What is Islam

The global outbreak of  COVID-19 pandemic  has affected over 188 countries economic, educational lives and overall well being.  The Corona virus pandemic affected  Hajj   (pilgrimage), which is the fifth pillar of the  Five Pillars of Islam ,  where millions of Muslims from around the world visit  Mecca  and  Medina  every year during Hajj season for a week.  In March 2020, the minister of Hajj and Umrah encouraged those planning to visit the holy sites of Macca and Medina later in the year to wait before making any bookings.  Due to the highly contagious nature of COVID-19 in crowded places, flight restriction in many countries, and the unavailability of a vaccine against the virus the ministry of Hajj and Umrah took such serious measures.  However; in June 2020, the ministry of Hajj and Umrah announced that people from all nationalities who reside in  Saudi Arabia  are allowed to perform Hajj in a li...

By H Muhammad Fadel Pandemic: A test from God? Although, these moves have been met with controversy in some quarters of the Muslim public sphere, where people have either minimized the public health threat posed by Covid-19 or indulged in wild conspiracy theories about the nature of the pandemic.   Many groups and individuals, on the other hand, accept the reality of the pandemic but refuse to comply with the restrictions on public worship and mass religious gatherings on theological grounds, arguing that the pandemic is just another test that God imposes on believers, or that Muslims should express their trust in God to protect them from the effects of the pandemic by continuing their public practice of Islam.  The coronavirus pandemic threatens to devastate much of the Global South, including the Muslim world. As the actions of countries such as China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore show, the keys to containing the deleterious public health ...

The Importance of Makkah and the Sacred Mosque The Sacred Mosque (Al-Masjid Al-Haraam) is located in Makkah, a city on the western side of the Arabian Peninsula, and has numerous virtues including the following: It houses the Ka‛bah The Ka‛bah is a cube-shaped building located at the centre of the Sacred Mosque in Makkah. It is the direction towards which Muslims turn in prayer as well as during some other acts of worship which Allah ﷻ commands them to do. It was built by Prophet Abraham ﷺ and his son Ishmael ﷺ following Allah’s command to do so, and was rebuilt several times throughout history. As the Qur’an states, “And when Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the House (the Ka‛bah), [they prayed:] ‘Our Lord, accept this from us, for You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing.’”  (Soorat Al-Baqarah, 2:127) Prophet Muhammad ﷺ himself took part in laying the Black Stone in its proper place along with the various Makkan tribes whe...

What is Corona-virus? By the end of 2019, a corona-virus designated as 2019-Nov was identified as the cause of the cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan city of China. Nowadays, it is considered to be a global health emergency. It is causing community-acquired respiratory tract infections in adults as well as children, particularly those who have the underlying pulmonary disease already. Corona-viruses: These are the medium-sized enveloped positive-stranded  RNA Viruses  and are given the name c orona-virus   because of their crown-like characteristic appearance in the electron microscope. Although these viruses are ubiquitous in temperate climates their peak rate of occurrence is in winter. Smaller peaks are seen in fall or spring as well. Cure of Corona-virus in the light of Islam: Now that we know all the precautions that we can do to prevent  Corona-virus illness , the question arises: What can one do if it gets attacked by the corona-virus? Is ...