Turning Corona Days Into Hayr*

Written In Turkish By Prof. Dr. Soner Duman

Translated Into English By Hayat Yakup Aricioğlu

Disease is a calamity and test. A believer (mumin) deems his life as a trust from Allah (swt), asks for his health and welfare from Him (swt) all the time, strives for keeping healthy, takes precautions. And when he gets sick, he tries to recuperate as his treatment.

And now we are adhering to the warnings of the authorities and spending these days all the way at our homes.

I wonder if we can turn these days, spending at our homes, into hayr (auspiciousness) for ourselves?

The conscious believer is the one who can succeed in turning things, no matter what problems he faces, into hayr for himself. Did the Rasulullah (sas) not say:

 “Amazing is the affair of the believer, verily all of his affair is good and this is not for no one except the believer. If something of good/happiness befalls him he is grateful and that is good for him. If something of harm befalls him he is patient and that is good for him”[1]

If we can do the following in the days of Corona, then we can turn these days into hayr for ourselves.

1.QUESTIONING THE NAFS ABOUT WHY WE LACK THE IBADAT[2] 

The days of corona brought about something rarely seen in the history of Islam. For the first time, the circumambulation of the Kaaba (Tawaf) has been cut for a few days. The Umrahs have been suspended (Who knows, maybe there will not be Hajj this year). In many Islamic countries, Friday (Jumu’ah) and congregational prayers have been suspended. And who knows, maybe we will not have Tarawih prayers and muqabalas (people reciting the Qur’an to each other) in the month of Ramadan.

When considered how the Islam regards the human life and health as so important, the precautions taken by the Islamic states, notably our country are remarkably right decisions.[3]

This aspect regards the health of the matter. And there is one more that is about the moral.

We, as the Islamic Ummah, remember the principle on this opportunity, which is, “The blessing, upon which thanks are given, is increased, and, upon which thanks are not given, is taken away.” Individually and as the Ummah, we think of how faulty we are in performing those ibadat that we are deprived of them. Who knows, maybe we detracted the holiness of Kaaba by turning it into a selfie place that authenticates our Hajj and Umrah. Who knows, maybe we saddened the mosques by leaving them to our aged uncles and grandfathers. Who knows, maybe our thought about the Tarawih prayers started to be like “enough is enough”, got bored of the muqabalas.

And now it is time to rethink all these. It is time to pray to our Rabb (swt) for regaining all these blessings.

2.REALIZING WHY WE EXIST IN THE WORLD

We were recently complaining about becoming worldly, wholly absorbed in the materiality, forgetting death. Corona showed us that death is as close as a virus to us. Hearing and watching the news of the death of hundreds throughout the world shakes us up and makes us collect ourselves Inshallah, reminds us that the world is not a permanent home and we were not sent to enjoy ourselves but to be tested.

3.COMPREHENDING THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR HOMES AND FAMILIES

Many of us had become negligent in our families and homes due to the reasons such as work, entertainment, etc. Sometimes social life and sometimes social media had separated us from our family members, caused us to see our homes as physical places made up of four walls. Maybe we realize the importance of the family by staying home in the days of Corona, developing the relationships with our family members, hearing, listening and speaking with each other.

4.KNOWING THE VALUE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF HEALTH AND CLEANLINESS

The Rasulullah (sas) had mentioned health as one of the two blessings of which the majority of people do not know the value. Perhaps the Corona days teach us to notice the value of health once again and take precautions for keeping healthy.

Maybe one more time we hereby contemplate why our Fiqh starts with the “Tahara/Cleanliness” topic.[4] Once again, we think about why it was ordered to get ablution 5 times in a day for the prayer (salaat) which is the pillar of the religion, and understand why it was commanded as fard for the one, who is going to come into the presence of Allah (swt), to conform to cleansing the body, cloth and environment.[5]

We realize that all these are not a burden on us but presented as a blessing.

5.QUESTIONING THE NAFS

At this time when all the people feel like having a brush with death, the most basic question a Muslim ought to be asking himself should be “Can I come into the presence of my Rabb blamelessly if I die at the moment?” In this period of time when our communication with the outer world is minimized, we should turn to our nafs and inner world, review the lives we lived so far, strive for compensating for our deficiencies towards Allah or His (swt) slaves.

May our Rabb help us get rid of this situation that we are in as soon as possible and draw a lesson from what we lived.

 

Click on the link to read the Turkish translation of the article: https://www.siyerinebi.com/tr/prof-dr-soner-duman/korona-gunlerini-hayra-donusturmek

Click on the link to read the French translation of the article: https://www.siyerinebi.com/tr/transformer-le-confinement-en-vertu

Click on the link to read the Spanish translation of the article: https://www.siyerinebi.com/tr/prof-dr-soner-duman/la-enfermedad-es-una-desgracia-y-un-examen

Click on the link to read the Arabic translation of the article: https://www.siyerinebi.com/tr/prof-dr-soner-duman/thwyl-ymi-kwrwn-l-khyr


[*] Hayr is auspiciousness.

[1] Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Zuhd Wa Al-Raqa’iq, 64

[2] Ibadat is the plural form of ibadah. And ibadah is basically worship.

[3] The country meant by “our country” is Turkey for the writer is Turk.

[4] Fiqh is the theory of Islamic law based on the teachings of the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah.

[5] Getting ablution 5 times in a day is not ordered. What is ordered is to perform five time daily prayer. To be able to perform the prayer, one should have ablution. As long as the ablution is not invalidated, all the prayers can be performed even with a single ablution.

 

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