Self-imposed isolation
This past week has been strange, to say the least. We are living in unprecedented times. My family and I spent a week apart (some 200miles away) so I have been living in a kind of ‘self-imposed’ isolation for a week. Second, I missed (deliberately) my first Jumu’ah since I could remember and that feels very odd; the days of the week have somehow blurred into one. And suddenly coronavirus has become very real for us. If you are anything like me, you may have experienced shock, numbness, brain fog, anxiety, fear, uncertainty, confusion, anticipation, preparation for the unknown, concern for loved ones, detachment, disconnection, a massive urge to go shopping then followed by disappointment at finding supermarket shelves empty of essential toiletries.
Simply put, the coronavirus has been an assault on all fronts. My attention and consciousness has become all thing relating to coronavirus, even when I sit down to work, I am distracted and bombarded with news feeds, updates on the financial market collapse, airline companies going out of business, latest death toll, the spread of infection, Whats-app discussions, articles, documentaries, podcasts and the endless memes and comical sketches with toilet rolls. Normality has been put on pause, events cancelled, and social gatherings with friends and family have been put on hold.
It’s hard to make sense of it, here I am, trying to make some sense of it all, and this is the first of my reflections.
Mankind stands in need
The modern man
The modern man through science and technology has made leaps and bound. Man thinks he is at the centre of the world; the world revolving around him as he does as he pleases. Man thinks he is the measure of all things; that he is strong, mighty and powerful, the master of the earth and he is in control. There is no longer the need for God (for God was for a people who didn’t understand science), now it is man who created (the conceptual notion of) God, and worse man has become god.
The emergence of a tiny virus
Then this tiny, tiny virus (20nm across) shows up, invisible to the naked eye. It is so small that you need an electron microscope to see it. To give you some perspective, the virus is 10,000 times smaller than this full stop here. And it’s causing havoc with everything. This microscopic creature is causing the world’s largest economies to collapse and markets to free-fall. It has cities in lockdown and thousands of citizens locked in their houses. It has made people afraid to touch one another, to shake another’s hand, to hug or share personal space. It has overwhelmed the health systems, closed down universities and schools, it has grounded airlines to a standstill and taken businesses to the brink of bankruptcy. How quickly things can change! Allah informs us:
“The likeness of the life of the world is like the water which We send down from the sky, which becomes mixed with the earth’s produce that people and cattle consume until when the earth has taken on her ornaments and is beautified, and her people deem that they are masters of her, Our command comes by night or by day, and We make it stubble, as though yesterday it flourished not. Thus do we explain the signs for people who reflect.” [Yunus: 10:24]
I want to start with “Our command comes“ first before addressing the rest of the verse. When Allah commands, it is a phenomenon within the realm of creation. It comes into existence by His knowledge, will and power. When Allah wills something to be, it comes to be no matter what it is.
When Allah commands, the command comes into the worlds of the means either through the angelic realm or via the physical realm such as earthquake, fire, eruption, hurricane wind, flood, wild animals or even microbes. Thereby, this viral outbreak was from Allah, by His knowledge, will and power. “Our command” here is literally what the virus is. A genetic program carrying the command of Allah. Let me explain.
When describing what a virus is, scientists debate whether it is living or not. A cell is alive but a virus is not a cell, it is as a non-living entity which behaves in a way as if it were alive. What it is, is a program with RNA as its genetic material. Once infected, those long spikes (corona) on the surface of the virus connects to one of the receptors on the cell membrane and enters into the cell. Once the virus is inside the cell, the viral program has a simple command – execute the instructions to replicate yourself again and again. Using the parts of the cell, the virus replicates itself until there is an army of viruses ready to invade the host with the goal to destroy.
Returning to the verse, the parable depicting the life of this world as mentioned is that of the earth after receiving rain, she brought forth vegetation and flowers of different shapes and colours, and they adorned the earth and pleased the people and the people boasted of their mastery over her. Suddenly, overnight it was struck by a natural disaster; it ruined what they had cultivated and produced. It was as if what had flourished the day before, had never existed at all. We come to understand from this verse the ever-changing nature of this world. That changes are swift and things don’t last the way they are.
This is very much our story, yesterday, pre-coronavirus day, everything was beautiful and adorned, people were projecting growth and planning future possibilities, the illusion of control and mastery, but coronavirus happened, and today everything we know has become reduced to almost nothing.
“Our command comes by night or by day, and We make it stubble, as though yesterday it flourished not.” How yesterday seems a world away, Subhanallah, never in our wildest dreams did we think 2020 will turn out like this. Maybe we got a little too ahead of ourselves of the illusory nature of control and mastery of nature. Perhaps, now is a time we ought to reflect and be a little bit more humble.
Our humble beginnings
The life we have created and the advancements that we have made, they can all change within a blink of an eye. What does that say about us and our civilisation? One thing it certainly highlights is man is not god, technology is not god, money is not god, science is not god, intelligence is not god…
The thing to recognise is that all the advance science, technology and medicine that we have, they are in fact some of the disclosures of Allah the All-Knowing, He gave us these out of His bounty and generosity to know Him (through them), and not to stand in adversary to Him (by them). Allah reminds us of our beginnings and His ability and creative power.
“Does not man see that We have created him from a mere sperm-drop. Yet behold! He (stands forth) as an open opponent.” [Ya-Sin: 36:77]
And in the very first revelation:
“Read! In the name of your Lord Who created, created man from a clinging cell. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous, Who taught by the Pen, taught man what he knew not. Nay, but man transgresses all bounds, in thinking himself to be self-sufficient.” [Al-Alaq: 96:3-7]
The coronavirus is a sign of Allah, it too is a creation of Allah, and it is reminding us of our humble beginnings (from a single cell). Regardless of our advancements, we are at our fundamental level a collection of approximately 100 trillion cells on an individual basis, working wondrously together as one body. Subhanallah, Allah is showing our weakness that we can be overcome by something smaller than a cell. It’s humbling us with a mighty bump, it’s forcing us to recognise that no human is superhuman, no human is ‘powerful’ and ‘all-mighty’ but rather accept that we are weak, we are vulnerable and it is Allah who protects us with health and well-being. Allah says:
“And mankind was created weak” [An-Nisa: 4:28]
Mankind stands in need
With all honesty, this is a weak virus, it is at its early stages with 7,000 recorded deaths to date. The whole world is transfixed on this virus and world governments are telling their citizens to run and hide for cover (self-isolate). Can you imagine another potent and toxic virus that was airborne and highly infectious? We would become afraid to breathe. What would we do then? Allah says:
“O mankind, you are in need of Allah, while Allah is Free of need, worthy of all praise. If He wills, He can do away with you and bring forth a new creation, and that is not difficult for Allah.” [Al-Fatir: 35:15-17]
Reflecting on our situation, it reminds us that we are in need. And the need is an attribute of deficiency and imperfection. Even now, I can feel my own Nafs (soul) saying, ‘how am I in need?’ Of course, I…, you…, we are in need. We are in need of immunity, we are in need of a breakthrough, we are desperately in need of a vaccine, we are in need of work, we are in need of food, we are in need of hand sanitisers and we are in need of even toilet papers. Look at the ‘mighty’ man, what has he been reduced to in search of food and toilet paper.
“Ya Allah, forgive us, we are engulfed in darkness, la ilaha illa anta subhanaka innee kuntu mina zhalimeen, there is no God but You, Glory be to you, I have been of the wrongdoers.”
Allah is in control
Allah is in control of everything, the Heavens and Earth belong to Allah.
“And to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and Allah has power over all things.” [Al-Imran:3: 189]
Every creature, every mountain and tree, every microbe and virus, every atom and sub-atom belongs to Allah. He can show His power using the tiniest of thing.
“Surely I rely on Allah, my Lord and your Lord; there is no living creature but He holds it by its forelock.”[Hud: 11: 56]
What this verse is telling us is that Allah controls the destiny of all living creatures big and small. This virus is not acting outside the will of Allah, it will only harm us if Allah wills it (though we have to take all precautionary measures to avoid it). And when we find a cure for this virus, and in-sha-Allah we will as He created a cure for every disease and illness, then remember it too is from Allah. In the process, we would have learnt so much more about how we function, how we are put together and who we are. As the famous saying goes, “he who knows himself, knows Allah.” All of this is a Self-disclosure of Himself, the question is, will we know Allah on a deeper and personal level?
Du’a is a witness to our neediness
In these coming days, weeks or even months, we are going to be reminded how needy we are of Allah. We will truly know it in all intensity when loved ones fall victim to it and are taken away into the hospital and placed in isolation. Our state then will bear witness more than ever of our neediness of Allah. I pray this does not happen. The great Imam, Abdullah ibn Alawa al-Haddad wrote in his poem.
“Our prayer and our pleading bear witness to our neediness.
By this secret, we supplicate, in times of ease and times of difficulty.
We are slaves, our only pride lies in poverty and need.
O our Lord, our King! You are aware of our state,
And of the worries and preoccupations that have overwhelmed our hearts.”
In Allah we trust and to Him, we turn back, we seek refuge and protection from the harms of His creation in Him. I leave you with a collection of prophetic supplication in one place here.
“O Allah, You are our Lord, none has the right to be worshipped except You, You created us and we are Your servants. We seek refuge with Your Perfect Words from the evil of what You have created, from evil diseases and the decline of good health. O Allah, we ask You by Your Name for security in this world and in the Hereafter.”
