Coronavirus and religious fanaticism

Bhat Zaieem
God helps those who help themselves with thoughtful prudence. Since the beginning of this year a new strain of viruses (COVID19) spread across the globe which arose from the Wuhan city in Hubei province of China. The virus has gripped the whole world in chaos and fear. The world community has filled all the counters with measures to contain spread of this virus. From social to health perspectives a lot of stuff has been already jotted down and is being continued. Let us check the impact of this virus on religious setup. COVID-19 has infiltrated into many aspects of our lives and most importantly our religious practices. The practice of Islam has been hit harder than any other religion. .Religion is supposed to be a source of comfort in times of confusion and suffering. And yet everywhere you look, services are being suspended. So it is becoming a paradoxical. Does it mean we have lost the faith in holy revelations with this, absolutely not? I would like to hail the approaches of our Ulema who ordered for the suspension of religious practices including congregational prayers of Friday or display of holy relic on eve of Mehraj un Nabi(saw) for some days. Even in Saudi Arabia visas have been put off for Umrah. But still there are some elements who are beating in air and saying we can’t let our mosques empty or we need to offer more congregational prayers in mosques or else. Few asking for ritualistic ‘congregational Nafal’ or else which will surely invite more trouble from COVID19. Is it a narrow mindedness about religion or we don’t have understood the religion in correct way. Which religion will tell us to invite trouble or death for ourselves? Being Muslims we all know that whenever there is an assemblage of worshipers, Allah’s mercy is showering upon them. Allah is among them. May be somebody is carrying Coronavirus with him and being staggeringly unethical in its nature, it can’t let you go back without meeting you. So it is up to a person whether he wants to meet virus or not as it will effort to have a contract with you. What should be done in that position, surely we need to maintain a gap and can be done if we stay and worship at home till things go fine again.
We are again taking religion and science in a contradictory sense. Where does the flaw lie? To me science and religion are from two different bases and they are eternal and synthetic. We need to find a correlation between two and have a social adjustment.
Prophet Muhammad (saw) said “If you hear that there is a plague in a land, do not enter it; and if it (plague) visits a land while you are therein, do not go out of it”. But still on eve of Mehraj un Nabi(saw) Maulvi’s organized the congregations again. I saw the people thronging in mosques in large numbers and ‘ShabKhawani’ went on the whole night jointly. It should have been done at individual level this time and Allah likes and hears the payers better done in isolation. Traditional ‘Bhandars’ are being made with people mixing rice and mutton on tin sheets and disseminating the prepared food among people. Let me take another example, we all know that once Abu Bakr(RA) was carrying Prophet Muhammad(saw) on his shoulders shrouded in a veil and in way disbelievers asked Abu Bakr(RA) who is the person you are carrying, he replied he is Prophet Muhammad(saw) and they ignored thinking he is lying. After that Prophet Muhammad (saw) tells Abu Bakr (RA) you shouldn’t have told them the truth. So we can easily understand from it that whenever we are on verge of extreme danger, we can put the things on hold for time being. For orthodox believers, only religion is a source of spiritual healing and hope. It’s a remedy against despair, providing psychological and emotional support that is an integral part of well-being. It’s also an antidote to loneliness, which several medical experts point to as one of the most worrisome public health issue of present time. But they can’t absolutely ignore science. Both are interconnected and necessary for a well being of human. The worst hit Italy has now claimed almost 6000 deaths despite having one of the best health infrastructures across the globe. After failing to curb the menace, the prime minister of Italy ultimately said that we are all done by earthly powers now looking for heavenly activity. At last humans fall helpless and bow before God.Now everyone is looking forward at vaccine, when will it be developed and finally used. We are following almost every precautionary measure which are being put forward by WHO or other health organizations. So we believe in science and everybody does provoke it. But still I came across the people who are still saying that this lockdown is unnecessary, it is up to God. Let everything be run normally. So, it means we are again taking religion and science in a contradictory sense. Where does the flaw lie? To me science and religion are from two different bases and they are eternal and synthetic. We need to find a correlation between two and have a social adjustment.
(The author is a teacher at the department of School Education. Views are his own, [email protected])