In the name of Allah, The Most Beneficent, The Most Merciful.

Assalaamu’ alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu Dear Community,

I’ve been thinking about how the Coronavirus pandemic can teach us many lessons about our faith and values. Our strengths, weaknesses and capabilities as humans.

As the crisis unfolded in a bid for survival we humans reacted in various ways, some panicked while others kept calm. Then came mass hysteria which resulted in a lot of panic buying. Stockpiling by some led to more panic by the rest, flocking to stores, shortages of shelf stock and hiking of prices by some retailers. A truly bizarre and thought provoking situation.

Thankfully most of us came to our senses and started considering our fellow population.

Allah The Most Merciful knows His creation better than we know ourselves. It is only natural we should be merciful to one another as reported in the Hadiths of Sahih Bukhari and Muslim:

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, “Allah has divided mercy into one hundred parts; and He retained with Him ninety-nine parts, and sent down to earth one part. Through this one part creatures deal with one another with compassion, so much so that an animal lifts its hoof over its young lest it should hurt it”.

Sadly despite this calamity it has not brought out the best of humanity in certain shameless opportunists. Please be careful of manipulative scams and take care against thieves and con artists particularly online.

May Allah guide us and make us kind to our fellow humans. Ameen.

Now, it is time we asked ourselves how we reacted and if it was a good way to react. To remind ourselves to be faithful, that everything is in the Hands of Allah, namely life, death, gain and loss. Wealth and poverty can be tough tests of life. But Materialism, greed, selfishness can skew our perception of reality.

Allah warns us in Surah Al Humazah (Qur’an 104:3)

“He thinks that His wealth will make him immortal..”

Inevitably we shall all return to Allah and we must pray to be taken in a state of imaan. We must remember that Allah is Ar-Razaq (The One Who Provides) as He tells us in Surah Adh-Dhaariyat (Qur’an, 51:58):

“ Verily, Allah is the All-provider, Owner of Power, the Most Strong.“

Allah is free of need and the Only One that can save us.

Humanity needs one another, a totally self-centred mentality is actually quite self-defeating. Mankind heavily depends on social and physical interactions to stay sane. Having said this, there are boundaries and limits Allah has set out for us to which we must respect in order to thrive. This social distancing is quite refreshing at a time when personal space boundaries have been eroded to near extinction!

Here are some of the small kindnesses that we can do to help others:

> giving within your means

> giving with an open heart

> shopping responsibly (it has been a while since the shopping frenzies and congrats to the supermarkets for responding well to encourage consideration).

> wash hands and maintain personal hygiene (high time a large portion of us should be washing hands after basic human functions)

>share, volunteer, help the elderly/pregnant women/vulnerable groups of people. (Cook food or do groceries, give positive comforting advice.)

>If you have children get them involved as part of their home-schooling to teach them good Islamic character and looking after neighbours… someone’s got to break the ice no?

>heed government advice as much as possible. Stay safe, stay at home. Isolate if needed.

Life under lockdown as restrictive as it can be, is proving necessary to protect the NHS and the population. Many people can be asymptomatic so it is crucial to keep your distance and limit contact to protect the vulnerable such as the elderly, pre/postnatal women, mothers with young children and those with weakened immune systems . In fact everyone should be cautious as we have seen even the healthy and all age groups are susceptible.

Muhammad Rasool Allah (peace be upon him) set us the best example. Let us follow and treat this minor hardship with patience, seeking reward from Allah. Let us maintain social distance to protect others without differentiating their background. Remember Surah Al Maaida (Qur’an 5:32):

“And if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind.“

Now it’s time to look at myself and see where I am on this scale of selflessness and how to improve, maybe its time for you to evaluate yourself too.

Take care and please share the word.

Thurrock Muslims.