Why do youthink this segment of Muslims does not take medical advice seriously? Callingthem names may help you vent out frustration; it won’t answer the questionthough. Don’t they want to live or stay healthy? They do. Are they so selfish that they don’t careabout others, and risk the spread of this virus? No. They are more selflessthan you and me. They do charity and help needy when others don’t. The worstassumption one could come up with, would be that they don’t have Islamicknowledge. This is far from the truth. These people are also Muftis and Sheikhswho have read barrage of books, and even written and published such heavyliterature that one can’t even carry it. So where’s the problem? Well, thisproblem is called the lack of critical thinking. This is an over-encompassingissue in the entire educational system of our part of the world. We all knowlogic, rationale, reasons, premise, interpretations, inference, extrapolations,hermeneutics, analysis, and evaluation by their names, but these are highlytechnical areas of study that nobody teaches us. These transferable skills form the crux ofany type of education. What you teach doesn’t matter much since knowledge canbe had anytime from internet and other sources, it’s these skills that teachyou what to do with knowledge, what to make of it, how to use it, and how to arriveat conclusions/decisions. This is why massive libraries should not impress you.Ideally, any 15-year old should be able to tell you about inductive anddeductive reasoning. However, even if you ask a college student, you’d rarelyget an answer. This is the rot in our institutes of modern education, let aloneMadrassas- but that’s for some other time. Let’s stick to the clergy for now.
Nowadays, wehave irreligious people who mock at seeking supernatural help. They takeScience and Islam to be opposites, and find solace in Science. Theircounterparts in the other camp are their mirror image, who also think Scienceand Islam are antagonistic to each other. Since they are religious, they hatescience while taking refuge in religion. This is the tussle that makes one aheretic and the other a ‘Primitive Mulla’. The ability to understand theinterplay of Science and Islam is the solution. This is where critical thinkingchips in. Science is the study of the laws of nature (God), not the laws ofscientists (individuals). How can a true God be against His own laws? Gravityis the law of Allah, not of Newton who just studied it. There is not, and therecan’t be any established principle of science that goes against Islam, simplybecause the creator of science and the creator of Islam is one. So why shouldany Muslim have this step-motherly treatment with science? It’s not Your Science vs. Our Islam. This isa false binary. It’s our God who gave usQuran for the right conduct in this world and sound mind to ponder upon, andresearch His laws governing His universe.
This coronavirus is also following a certain pattern that’s to be studied meticulously tostop its spread. Who can do that? An expert who has spent his life doing justthat: an Epidemiologist. Who would findits vaccine/treatment? Scientists. So, let them do that. If any of their advicegoes against our practices of Islam temporarily, for the sake of saving ourlives, Islam is pretty clear about giving precedence to the lives over acts ofworship. How can we say so? Well, thereare conspicuous sayings of Rasoolullah (saw) that make it easy for us.
SahihBukhari Volume 1, Book 11, Number 635:
NarratedNafi’:
Once on avery cold and stormy night, Ibn ‘Umar pronounced the Adhan for the prayer andthen said, “Pray in your homes.” He (Ibn ‘Umar) added. “On verycold and rainy nights Allah’s Apostle used to order the Mu’adhdhin to say,’Pray in your homes’.
Pleaseunderstand cold night won’t have killed people. It was a severe discomfortthough. Even here, the Prophet (saw) asked people to pray at home. Cold and storm are still good reasons, let’scheck this one out:
Sahih Muslim1146
Jabirreported: The Messenger of Allaah (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam) said: He whoeats garlic or onion should remain away from us or from our mosque and stay inhis house.
This isagain about discomfort of your fellow Muslims in Masjid. A discomfort of yourfoul smell. Compare this to a possible deadly virus that nobody can say forsure whether one has it or not- irrespective of your symptoms.
This is notto say that we have no role to play. It’s heart-wrenching that our Masaajid areshut. Our Ka’ba and Masjid Nabwi are deserted. Ramadan is approaching. We mustcry in front of Allah to restore the glory of our congregations. We must makeDua’ in our homes, and ask Allah to save us from these calamitous times. Afterall, it’s Allah who makes the cure for diseases; scientists are meant to lookfor it. May they succeed soon for the betterment of entire humanity!