.

‘Abdul Muttalib said to him “Go ahead”. Abraha said to him “He wouldn’t stop me”. He said “Go ahead”, so Abraha ordered for ‘Abdul Muttalib’s camels to be brought,  and they were returned to him. Then ‘Abdul Muttalib left, and asked the army to spread around in Makka’s mountains, and guard themselves against the humiliation of the army, and so they did. ‬

On the second day, Abraha issued orders to his army to enter Mecca. ‘Abdul Muttalib told the Meccans to leave the city and to seek refuge in the surrounding hills. But he, together with some leading members of Quraish, remained within the precincts of the Ka’bah. Abraha sent someone to warn them to vacate the building. When the messenger came, he asked the people who their leader was. All fingers pointed towards ‘Abdul Muttalib. He was again invited to go to Abraha where he had a talk with him. When he came out, he was heard saying: “The Owner of this House is its Defender, and I am sure He will save it from the attack of the adversaries and will not dishonor the servants of His House.”

‪Abdul Muttalib came to the house, he took the door knob and started saying  poetry
(O Allah! Surely a man defends his own home, therefore, Thou shouldst protect Thy Own House. Their cross and their wrath can never overcome Thy wrath. O Allah, help Thy Own people against the fellows of the cross and its worshippers)

Abraha was nearing the Ka’bah with some people. When he reached the steep area, he got ready to enter, loaded his army, and prepared his elephant. Nafeel came to the elephant, held its ear and said; “Kneel Mahmoud”. (Mahmoud was the elephant’s name). The elephant kneeled down. They turned it towards Yemen, it ran, towards Syria, it did the same, towards the east, it did the same thing, but when it was turned towards the haram, it kneeled.

Nafeel left and climbed the mountain. Allah the All-Mighty intervened and sent birds in flocks from the sea. (They were called Abaabeel). Each bird had three stones, two in its feet, and one in its beak. When they reached the people and flew over them, they  threw the stones on them, everyone hit by the stones died.

‪The birds did not hit all the people, the rest ran away asking about Nafeel to show them the way to Yemen, some of them running over each other, falling down all the way, dying. Allah inflicted Abraha with a disease that made his fingers fall until he reached San’a.‬ He died on the way to Yemen.

So Allah is al ‘Aleem, as Samee’, al Baseer. He is al Hafiz and al Muhaymin. Let us be everything the glorious Kalaam of Qur’aan instructs us to be… open-hearted, kind, peaceful, true devoted servants of Allah in every sphere of life. May Allah grant us true piety and make us His obedient slaves.