COVID-19 pandemic: Six long-term lessons (II)

The power of prayer

Dealing with COVID-19 is risky. It is highly contagious and deadly. Nonetheless, the pandemic should be seen both as a threat and opportunity. People need to face it head-on and uncompromisingly, and should look forward to emerging stronger and more resilient from it, for “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”

All these outlooks and measures have been encapsulated in some hadiths (traditions) of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) that forbid Muslims to enter a land in which a plague has occurred, and also forbid them to leave a land in which a plague has occurred (Sahih al-Bukhari).

Since COVID-19 exists and does what it does only due to the permission of God, these difficult and testing times should be used for enhancing our relationship with God. People should deal directly with the source. They should seek protection from, and eventual elimination of the virus, only from God. They will have to do their part, with-in and with-out themselves, but that, too, is to be seen merely as part of seeking and activating God’s will in our favour.

The Qur’an reveals that “Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves (their own condition). And when Allah intends for a people ill, there is no repelling it. And there is not for them besides Him any patron (protector)” (al-Ra’d, 11).

The Prophet taught us several prayers and supplications to recite (and actualise) for protection against harms and evils, including diseases and plagues. Some of them are as follows (www.islamqa.info):

“In the name of Allah with Whose name nothing can harm on earth or in heaven, and He is the All-Hearing, All-Knowing” (Sunan Abi Dawud).

“I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah from the evil of that which He has created” (Sahih Muslim).

“O Allah, I ask You for well-being in this world and in the Hereafter. O Allah, I ask You for pardon and well-being in my faith, my worldly affairs, my family and my wealth. O Allah, conceal my faults and protect me from that which causes me to worry. O Allah, protect me from before me and from behind me, from my right and from my left, and from above me, and I seek refuge in Your greatness lest I be destroyed from beneath me.” (Sunan Abi Dawud)

“O Allah, I seek refuge with You from the withdrawing of Your blessing, and the loss of the well-being that You granted me, and the sudden onset of Your wrath, and anything that may lead to Your displeasure.” (Sahih Muslim)

However, prayers and supplications should not be just reactive and mechanical chants, without knowing what is being said and without feeling that something extraordinary is taking place. Instead, prayers and supplications are to be seen as forms of reciprocal communication with the Creator and Master of the universe, whereby we recognise when we talk that we are listened to, and when we are talked to that we listen.

Through their prayers, people can demonstrate how pious, dedicated, and enlightened they are. At the same time, they can show how insincere, selfish, and imprudent they are. Indeed, people and the state of their total worship are what and how effective their prayers are. Prayers must be free of self-centeredness, covetousness, superstitions, skepticism, and hesitation.

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It’s the little things that matter most

COVID-19, apart from making us feel afraid and unsure, is also making us more compassionate and more understanding. It is making us more pragmatic and more open-minded. We are made to change our perspective and see many things differently. For many people, as a result, life may never be the same again.

One of the things learned from the predicament is that in times of difficulty it is the little things that matter most. In their lives, people are usually preoccupied with big dreams, issues, and challenges. Their everyday routines and the people they interact with most are regarded exactly as that: average and inconsequential procedures as well as acquaintances.

However, in times of need it is such routines and persons that prove most important and most decisive. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are advised to take care of personal hygiene, to keep the places where we live, work, worship and play, clean, and to mind our manners when alone and with others. In other words, we are to be completely responsible and live responsibly. These behavioral principles can be dubbed “Coronaethics.” In doing so, the most important persons are our family members, our neighbours, our friends and our colleagues. But all of these people under normal circumstances are taken for granted and often even underappreciated.

As another example, we are not fully aware how significant today in the age of internet (Information Age) refraining from fanning the flames of panic is, and how beneficial desisting from spreading rumours and false news could be. Cyber heroes – and villains – are as influential as any other frontline group.

Thus, this unfortunate episode should be a lesson in the actual meaning and quality of life. People should be more sensible and pragmatic. They should revisit their life priorities, and re-evaluate their paths to happiness as the supreme goal of life. Life must not be a wasted opportunity or a set of illusions.

COVID-19 teaches us that people do not need to go far and wide to find the source of ultimate joy, happiness and success, because that source is always there: at home and with family and friends. Likewise, to make a contribution to the welfare and interests of society and the whole world, people do not need to think and act necessarily big.

 The peril of spiritual and moral pandemics

Along with fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, we must remember that there are many other pandemics that are equally, if not more harmful, requiring immediate attention. They are related to the realms of spirituality and morality.

It is evident that people’s level of spiritual and moral integrity across the globe is at an all-time low. So much so that there is no metaphysical meaning, value, and sanctity that is appreciated, let alone followed, by the modern and postmodern hedonistic and nihilistic man. The only thing that matters is that such man’s self-obsessed interests and vain desires are satisfied. Apart from the personal ego and the styles of serving its wants, nothing seems to be sacred or honorable. Why to be otherwise, quite frankly, when God is “dead” and the truth is at once unknown and unknowable (the creed of agnosticism).

People and nations will recover from COVID-19 and will move on. However, the spiritual and moral pandemics will rage uncontrollably. The wounds of the former will eventually heal, whereas those of the latter will go on multiplying, and will hurt most.

Hence, COVID-19, when all is said and done, does not represent an apocalypse. The spiritual and moral pandemics do. With the former, Almighty God tests us, warns us, educates us, and rattles us in order to emerge better and stronger. With the latter, which is purely the doing of man, God denies us His favors and blessings. We are yet qualified to be punished thereby. In the former, furthermore, God is on our side. In the latter, we are left on our own; God is against us. By means of the former, we in addition can improve our lot in this world and the stakes of ours in the Hereafter.

As painful as COVID-19 is, people should take it in their stride as much as possible. The Qur’an affirms: “…And it may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you, and it may be that you love a thing while it is evil for you, and Allah knows, while you do not know” (al-Baqarah, 216).

Source: IslamiCity

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