[IslamCity] Vanishing lake baffles Russians

[DDN]

B i s m i l l a a h i r   R a h m a a n i r   R a h e e m         Soorah Al Mulk 67:30             قُلْ أَرَأَيْتُمْ إِنْ أَصْبَحَ مَاؤُكُمْ غَوْراً فَمَن يَأْتِيكُم بِمَاء مَّعِينٍ Qul araaytum in asbaha maokum ghawran faman yateekum bima-in maAAeenin        "Say: Have you thought: If (all) your water were to disappear into the earth,        who then could bring you gushing water? "              http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4566355.stm   Sat, 28 May 2005 17:09:11 -0700 (PDT)                          Vanishing lake baffles Russians   There have long been rumours about the lake Residents of a village in central Russia are trying to solve the mystery of a lake that disappeared overnight. Russia's NTV channel showed a huge, muddy basin where the lake once was, in the village of Bolotnikovo. "It looks like somebody has pulled the plug out of a gigantic bath," said the TV's correspondent, next to a deep debris-filled hole. Local officials in Nizhny Novgorod region say the lake was probably sucked into an underground cave. The name of the village - which lies about 250 km (155 miles) east of Moscow - roughly translates as "boggy". No water The discovery was made by local fishermen when they arrived at the lake early in the morning. "I looked and there was no water. I thought: Oh my God, what's going on?" one of them told the TV. Rescuers were called out to search the uncovered lake bed to see if anybody could have been sucked under, but it is thought no-one was on the lake when the waters vanished. "It's very dangerous. If somebody is caught by such a calamity, the chances of survival are practically nil," fireman Dmitry Zaitsev said, pointing out that lakeside trees appeared to have been dragged down with the water. The lake's disappearance may have been caused by subsidence allowing the water to drain into a cave system or underground river, local official Dmitry Klyuev said. According to Mr Klyuev, several houses were swallowed up in similar circumstances 70 years ago. 'Dark mystery' But more supernatural explanations were circulating among the villagers, including the influence of dark forces. Village youngsters said the lake had appeared during the reign of the feared Tsar Ivan the Terrible and had been "shrouded in dark mystery" ever since. "We used to go swimming there, but we were rather afraid of its depth, and there were various rumours. For instance people said there used to be a church there underwater," one girl told the TV. But one elderly villager sitting outside her house had another kind of force in mind. "I thought the Americans had got here," she said, laughing. BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaus abroad.     *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)  also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islamcity/   To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]   Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.