COVID-19: A Fair Arbitrator?
By Mohajer Ansari
US
The novel Coronavirus christened COVID-19 has a lot in common with two pandemics from not-too-distant a past: the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS: 2002-2004) in China, and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS: 2012) in Saudi Arabia. The name Corona - Latin for ‘crown’ - comes from the distinct spikes on its surface. Almost every strain of this family of viruses has a crown-like appearance.
Ironically, the crown-like appearance also gives the virus a king-like royal status, albeit a king that has thus far proven to be a merciless and indiscriminate executioner. The damage by this pandemic is multifaceted. It is wreaking havoc in the world’s social and financial systems simultaneously; only time will tell the extent.
It, nevertheless, seems to have dispensed justice of some sort in eerie fairness to all. For instance, unlike the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 or the recent bout of Ebola in Africa, it did not start with the poor or poor countries. For a change, it began in the most powerful and most economically affluent countries first - China, Europe, USA. Asking, as if: Where is your veto power, now? Taunting, as if: Come on, use it against me, if you can!
In a just and fair world, laws should be applied equally to big and small, strong and weak, black, brown and white. COVID-19 seems to be implementing the canonical law of Equal Justice to the kings, heads of states, presidents and poor alike.
Irrespective of their status, all of them have come to dread it, obediently washing their hands, keeping away from gatherings, learning the art of social distancing and, greeting even their loved ones from far. The pompous and arrogant attention-seekers are finding it quite hard to swallow their pride and prejudice and fall in line with the insignificant ones of this world, notwithstanding that a mere minuscule creature has brought them to their knees!
The rich and powerful, the people in position and owners of private planes and expensive yachts, cannot just pack and flee: now, they too are forced to observe the same rituals as the unmentionable sods. For the rich, it is sheer travesty. To the poor, it is simply poetic justice, because while they had to toil all their life to make the ends meet, COVID-19 jammed the gold-gilded doors of pleasure for the rich and the privileged in casinos, brothels, discos and racecourses, to screeching grind.
In the midst of COVID-19, poor is still content, comfortable and at peace in the confinement of his humble and modest rented abode, while the rich and owner of every conceivable worldly possession is concerned about his wealth in overseas banks, his assets in shady accounts and his interests earned on the capital. Everything is crashing in front of his eyes on the stock exchange that only until recently had seemed invincible and infallible. ‘Sky is falling’ is not a fictional proverb anymore.
Thanks to COVID-19, now everyone - irrespective of his or her social status - finds himself or herself in one huge dark trench, akin to the trenches of war seen in the Oscar winning movie ‘1917’. World is, in fact in the midst of a war of some sort - a war against an unknown and unseen enemy of unfathomable might. Willingly or unwillingly, rich and the poor have ended up facing one another in that trench, in a state of forced confrontation.
In his special prayer last Friday, Pope Francis painted this picture eloquently: “We find ourselves afraid and lost. We were caught off-guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented...all of us called to tie together, each of us in need of comforting the other.”
As Muslims, we cannot but marvel at the advent of this pandemic and review and renew our relationship with the Creator of this vast and boundless universe. He manifests his supreme and absolute power in different ways. We are entirely oblivious of what happens every femtosecond in the distant cosmic world: birth of a star or the collision of two or creation of a black hole upon their annihilation. Ignorance of that is alright. But we can’t be ignorant to what happens on this planet. The terrestrial events around us are reminder of man’s nothingness. COVID-19 is a shrieking bell trying to wake us up from our panoramic reveries.
Recently, the grand mosques in Makkah and Madinah were made practically inaccessible and shut on our faces! Is there a single Muslim on this planet who hasn’t winced with agony, sadness and a deep sense of longing at the sight of the deserted Harams?
Those of us who in normal times have forsaken the obligatory prayers, are being reminded that the Creator has the absolute might to close the mosque doors - the one place we go to, seeking spiritual safety, solace and tranquility. Now, even if we wish fervently, we can’t assemble for the weekly congregational Jumu’ah prayers!
Granted that COVID-19 is a lethal disease. Isn’t it possible that it is also a silent voice telling us that when our scholars become cronies of the sultans, kings and despots and when we commoners drift away from our religion and run after the world, the Almighty would create greater distance between our physical world and the spiritual realm?
Let us not kid about it. These days, everyone is preoccupied with his/her mortality. Long time ago, I had heard: if there is one thing certain in this life, it is death. No wonder that certainty has been mentioned in Qur’an not once but three times:
Al-e-Imran (3:185): Every soul will taste death, and you will be given you compensation on the Day of Resurrection in full.
Al-Anbiya (21:35): Every soul will taste death. And We test you with evil and with good as trial, and to Us you will be returned.
Al-Ankabut (29:57): Every soul will taste death. Then to Us will you be returned.
Hence, as dead bodies are piling up all across the globe like autumn leaves, life’s futility should sink in. There is no moment more subtle than now to become our true, authentic self and begin judging our actions by our own standard. There has never been a truer mirror and a clearer microphone than COVID-19! It should empower all to advocate on behalf of the self, family, friends, neighbors, community and even strangers. If we don’t speak up now, perhaps we never will. Because, as we are witnessing hour by hour, this monster has a pretty mighty ‘mute’ button in its arsenal!
The WHO has prescribed six feet as the safe distance between individuals, but a Muslim should know better. The distance for salvation without any trepidation of infection is much less than that: between his forehead and a sincere prostration, in solitude!
I don’t know about others, but to me, COVID-19 is looking more and more like a soul sanitizer!
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