Pivotal Quote
“The decision that has been made by the Scholars and the doctors of our time is something that is in the best interest of the people so that they do not mix together and this disease is not spread. And so, we must return our affairs to our Scholars—not to our laymen—the people who make decisions based on knowledge, not those who make decisions based on emotion. And Allāh knows best.“
سؤال وجواب – عربي – ٢:٥٠ دقائق
Question and Answer – English [3:30]
Question:
Some of the laymen in our community are severely affected by the closing of the masjid and began to make accusations towards the masjid administration saying things like, “If you truly trusted in Allāh, you would not have closed the masjid, you would have left it opened and if Allāh has written for us to become sick, we will get sick whether or not we pray in the masjid.” So how are we to deal with such laymen?
Answer:
Firstly, know that when it comes to the laymen, those who are not people of knowledge, they always react emotionally when any problem arises. That is why we have to refer our affairs to the People of Knowledge, the Scholars who are able to extract the correct rulings when it comes to situations where we are facing problems. Those who have the sufficient knowledge of the Qurʾān, the Sunnah and the principles of the religion to make decisions when we have problems.
And the decisions that have been made by the Scholars of our day and time and the fatwá that they have given for closing the masjid, it is based upon the principles of the religion and based upon the necessity of preserving life, such that the sickness is not spread from one person to another. And if we look in history we find that when the plague afflicted al-Shām, ʿUmar Ibn al-ʿĀṣ (رضى الله عنه) who was the governor of the region, commanded all the people to leave the city and to go live in the countryside and in the mountains. And that means they would have been away from the masjid and they would not be praying in the Jamāʿah, and this was because of the plague.
Furthermore, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, “There is to be no initiating or reciprocating harm [according to one interpretation of the ḥadīth].” The fact is that we are to prevent harm from happening.
Furthermore, we have in another ḥadīth of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) that he said that the sick person should not come in contact with the healthy person.
Furthermore, the Coronavirus is a sickness where the person’s symptoms are not obvious, and in fact, the sick person himself may not even know that he is sick. The decision that has been made by the Scholars and the doctors of our time is something that is in the best interest of the people so that they do not mix together and this disease is not spread. And so, we must return our affairs to our Scholars—not to our laymen—the people who make decisions based on knowledge, not those who make decisions based on emotion. And Allāh knows best.