Unsurprising as it was to see the government surrender in the Mexican standoff with the mullah collective over the issue of restricting congregational prayer at the time of a pandemic, or when the clergy callously threw caution to the wind in spite of consistent global messaging about means of Covid-19 spread when assembling at the annual Raiwind Tableeghi Ijtima, it nonetheless highlights a particularly cancerous problem that sits at the heart of our sociopolitical structure often becoming reactive when mutated with belief.
On one hand, you have a scientific phenomenon: a deadly mutation of a strain of the SARS virus that can spread quickly among people, choke vital organs of the body and cause fatalities at an alarming rate in a matter of weeks if not days. In the absence of a vaccine, the only fruitful preventive action is to ensure personal hygiene and distance socially in all aspects of personal and professional life to halt transport of the virus from person to person.
On the other, you have the mullah ready and willing to brush scientific evidence aside and peddle dogma as they see fit. During times of a prevalent disease which does not discriminate between caste, color, creed, social status or sexual orientation, the clergy appears to be rigorously advocating empathy and compassion by adhering to religious belief alone, and make it detrimental to believe that it must also come from an honest investigation of science which promises a solution more so than anything else.
The stance postulated by clerics brings into question the very nature of being human and whether God’s favor can be won by blatantly disregarding rights of the fellow man. Haqooq-ul-Ibad (Rights of Man), we were taught in middle school, are deemed more urgent than Haqooq-ul-Allah (Rights of God). That while the latter is pertinent, it is the former that shall not be pardoned under any circumstance. Then why is it that when faced with a sickness that is capable of wreaking havoc on a mass scale, it is the Men of God of all people who found it necessary to ignore a fundamental teaching of Islam and insist on relying on congregational prayer during Ramadan thus making conditions rife for a communicable disease to spread exponentially.
In an Islamic state, in principle, it is the clergy that should have broadcast the advice of healthcare professionals, and educate the masses about precautionary measures in light of scripture and associated Hadith. To ensure that religion provides the necessary spiritual calm during times of distress and inspires its followers to practice their faith individually – which ironically should be the case regardless – so the health of the populace could be prioritized over any personal belief or lack thereof.
Instead what we got was fear-mongering about the wrath of God and inhumane demands in times of a transmissible ailment to open places of worship so salvation could be sought by repenting for sins that have allegedly brought the plague upon us.
What we bore witness to once again was the untethered power of the mullah that acknowledges no authority for the sole purpose of the prosperity of their brand of religion and deliberate disregard for human life in spite of healthcare professionals imploring everyone to practice social distancing before our fragile healthcare infrastructure completely caves in.
Furthermore, the counterproductive attitude exhibited by religious communities deliberately snubs scientific fact in favor of raw belief. When notions like “God is with us!”, “time of death is fixed for all” and “the night of the grave is inevitable” are preached senselessly among the devotees, it not only stirs rebellion but also offsets any concrete measures being taken by the governments to thwart the rate of infection. Indoctrinated with revolt, radicals created in the process run blindly with instructions of their mullahs to further their brand of religion thus triggering a trickle-down effect which causes further disruption in the long-term.
The mullah has blown past all warnings with relative ease to once again bring the government down to its knees – reminiscent of the Faizabad Dharna – to succeed in having places of worship open. Accounting for their inherent tendency to spread infection and cause disorientation on a mass scale, one is compelled to argue that the mullah and Covid-19 don’t seem much different from each other. Both appear to be a strand of corruption one way or the other albeit one difference – one affects the body, while other affects the mind.