Muslims in #COVID19 at-risk areas, please do *not* go to Jum'a prayers today. If you do, know that you are making things worse for everyone, especially the elders in your own community. Any imam in an area with known cases who asks you to come to prayers is not to be listened to.
Unfortunately it is times like this when collective, stubborn, irrational, multi-generational ignorance about the meanings of things like qadar show up in full force in our community, enough to actually cost human lives.
Omar bin Al Khattab is reported to have been at the head of an army when he ordered it to avoid entering a town with en epidemic. Someone asked, "Are you escaping qadar?" He answered: "I am escaping one qadar towards another qadar".
He reportedly continued: "Suppose you took your goats to graze at a hill that has a grassy side and a grassless side. If you insist on taking them to the grassless side, you've picked a qadar. If you take them to the grassy side, you've picked another qadar".
"ويحك، لعلك ظننته قضاءً لازما وقدرا حاتما؟ لو كان ذلك، لسقط الوعد والوعيد، ولبطل الثواب والعقاب ولا أَتَت لائمة من الله لمذنب ولا مَحمدةٌ من الله لمحسن، ولكن الله أمر بالخير تخييرا، ونهى عن الشر تحذيرا، ولم يُعص مَغلوبا، ولم يُطع مُكرها"
-- إمامنا علي بن أبي طالب عليه السلام
-- إمامنا علي بن أبي طالب عليه السلام
Something is really wrong with us as an Umma when we think that blind fatalism is a sign of faith.
