Ingrid Mattson – Coronavirus Crisis Webinar Recording 20200315
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Is fever and cough, and then you can
get some shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, and
then that can progress to, needing mechanical ventilation
and intubation, so serious consequences,
in the hospital.
The the good thing about the coronavirus is
that 80% of the population who do get
infected will be just fine and, will feel
minor symptoms that can be taken care of
at home.
The difficulty that we're having with it is
that 20% of the population who gets infected
ends up in
needing some supportive care in terms of oxygenation
or mechanical ventilation or things along those lines.
The transmission rate of coronavirus
2, which SARS CoV 2, which is the
virus name which leads to the disease COVID
19, the transmission rate is
about 2 to 4, it's being estimated.
So that means for every infected person,
they can transmit it to 2 or or
4 other people.
And so compare that to the seasonal flu,
for example, the transmission rate of the seasonal
flu is 1.3. So for everyone who gets
the flu, they can infect 1.3 other people.
And then we talk about the incubation period,
which is the time
during which a person is infected, but they
don't know that they have the infection. So,
at this time, the virus is replicating inside
your body, but you don't really know that
you're infected because you don't have any signs
and symptoms.
So the incubation period is a little bit
long for this new coronavirus.
It's estimated between 1 14 days,
but the average is about 5 days. So
that's 5 days that you're walking around with
this infection potentially infecting other people, but you
don't even know.
And so that's what is, potentially
making things a little bit difficult for the
medical,
the medical infrastructure.
And so how we can get infected with
coronavirus
is,
by inhaling respiratory droplets. So if you're standing
next to someone in close proximity for a
while and they're talking or sneezing or coughing,
you can inhale the droplets
from being next to them.
And so what makes that difficult is if
they don't know they're infected and you don't
know that they're sick but they're standing next
to you,
they can,
you can you can get it from them.
And another way,
that we can get infected potentially is by
touching a surface where the virus
is is sitting,
and we know it can last up to,
sometimes 3 3 to 4 hours, sometimes days.
The studies aren't really
accurate
and more data is coming out. But in
any case, if you touch a surface that
the virus is on and then we touch
our face.
So our face is,
has a lot of portals of entry for
viruses, like your eyes, your nose, and your
mouth. And so it's really important,
to continue to hand wash frequently or sanitize
because,
that's
a frequent way of how we get infections,
not just the coronavirus, but other infections is
by touching our face, with virus on our
hands. So that's why,
we're trying to promote hand washing a lot
to try to prevent the transmission of the
disease.
And so,
now, like, with the numbers I gave you,
80% of people will be fine if they
get infected and 20%,
may need hospitalization.
And the mortality rate is pretty low,
estimated
across the age spectrum to be 2 to
3%.
But in our elderly population, so those over
80, the estimated
mortality rate is kind of high. It's 15%.
And so people are wondering, like, what's the
big deal? Are we just overreacting? Is this
mass hysteria?
And so I think,
I think,
some of some of the followers of Celebrate
Mercy might not be in the United States,
but I'm gonna talk about the United States
experience for for a minute because that's where
I am.
And so, now we're starting to see a
lot of cases in the United States or
a few cases and and the numbers are
rising exponentially.
But the big problem of not being able
to contain or mitigate the spread of the
disease is that,
if we have
massive spread and fast
and 20% of all infected need to be
going to the hospital for some sort of
support,
our health care infrastructure
is not capable of handling those kinds of
numbers.
So,
we won't be able to take care of
all of those patients. And so you might
say to yourself, well,
I'm 20. I'm 30. I'm not gonna get,
I'm not gonna get severe disease, so this
really isn't my problem. But, actually, it's all
of our problems because
even if you don't get a severe coronavirus
infection, you may have another medical emergency during
this time. And if you
do, the the hospital infrastructure, if we don't
slow down the spread, hospital infrastructure across the
country won't be able to handle
other medical emergencies. So that's why it's really
important that we stop the spread or flatten
the curve. I'm sure you've heard those terms,
stopping the spread or flattening or flattening the
curve or slowing down the spread at least,
so that, you know, we know that it'll
transmit, but if it transmits
slowly across the country as opposed to fast,
hopefully, the medical infrastructure can catch up and
and take care of these people.
But if but if sorry.
But if it happens too fast, we won't
be able to do that.
So, so it's really important to, just abide
by the rules of of public health, your
public health departments, whatever they tell you about
closing down schools and closing down,
restaurants and and and coffee places and all
that stuff. This is why these are these
things are being advocated.
And just, just the last couple points I
wanna address is that,
obviously, if you feel short of breath or
having difficulty breathing, you really need to get
yourself to a hospital and call 911 in
the United States.
And it's really important that when you call
that you tell them, if you've been exposed
or you know you've been exposed.
And,
and it's really important if you're not feeling
those symptoms, if you're feeling kind of mild
symptoms to call your physician first and not
just show up in a in an office
because,
again, trying to mitigate or contain spread.
If you do have the coronavirus, we don't
want you to be spreading it to other
people. So calling first is always the best
option and not just showing up either at
your health care facilities office or, a hospital.
And I'm happy to take questions after this,
but I hope this was, like, a good
information session of why it's really important to
take this really seriously.
Jazak Alokher, doctor Noor, thank you so much.
I'm going to
turn on my webcam real quick.
Assalamu alaikum, everyone.
I hope you can see me and hear
me. Let me know in the chat room
if you can. Oh,
there you go. Should be working now.
Can you guys see me now?
Awesome.
Doctor. Noor,
thank you for for your talk, and,
just wanna remind everyone that we do have
a q and a panel where you can
submit questions, because we will have a q
and a session,
following all of the talks by our speakers,
inshallah.
My name is Tarek Al Masidi. I'm the
founding director of Celebrate Mercy,
the organization that is hosting this webinar today.
We're really,
honored to have all of you all here.
Unfortunately, it's not in the best of circumstances
with
this pandemic
that has really taken over
the world,
and
our lives and our day to day lives
and our normal lives.
And we ask Allah to to lift this,
fitna and this, this tribulation
from the world and
and to help those recover that have gotten
this virus,
Insha'Allah.
Before we move on, I just wanted to
you should be able to see the slides
that I'm, that I'm sharing here.
I just wanted to mention what Celebrate Mercy
is.
We are a nonprofit organization that teaches about
the prophet Muhammad's
life and character
through our words and actions to Muslims and
friends of other faiths.
And our whole objective is that we want
to teach about the Prophet
peace be upon him,
so that because you can't love someone that
you don't know.
You can't love someone that you don't know.
So we try to do this through
various means. I said words
and actions. We try to teach about him
through our words and actions.
The words
are things like these webinars or webcast
events, like, traveling conferences.
We have an Amra trip that was just
canceled because of this coronavirus,
but we do an Amra trip, that goes
from Jordan to Jerusalem to Mecca to Medina
and then through social media and campaigns.
So that is what Celebrate Mercy is, and
I'm sure some of you are familiar with
some of our
past webinars,
our past events,
our past conferences.
Alhamdulillah,
they they have reached so many people around
the world.
And we just heard from doctor Noor, who
is a specialist in,
infectious diseases,
sharing with us, what the coronavirus is, COVID
nineteen,
and,
we hope you all caught her talk. And
you have some if you have some questions
for her, you can begin to submit your
questions in the q and a,
portion of the webinar. So begin to ask
your questions.
We are going to read through all the
questions and select,
some questions for the q and a session
at the end of this webinar, Insha'Allah.
And before we move on
to our next speaker, who is Doctor. Abdul
Al Sayed,
we wanted to make a really big announcement
that
we have just launched
a
campaign on LaunchGood called Muslims Unite for Coronavirus
Relief.
And you can look at this if you
go to launchgood.com/corona.
This is a campaign that we are doing
along with Penny Appeal USA
and
IC see NYU, the Islamic Center at New
York University,
where Imam Khaled Latif is the chaplain and
the imam.
This is a new campaign where
even though we're sitting at home
let me actually x out. There's my WhatsApp
is making some noise. Here we go.
So even though we may be sitting at
home, some of us not able to go
to work, not able to even go outside,
to public places,
We're gonna be home for a while.
There is still a way that you can
help,
and do something that is beneficial to humanity.
There's a hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam where he said,
the most beloved of people to Allah,
the most beloved of people to God
are those who are most beneficial
to people,
those who benefit humanity the most.
This is a campaign
where
every dollar that you donate can go to
help people that are going to be really
impacted by this pandemic.
People that are not getting paychecks.
People that are can't, that maybe single
parent households
where they can't be at home with their
kids. They have to pay for some type
of childcare even though their children are not
going to school during this crisis.
So this is a way you can donate
to help
families that are low income families that will
be very impacted by this.
And, also, if you go to this website,
you can apply for financial grants. If you
are someone that is suffering,
you can apply for grants. Or if your
Masjid has a creative idea
on on how to help locally.
For example, you can set up a group
of people
that would like to help the elderly,
getting their groceries. You know, we know that
this virus impacts the elderly
the most.
So if you wanna help, form a network
in your community to help the elderly,
with errands or with getting groceries or something
like that, you have a creative project,
This campaign can also fund a grant
to your local mosque or your local organization
to help inshallah.
I'd like to introduce now
I'd like to introduce now,
the
CEO
of Penny Appeal USA who is going to
introduce our next speaker, inshallah, doctor Abdul Al
Sayed. Penny Appeal is the organization we've partnered
with on this campaign.
So we're going to go ahead and turn
on,
Osama's,
webcam and microphone,
and, he's going to then introduce our next
webinar speaker, doctor Abdul Asayid,
and he may also mention something about this
new
LaunchGood campaign.
Thank you, Tarek, for the introduction.
Before we, before I have the pleasure and
honor of introducing doctor Abdul, I will just
say a few words.
Like Tarek said, this is difficult moment for
many, many families.
And for many of us, social distancing
is really a luxury that we can afford
to work from home, to have our children
with us at this time as schools are
closed. But for many for too many families
across the United States,
of course, it's a luxury that people can't
afford. There are drivers out there, people working
in certain sectors,
certain industries
they force them to have to go to
work. People who are earning,
freelancers, people who earn money on a paycheck
to paycheck basis are really suffering and struggling,
because of the consequences
of this corona outbreak. So we are honored
to be working with Celebrate Mercy and the
Islamic Center
at NYU,
to launch this campaign.
It's launchgood.comforward/corona.
And there, you can do 2 things. You
can contribute and help those families that are
struggling, that are going to suffer as these
weeks
turn into months. But, also, you can actually,
at the bottom of the page, apply for
assistance. If you are somebody in need, someone
who needs a little bit of assistance to
get to the end of the month, we
are there to help. So please do apply
and encourage friends and family to apply.
Now I have the pleasure of introducing someone
who is a very close personal
friend of mine, someone I've known for a
long time.
At the time, I had more hair, and,
he had less name recognition.
But doctor Abdullah Sayed
is a physician. He's an epidemiologist
and a public health expert.
Currently, doctor Abdul is the chair of Southport,
Michigan,
a progressive political action committee,
as well as a commentator
on CNN.
He is also the host of a fantastic
podcast, which if you don't know about already,
make sure you subscribe. The podcast is called
America Dissected,
a podcast by Crooked Media that cuts beyond
the headlines to what matters in public health.
Previously, doctor Abu was the former health commissioner
for the city of Detroit,
where he rebuilt the Detroit health department
after it had been privatized
during the city's
bankruptcy.
Before this, he was assistant professor of epidemiology
at Columbia University in New York.
He has authored over 100 peer reviewed publications
in epidemiology
and public health and has served on local,
state, and national public health boards,
including the advisory board for the assistant secretary
for health HealthPeople
2030
recommendations,
as well as Michigan State Public Health Advisory
Commission.
He holds a PhD in public health from
Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes scholar,
as well as a medical degree
from Columbia University.
So over to you, doctor Abdul El Sayed.
For that, introduction, Usama.
And I have to say you're just as
handsome now as you were back then.
I I want to approach this situation that
we find ourselves in,
1st and foremost, by asking Allah to alleviate
the suffering that this is causing people, and
we ask Allah
to, empower us in this country and abroad,
to take this on and to allow it
to be a means, to bring people together,
rather than tear them apart. And,
I wanna I wanna approach this as a
former health commissioner. My job in the city
of Detroit,
was to run a health department.
If, I had been in that role right
now, I would be in an emergency,
emergency preparedness position, where we would be overseeing
the outbreak response in the city of Detroit,
working with the state health department in Lansing,
Michigan, and then working with the, the federal
government and the CDC.
And I want people to understand what
we're facing. I thought doctor Noor did an
amazing job, telling you about the biology of
the disease and the epidemiology of the disease.
But I want you to understand where we
are right now and why we're taking such
drastic measures,
which are including, you know, everything from shutting
down schools to, limiting mass transit and
and, what it means for us right now.
So,
epidemic response happens in 3 phases. The first
phase, is called anticipation in early detection. You
literally want to see,
if and when there is a new disease,
where it's breaking out, who is it, who
it's affecting, the kind of constellation of symptoms
that it's causing,
and,
and and then you move into,
the next phase, which is called containment. In
containment,
what you're trying to do is case by
case identify who's getting it, and who they're
coming in contact with,
and then working with those people to either
isolate them or quarantine them so that they're
not spreading it on. But the key here
is to be able to identify every single
person with the case,
make sure that they get the care that
they need, make sure that you've identified everybody
they've touched,
and then make sure that they're not spreading
it to somebody else.
The challenge though is that if you are
unable to contain the disease, meaning you get
to a point where you can't actually identify
everybody who has the disease, then you're in
what's called mitigation. And that's where we are
right now, with the coronavirus,
pandemic that we're facing.
It's now,
affected over a 1,000 or excuse me, 1500
people, across this country claimed, over 50 lives,
and it spread to 49 out of 50
states.
And what happens in mitigation is that you
say, well, look, I we can no longer
identify every single person who has the case.
So what we're going to do is we're
gonna put up blockades in society,
to reduce the transmission between people.
And that means identifying every single place where
people are coming in contact with each other,
and then figuring out how to limit that.
So, that's why a number of states and
a number of communities have shut down schools
because
kids you have kids and teachers,
interacting with each other all day. A number
of places are considering shutting down mass transit.
A lot of workplaces have gone to work
from home, if not canceled work, entirely.
The state of Ohio and Illinois, just,
shut down all restaurants and eateries,
with the intent purpose of limiting the amount
of admixture that, people are having. And this
is what we're calling social distancing.
From a public health perspective, we call it
mitigation.
I wanna speak to a couple of issues
that specifically affect our Muslim community. Number 1,
obviously, our faith, is practiced in community, and,
the the most, stark example of that is
Salat al Jummah every Friday.
And a number of masajid and even state,
imams councils have, all but canceled, Jum'ah prayers.
There's a precedent for this in our tradition,
that is thought through so many of, the
social trials and tribulations that people face as
a community.
It's really, really critical that we pay attention
to,
what our imams and our leaders are saying.
In our faith, there is a real precedent
for, for centering the responsibility to save a
life. And if something that we're doing could
hurt people,
then we need to stop doing it. And
that's why,
imams have have come out and said, well,
we're not going to observe in,
in a community format,
pray in your homes instead.
Similarly, I hear a lot of folks say,
well, you know, Allah will protect us,
and, and maybe it's okay for us to
go to the the masjid after all. We're
we're praying to Allah and this is in
his hands. That is true. But, in in
our faith, we know that, you make dua
and you tie your camel. And,
right now, tying your camel means,
reducing
the amount of social admixture that we're doing,
which means,
staying away from community spaces like, the Masajid
in this time.
The other point I wanna make is that,
oftentimes, we are taught to think about health
as something we do as individuals, but public
health is about what we do as a
collective.
As doctor Noor talked about, the risk of
this disease is substantially higher in older people,
and I just want to explain what I
mean by that. The mortality
rate in somebody who's in their thirties and
relatively healthy is about 0.2%,
0.2%.
And 0.2%
is about as bad as a as a
flu. And, you know, we all do things
to protect ourselves from the flu, but it's
not something we call home about.
So why are we so worried about about
coronavirus? Well, because if you go over the
age of 70, the risk of death is
greater than 10%. That's 1 in 10. Now
I want you to think about somebody who
you know, who's 70. Now think about all
the people you know who are 70, and
I want you to think about
lining up every single one of them. And
one out of the 10 could die,
if contract this disease. That's really, really serious.
So you might ask, well, if I'm young
and healthy, what do I have to do
with them? Well, it may be that the
greatest risk of this disease for you is
not that you get the disease and you.
If you get the disease and then somebody
else gets the disease through you, and you
become a means by which somebody else got
the disease and potentially passed. Our responsibility right
now is to protect the most vulnerable in
our community. Those are our seniors, those are
people with underlying chronic disease, And every step
we take to make sure we don't get
the disease is also making sure that we
don't become a nidus that communicates the disease,
to somebody else. And that's absolutely critical.
One of the important things about the disease
though is also that just because there are
more younger people, young people have really bad
cases too, and it's not that 0.2%
is still, potential for death. And so we
have to, make sure that we we are
also protecting ourselves and protecting those,
around us in our community.
I also want to just prepare everybody to
understand that this is not something that's just
gonna last a couple of weekends. It's not
just gonna last a week. My estimates,
and and based on all the literature that
I've read and the experts that I've spoken
to is that we're gonna be getting bad
news for probably the next 2 months before
we start hearing good news.
It's going to get worse. It's think about
it as being, on the outside of a
very large storm right now, and the storm
is coming to us, but it hasn't hit
us yet, and we're not through the eye.
And so, you know, really do batten down
the hatches and be ready to, to persist,
in very altered circumstances,
where you're social distancing and you're practicing mitigation
efforts and your kids aren't going to school
and you're not going to work and, you
know, you're only really leaving the house for
the needs, not the wants.
This is gonna last for a while, and
so I want folks to be ready for
that.
And then lastly,
just remember that,
that one thing about the most vulnerable people
in your life, our instinct is to want
to go to them.
But that may be part of the problem.
And so, I'm I'm telling folks right now
that the best advice is don't visit your
your your your elder level ones. Call them.
And if they need something, be there for
them. But maybe that you pick up your
groceries, you leave them outside, you talk to
them through the door, through the window, you
go
home, and they go and and and open
the
and open
the the doors and and and pick up
those groceries. And then lastly, just because it
hasn't been said yet, I think it's critical
to understand that there are things that you
need to do to keep yourself healthy and
others healthy. Number 1, I know you're seeing
masks all over the place. Please don't buy
masks. There aren't enough of them. Leave them
for the medical professionals to our frontline. Number
2, the most important thing that you can
possibly do to protect yourself and therefore protect
others,
is to wash your hands. That doesn't mean
just rinsing your hands. Right? That means 20
seconds with warm soapy water,
and making sure to get all of the
crevices of your hands. Wash your thumbs,
make sure that you're working the backs of
your hands, make sure that you're washing your
fingernails,
wash your hands consistently.
Alcohol based hand sanitizers are also extremely effective.
So have those on hand. If you're going
to go out, make sure that you've got
Clorox wipes on you and disinfect everything that
you touched. I was at Costco earlier today
buying, some supplies for the house, and, I
brought some Clorox wipes and wiped down the
cart,
before I touched it. And then, you know,
wiped my hands off and and washed them
with hand sanitizer
I know these are little things, but they're
really critically important.
3, please do avoid public spaces.
And that, you know, if it unless your
your job requires you to fly, I would
really, really reconsider, whether or not you're going
to do that. If you're in any sort
of mass transit situation, stay away from crowded
spaces.
Make sure that you are, not touching things
that other people would have touched. And if
you are, washing your hands.
And, and then lastly lastly,
as always in these circumstances, ask Allah to
keep you healthy and your family healthy,
and, and make sure that you are, calling
and checking in on the people who are
most vulnerable.
That's, that's, what I've got. I look forward
to, inshallah, any questions that are available,
at the end of our,
web webinar. And I do wanna say, to,
to and,
the team at Celebrate Mercy, as well as
Usama and his team at Penny Appeal.
You you all are are are springing,
into action, and you're really demonstrating our responsibility
as Muslims, to care for our broader community
because we know that,
our responsibilities in these moments, have everything to
do with being good neighbors and being responsible
within our community,
and demonstrating what it does what it means,
to to to be engaged and involved, in
what our community is engaged and involved in.
Thank you so much, doctor Abdul.
Let me turn on my webcam here.
Thank you so much to doctor Abdul Asayid,
for
sharing those insightful words,
and the advice.
Inshallah, he'll be joining us later in the
webinar during the q and a portion. Just
a quick reminder
to everyone.
Let me make sure you can see my
slides. Can you just let me know in
the chat room that you guys are seeing
the slide here that says doctor Abdul Al
Sayed?
Okay. Good.
Because I put it on full screen now.
What I wanted to tell everyone now is
that we have a chat room here where
people can, chat with each other in this
in this webinar.
We have over 500
computers
that are,
that are met that are connected to this
webinar right now.
500 computers means that we have so many
families, so many couples that are also watching,
so we could even be
up to a couple of 1,000 people watching
altogether.
I just wanted to ask everyone to take
a moment,
in the chat room and let us know
where you are joining this webinar from. Let
us know the city, state, country,
where you're joining from.
Dallas, Indiana,
Bensalem, Pennsylvania,
Chicago, London,
Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts oh, this is going fast.
Michigan, Texas,
Fremont, California, Dearborn, Michigan. Again, California.
Wow. This is woah. I can't even okay.
Cairo. I saw Cairo.
Great Falls, Virginia,
Utah.
This is too fast to even read. Toronto.
Okay. New Jersey,
Colorado,
Michigan again, New Jersey, Ottawa,
Australia,
nice,
Princeton, New Jersey,
Austin, Texas Dublin, California Houston, Texas Portland
Cleveland
New Jersey Rocks. Someone said Knoxville, Tennessee, my
hometown.
Shout out to Knoxville and my family out
there.
Michigan, Vancouver.
Any other international besides the United States? Anyone
joining?
No. Someone said Mars. That can't be okay.
Kuwait.
Mexico City, Mashallah.
Dubai.
Qatar.
Okay. Great. Great.
Arizona, Manchester. Okay. Great. Masha'Allah. We have people
joining from all over Nigeria.
Okay. Great.
So we're definitely on, joining from
Hong Kong.
Masha'Allah.
Cincinnati.
Okay. Good. So it looks like we have
most continents covered here. Masha'Allah.
That's that's really excellent news. Syria.
Wow.
Mashallah.
That's that's amazing.
Antarctica. I'm not sure if I believe that,
but maybe maybe.
Okay.
So let's go ahead, Insha'Allah, to our next
speaker.
I am going to
ask for, Souphan
to introduce our next speaker, doctor Ingrid
Mattson. She will be our next speaker inshallah.
Assalamu alaikum, everyone. So I'd like to introduce
doctor Ingrid Matson.
Doctor Ingrid Matson is the London and Windsor
Community Chair in Islamic Studies at Huron University
College
at Western University
in Canada.
And from 1998 to 2012,
she was professor of Islamic studies at Hartford
Seminary in Connecticut,
where she developed
and directed the 1st accredited
graduate program from Muslim Chaplains in America,
and she served as the director of the
McDonald Center For the Study of Islam
and Christian Muslim Relations.
From 2,001
to 2,010,
doctor Matson served as vice president and then
as president of the Islamic Society of North
America in the USA,
and she was the first woman to ever
serve in this position in either position.
Her writings, both academic
and public focus primarily
on Quran,
interpretation,
and Islamic Theological
Ethics and Interfaith Relations. Her book, The Story
of the Quran,
is an academic bestseller and was chosen by
the US National Endowment for the Humanities for
Inclusion
in its bridging cultures program. So without further
ado, I'd like to bring doctor Ingrid Massey
online.
Everyone.
I'm really happy to have this opportunity to
connect with you.
It's a great reminder
of how connected we are. I mean,
we don't need a disaster
to,
as Muslims to realize that we are connected.
We feel that every day with each other,
and
I think it's one of the reasons why,
I I feel very proud of so many,
in our Muslim community
who were able to
immediately
understand that what we're facing these days is,
is about all of us together as a
not only as Muslim communities, but as a
human community.
We hear those lessons. We
learn about this
every day as Muslims and
because of that, we are able to respond
in a crisis even though there are many
unknowns,
still we have the principles.
And this is one thing I want to
to really emphasize
is that,
all of us should have confidence that,
we have the ability to respond
at least to meet our moral and ethical
responsibility
in this situation.
It doesn't mean we're in control indeed.
We know and the the grounding
of our confidence
is that we know that Allah is
in control.
That Allah is the creator of all things
even this virus,
and that nothing happens without Allah's command.
One of our pillars of faith is to
believe in Qadir, the good and the bad
of it. And that means that,
well, we see there are many, hardships and
sufferings, and it is our responsibility
to respond to those things.
Still, we believe that Allah
will bring us what we need,
so that at least we can each,
individually and collectively
do the best we can to fulfill
our,
responsibilities,
and that's all that we are asked to
do.
So we believe,
in Allah, and we believe that all of
this creation is responding to Allah's command,
and
now it is our turn to really understand
what is our role in all of this.
Alhamdulillah,
we have
the teachings of the prophet Muhammad and
all of those who,
strove to follow in his blessed footsteps
through the generations
to guide us,
through this situation.
We know through the many,
stories
that we have heard of Muslims in past
ages including the 1st generation that they went
through numerous,
collective hardships.
That they were tested
by
really difficult situations
and through the way they responded to them
we know
what what principles should guide us during this
time.
We know that
at the very beginning of Islam that Muslims
were really challenged with persecution
and,
when there was an extraordinary challenge
they took extraordinary measures to respond. So for
example,
just the fact of the Muhajuddin
being hosted by the Ansar, by the Ansar,
you know, sharing completely equally,
everything they had with their mohaydurine
during
an extraordinary time.
We know that,
during the time of Sayidina Umar ibn Al
Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, the
second,
haditha to follow the prophet Muhammad, al SAW,
that during his lifetime,
there was a year
where there was a
terrible drought. It was called the year of
ashes,
and it was such a terrible drought that
100 and then 1,000 of the Bedouin poured
into Medina because all of the water
had dried up, their camels died, that was
the source of their food and nutrition, and
they were dying.
And Sayna Umar bin Al Khattab
took extraordinary
measures to respond to that,
that he called upon all of the Muslims
everywhere to send food, that he himself
took a voluntary
vow where he would abstain
from,
from butter, meat, and milk until the drought
ended. So these are things that are halal,
that are lawful,
but he abstained
from them
in solidarity with those who are suffering and
to share any little bit that he had
with those who were suffering.
And he said that if this drought had
lasted a year, that he would have spent
everything in the treasury even up to the
last
in order to feed people because that was
the obligation.
We know that in our teachings
that urgent needs
take priority over everything else. Urgent needs are
those things that are required to sustain life.
And this is why in this situation,
we are being asked, as you've heard from
Doctor. Ahras
and from the public health perspective,
that we are being asked to give up
certain things even our collective prayers
in order to,
really meet the urgent needs of people. That
means to keep them alive,
and that is something that again and again
we learn about in our tradition.
So it is not piety
in an event that is,
really extraordinary,
an extraordinary disruption
to respond to it as if nothing happens.
That's not piety, that's not taqwa.
In fact, what we know is that extraordinary
circumstances
require extraordinary responses.
SubhanAllah,
among the the,
many
major principles, the, of
Islam or the the maxims or legal maxims
or canons,
are those
that that truly apply to the situation
so that hardship,
must be
alleviated
and that harm should be removed.
So harm must be removed
and that hardship
should be alleviated.
What does that mean? It means that we
apply those principles to all that we do
so that if there is harm by our
social interaction,
by meeting with other people,
by praying together
that,
then we avoid these things in order to
stop the harm from persisting.
We know that hardship should be alleviated so
that if people are suffering, and we know
they are because of the situation, whether
the impact to their,
employment and their income,
if they are isolated
and they need support,
that it is our responsibility
to go and chip in,
in a,
rational and helpful way according to the experts,
who understand the situation.
And so these are 2 of of the
5 major kawhid or legal maxims in Islam,
and they completely
apply to this situation.
I wanna also bring in one other of
the the 5 major maxims
which is that certainty
will not be removed,
by doubt,
and this is important,
in this situation
because,
this isn't a epistemological
principle, meaning how we know things.
And I I bring this in because
it really speaks to the importance
of listening to experts,
not buying into
conspiracy
theories or bogus
treatments
or people speculating
about all different kinds of things,
that we rely in Islam
on,
those who have knowledge of a situation.
And that just because someone comes up with
a possible theory,
that possibility
does not give us any knowledge.
Possibility
is we are extremely imaginative
beings and we can think of all sorts
of scenarios.
So we don't rely on those imaginative
scenarios or speculation
in order to make decisions.
We rely on
knowledge,
on certainty,
or, the preponderance of evidence
in every situation. And so it's really important
to,
to listen to those who have knowledge of
what is happening in this situation.
I know that there are,
you know, when when when something shocking or
new first happens,
it is really easy as a, kind of
protective mechanism to fall into denial
or to minimize that situation.
This is a very common human response,
so we have to get over that and
really come to terms with the change
that is going to,
be necessary in our lives. Now, Alhamdulillah,
we also have the blessing
of, our practice
of,
fasting the month of Ramadan.
So we already have this,
experience
every year annually
where we,
have a whole month of living in a
way that is different than other times of
the year, where we disrupt
our normal pattern
and that
in some ways I hope insha'Allah
will
help have prepared us as Muslims
for dealing with a situation that is very
different. Now, of course, it's not the same.
There are more and and really unexpected kinds
of disruption, but,
we know that,
that sometimes
we can experience
tremendous benefits from these disruptions.
So while we are changing our lives
out of a sense of ethical obligation
in order to prevent harms and to promote
benefits for people,
to really make sure that those who are,
vulnerable
are have the most possibility
of having their meets, their needs met,
that,
at the same time, we can,
look to,
this change in our lives as an opportunity
to,
to reflect,
on how we'd normally do things,
to think about how perhaps as a society
we could have been better prepared,
to try to
rather than just,
being resentful about how our lives have changed,
look to the opportunities that are presented to
us by perhaps
having more time with people in our family,
having more time for reflection,
try to benefit from that time because all
of those things are possible.
And I really hope that,
when we look back at this situation a
year from now,
we're going to,
feel somewhat satisfied
that in the end, we responded in a
way that was ethical,
where we,
while we,
may have had some deprivations,
we followed the teaching of the prophet Muhammad
that when you see someone who has more,
look to someone who has less.
So for many of us,
while we may be sacrificing
certain things or,
finding,
certain situations
challenging,
we will always use that as the opportunity
to sue see who is struggling
even more than we are ourselves.
Finally,
to end I also want to just
say a word about illness and about
how Muslims in the past dealt with,
epidemics or pandemics,
because
there were many times
throughout the generations
where plagues came and ravaged
communities,
where, there were contagious
diseases within the communities.
And there is a lot of really interesting
scholarship on this looking at,
comparing the way that different faith communities
are responded to these things.
Now in many faith communities whenever there was
a,
a contagious illness or a pandemic,
it was the opportunity
for people to
to engage in
blaming to put stigma on certain kinds of
people. Very often they were people who were
from a different ethnic or cultural group
or they looked to
people from a different religion
as the cause
of these illnesses.
So for example,
in medieval Europe,
according to the scholarship of Michael Doles,
that very often whenever the plague broke out,
that you found Europeans would go and engage
in massive violence against Jewish communities.
They would,
stigmatize
and commit violence against many, people in the
community who were different than them because they
blame them as the cause of this illness.
And we
never had this in Islamic history ever,
that Muslims understood that everything comes from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, that,
sin and health
or sin and illness are not necessarily
causal of each other.
So you can have someone who is a
terrible sinner who is very healthy,
and you can have someone who is very
righteous
and who is terribly sick. So we don't
make those kind of associations. So it's really
important especially
if this pandemic
continues to
create a lot of hardship in communities
that this kind of social psychological
phenomenon
does not,
take,
you know, any kind of root itself at
all in our community as Muslims.
We know that it is,
we do not make these kind of connections
and we should make sure that we stand
on principle
and see this as an opportunity
for all of
humanity
to be united and we can demonstrate exemplary
behavior in that regard.
I ask
Allah to guide us and protect us in
these days. Thank you,
for your attention.
Thank you so much to doctor Ingrid Mattson,
for your talk and for your advice
and your insights and wisdom.
Jazakam Alohair, InshaAllah, she will be joining us,
at the end of the webinar for the
q and a portion.
And just a reminder that
on your Zoom webinar panel, you see an
icon that says Q and A.
That is where you should be submitting your
questions. We are getting a lot of great
questions.
We are
compiling those questions and choosing,
some that we will at that we will
ask our our speakers
at the end of the webinar, Insha'Allah.
Just a reminder as well
that if you look on Celebrate Mercy's Instagram,
our Twitter,
our Facebook, you'll see that we have posted
this flyer.
So you can download this flyer. You can
text it to your friends.
If they don't know about the webinar, they
can still join and catch our upcoming speakers
as well.
We also do have a hashtag
for this webinar.
That hashtag is
corona
c m.
Corona c m. So if you'd like, if
you wanna post any of the the some
of the quotes
that you have heard from our teachers,
today,
then you can use that hashtag.
You can also
mention Celebrate Mercy. Our Twitter handle is Celebrate
Mercy.
So we may even share some of your
tweets,
later in the webinar as well, inshallah. We
can take some screenshots
of some of these tweets that use the
hashtag and share them on the webinar.
So let me move on to our next
portion here.
Another reminder is of the of the new
LaunchGood campaign that we talked about earlier, launchgood.com/
corona.
One thing I wanna mention about this campaign
is if you go to this campaign page,
you will see there's a section called community
partners.
That is where your Masjid, your youth group,
your Muslim Student Association,
your organization
can sign up as a community
partner on this campaign,
which means that you have shared it among
your email list on on your social media.
SubhanAllah,
Imam Khaled Latif was on MSNBC
on national TV, a couple of hours ago,
and he talked about this campaign on national
television.
And within minutes,
we got an email
from an organization
called
Coalition
of Progressive
Hindus.
Believe it or not, Coalition of Progressive Hindus,
And they shared this campaign, this flyer that
you see right now. They shared this flyer
on their page,
and they encourage people to participate and to
donate to it. It's called Coalition of Coalition
of Progressive Hindus, and they asked to be
a community partner. So this is,
this was before any masjid had even has
even messaged us about it. So subhanAllah, inshallah,
this is going to be a an interfaith
effort
to,
raise funds for people that need it, who
are most impacted
by this pandemic
or organize and and the money can also
help organizations that are doing great projects
locally on the ground
to help
relieve some of the financial burdens
and the difficulties that people are facing as
a result of this pandemic.
We have a few sponsors I just wanna
mention
quickly in between
speakers here. 1 is Penny Appeal
that was presenting earlier.
We have partnered with them on that LaunchGood
campaign. LaunchGood is also one of our sponsors.
It's a crowdfunding site that many Muslims use
to raise funds for their masjid,
for their organization, for their cause.
Celebrate Mercy has always used LaunchGood
as the crowdfunding
platform
for fundraisers.
Alhamdulillah.
You can visit launchgood.com.
They just reached a milestone
of raising a total of 100,000,000
dollars.
Launchgood is about 10 years old, and they
have they have raised already a $100,000,000
on all these different crowdfunding pages,
through their platform. Alhamdulillah.
And then we have lastly here before I
go on to doctor Ronnya Awad,
we have the Rahma Foundation.
And the Rahma Foundation is a 501c3
nonprofit organization
that is committed to teaching Muslim women and
girls their obligatory
Islamic
knowledge via local and online programs taught by
qualified female teachers
and specifically designed for
Muslim women.
Programs include halaqas
for girls and women, live workshops online and
in person,
mentorship programs. The Rahama Foundation strives to make
our programs free of cost or with very
minimal fees so that quality Islamic knowledge can
be accessible to all women. We rely on
your generous contributions, and you can visit therahmafoundation.org
to learn more, and we thank them for
being a sponsor
of this webinar.
And without any further delay, I'm going to
ask Supan, one of our Celebrate Mercy team
members,
our program manager, Supan Vahora,
to introduce
our next speaker, doctor Rania Awad.
Thank you, Tarek.
So I'd like to
introduce doctor Anya Alwa and give you a
brief info,
bio about doctor Anya.
Doctor Anya is a clinical associate professor of
psychiatry
at the Stanford University
School of Medicine.
Her research and clinical work is focused on
the mental health needs of Muslims.
And through her outreach work at Sanford, she
is also,
the clinical director of the San Francisco Bay
Area branches of the Khalil Center, a spiritual
wellness center that
pioneered the application of traditional Islamic spiritual healing
to modern clinical psychology.
And she has been the recipient of several
awards and grants for her work.
Prior to studying medicine, she pursued classical Islamic
studies in Damascus, Syria,
and hold certifications in a Quran, Islamic law,
and other branches of the Islamic sciences.
Doctor Awad all has also served as the
first female professor
of Islamic law at Zaytuna College, a Muslim
liberal arts college in Berkeley, California,
where she taught courses on and women's
and Quranic sciences for nearly a decade.
Doctor Awad is a nationally recognized speaker, award
winning teacher,
researcher, and author in both the Islamic and
medical sciences. And today we are honored to
have doctor Rania join us on this webinar.
Thank you so much, brother Subhan. Thank you,
Tariq, and for the Celebrate
Mercy
team.
Sisters and brothers,
today is March 15, 2020,
and exactly 1 year ago on March 15,
2019,
we heard the terrible news of our sisters
and brothers
being massacred in New Zealand
at the Masjid, their safe haven in space,
praying the Jummah prayer.
Just a couple of days ago in Jummah,
many of you like myself were prevented from
going to the Jummah prayer because of the
coronavirus outbreak and for good reason.
There are 2 unrelated events, but they are
both events that have taken away that sense
of safety from us in the world
and have caused quite a bit of feelings
of anxiety and confusion
and, honestly, sadness even as well because many
of us are wondering about what's gonna happen
for
the prayers of Ramadan coming
up. Some for some, their umrah trips have
been canceled, like celebrate Mercy's trip, unfortunately, but
will bring it back. And some are looking
to Hajj and wondering if they're gonna be
able to do their pilgrimage.
We're also heartbroken seeing pictures coming out of
the Haram al Sharif
being empty and devoid of people, a very
strange and kind of surreal picture that we
haven't seen in our lifetimes.
And we're feeling these levels of emotion of
anxiety, and we're wondering,
is this normal, or should we be doing
something about it? Well, I'm here to tell
you that
anxiety to a certain extent is actually something
that is healthy.
It is an emotion that Allah
created as he created all other emotions.
Right? Anger and fear and sadness and happiness
and depression and so on. And a certain
amount of anxiety actually helps us get into
shape to plan meals and to buy our
essentials and to figure out activities with our
children as we're quarantined with them and figure
out how to work from home.
But there are there's also a certain level
of panic and anxiety that goes beyond that,
which we actually need to work on modulating,
and I hope to talk with you about
it a little bit today.
And for those who are wondering, is this
actually a normal feeling?
Very much so because it's understandable. There is
a fear of the unknown.
We don't really know exactly what's gonna happen
with this virus
from many
multiple
ourselves, but also children and also elderly. And
for many of us, we may also have
family members who are ill or immunocompromised,
and we're particularly worried and concerned about this
virus.
And on a communal level, we have to
remember that we're also dealing with, as a
Muslim community, dealing with collective and cumulative
trauma
over time.
You know, this quarter at Stanford, I taught
a class called the psychology of xenophobia
to our students,
and we focus on the topic of Islamophobia
and its effect on mental health of our
Muslim community.
And as it turns out, the 2 are
very much related and connected.
And our community is definitely feeling a higher
level of anxiety than most because there are
so many, and I started with the talk
of new, with New Zealand just thinking about
how and even just 1 year alone, there
have been so many accounts of Islamophobia and
difficult pieces of news before we even get
to coronavirus.
And to think about how even though these
are separate events, there's so many of them
and we don't have time to heal in
between them that they honestly feel like they're
somehow connected. And our symptoms are intensified and
our recovery is prolonged.
And for that reason, I wanna share with
you what I hope to be 5 practical
coping tips,
to deal with anxiety and the fear that
we're all fear feel feeling today.
Number 1 is to talk and listen.
And what I mean by that is to
talk through your feelings and emotions with those
whom you trust.
This is really important and sounds simple, but
it's really important not to keep it all
bottled up, especially for those who who are
in the role of caretakers
To to kind of hold it all in
and to think you're gonna be strong for
everyone else only means that you're going to
be overwhelmed because the situation is overwhelming.
But when you talk with others there that
you trust, there is a sense of vulnerability
where you're able to share how you're doing,
and then they open up and share how
they're doing, and you realize you're not alone
in this. It's really important to do that
kind of talking. And the flip side of
talking is listening. And listening means actually reaching
out and hearing those who are most impacted
and how they're doing. Our elders, for example,
they've been hearing for that they are more
susceptible than anyone else to be affected by
COVID 19 and have a higher level of
mortality rate than the rest of our younger
people. And so get a pulse on how
the elders are feeling. Ask them. Help them
speak through that anxiety.
Same with the children, to come down to
their level and remember
what are what we do, we role model
to our children. So if we're feeling really
anxious, so are they. And so to get
down to their level and see how they're
actually doing and to remember that everybody,
deals with trauma and difficulty in the same
way. So be flexible.
Don't judge. Don't assume. Don't shame. Right? And
give support to one another.
Number 2 on this list is to moderate
our news intake. And I know I'm asking
for the impossible
considering that we're all quarantined and kind of
plugged into our electronics
and are checking the news that's evolving so
quickly, not just day by day, but literally
hour by
hour. And I'm asking you to consider the
alternatives, the alternatives of what it means to
be quarantined in this way,
what it means to sit face to face
with your family members and actually spend quality
time.
And there's so many different ways to do
this whether we consider, you know, really sharing
with adults and children alike, especially the lessons
that we're getting out of this, the silver
lining.
Right? Whether you consider and talk to them
about there's so much talk on hand washing,
and you talk about how Islam has the
lessons on tahada. We are people of purification.
We wash our hands and and our faces
so many times in a day in our
wudu. We wash in istanja and right
after the bathroom and in showering and before
and after eating. And in so many different
circumstances, we are people
of purification.
And whether you come at it from a
siddha perspective and talk about the life of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and how
he dealt with
virus, dealt with this kind of illness, specifically
him personally,
thinking about his own parents
who both passed away in different years because
of the fever of yafrib of Medina that
cost them both their lives. And it was
a contagious fever, potentially a virus, and how
that impacted him on a very personal level
or whether you come at this from a
discussion of fiqh
talking about,
for example, the the rules Allah has put
in place in terms of halal and haram
meat consumption. I mean, this illness is coming
through a zoonotic
carrier. And our discussion as human beings and
how we deal with the animal kingdom and
animal cruelty and the rules Allah has put
in place of what we can and cannot
do and can and cannot consume,
for example.
You know, there's also the discussion. So many
people were watching these clips of
Mu'adbins giving the adhan and saying in the
adhan, pray in your homes, and we're surprised
by this. But these are rules of that
are found in our
chapters of prayer, of salah, at inclement weather
or on difficult circumstances like this, asking us
to pray at home and break
the Jamara in times like this. These are
wonderful discussions to really engage our family members
with. This is also the time to pull
out and dust off our puzzles and our
Legos and anything that we're able to kinda
sit with our children face to face and
remember.
Adults and children alike
respond better to human connection
rather than electronics even if they tell you
otherwise. Even the teens that say, no. No.
I wanna play the video game. If you
avail yourself they will respond
on a much better
level. And spiritually, which brings me to the
next point number 3,
which is to take time.
We're given more time
in this particular
circumstance and to take care of yourself,
especially the caretakers,
to take care of yourself and take breaks
as in to say so many of us
have never really worked from home and we're
not sure how to juggle the schedules of
working and dealing with children, for example, that
are all at home at once.
But take breaks
and take care of your body. Eat healthy
and sleep well. This is not the time
to spend it all on binge watching. Right?
Get good sleep and make sure also that
you're not escaping the anxiety by using substances.
And spiritually, I want to say, and I
know some of our other speakers will go
into more depth, but I do want to
make one important point because in the field
of psychology we often prescribe meditation.
And I wanna tell you that in our
sunnah about Islam, there is our own sense
of contemplative meditative practices
that are that are indigenous to our Islam,
and they are very much the concepts of,
like,
Right? Spiritual seclusion.
And especially for the woman on this, I
wanna tell you it is not limited to
the masjid or to men.
Is something you can do at home. And
if you're curious about this, certainly the slide
before on the Rahmah Foundation, you can find
my talk specifically to the of women and
how to do this at home. But men
and women alike, taking some time away,
doing a seclusion away from everyone else in
the family even for just minutes and moments
of the day and doing our our meditative
practices of tafakkur and tadaqur and tadaqur,
and I'll translate. Those are tadaqur as doing
bikr at remembrance of Allah
Tadaqur is a contemplation,
thinking about how this tiny little invisible virus
has brought us all to our knees and
really unsure what to do, not just us,
but the world around us as well. And
one of my spiritual teachers would say it's
like a pressure cooker.
Every pressure cooker has a valve that allows
the steam to be released.
And she would call that valve,
and she would say that spiritual seclusion. And
if we don't have it built into our
days, we will explode
the way a pressure cooker will explode with
without that valve. And so to really take
that time, those moments of the day, and
to steal them away and really, you know,
kinda center back in in order to be
able to help everyone else around you. And
I'll share very quickly a couple of my
own spiritual aphorisms that I hold dearly onto
that really help in moments like this. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says in Surat al Baqarah,
that Allah will not burden a soul more
than it can bear and also says
that all nothing will happen to us except
what Allah has ordained from us for us.
And to sit kind of in that space
and to really think through those things
actually helps bring the anxiety down.
And so does number 4, which is to
take action and celebrate Mercy, Penny Appeal, and
the others, as you've heard, are starting this
process of taking action there, the,
the first on on the train doing this,
Insha'Allah.
And a reminder that this actually helps bring
anxiety down as well to think creatively think
about how to help the most vulnerable in
our communities.
You know? Doing the,
doing packages
and care packages and grocery,
shopping for those in meal trains, for elderly
and immunocompromised,
the homeless, those living from paycheck to paycheck
to really help us and also helps our
children
feel a sense of control when they can
actually help us with the planning.
And anybody who'd like to know more information
on how to talk to children in times
of anxiety like this, there's an article that
I'd written on Muslim matters last year at
the time of
the, New Zealand shootings that goes in that
in more depth Insha'Allah.
And lastly,
my last point on this is that all
the four points that preceded will help many
people with their anxiety,
but there are certainly a group of people
that this list will not be enough,
that their anxiety and panic may be too
high. Perhaps there's also an underlying condition already
in place of depression or anxiety and such.
And for for I really urge you to
seek out professional mental health help in circumstances
like this.
I remind you that and myself that there
are so many mental health professionals out there
that because of the virus are now migrating
all of their services to online. So it's
much more accessible than before. I'm sitting here
in the Khalil Center in our Bay Area,
office headquarters,
and this is a Muslim counseling center that
integrates Islamic Spirituality into this professional counseling.
And now we've migrated most of our sessions
onto online, So it's much more
avail
well, that's like this
as well. And there's also going to be,
you know, tutorials for, how to deal with
anxiety that will go in much more depth
than the 5 points that I've given here
above. So I hope you'll make use of
them. And lastly, to say that even though
these times are tough, Allah has
made us tougher.
And even though and whatever he to remember
that whatever he sent our way, he has
the power to take it away. And if
Allah
brought us to this, he will insha Allah
bring us through this.
Thank you so much,
doctor Ramya. And and Souphan is now going
to introduce our next speaker, Insha'Allah,
Imam Omar Suleiman.
Thank you, Tarek. So I would like to
introduce Imam Omar Suleiman.
He really needs no introduction, and
in, like, one minute, I can give you
a brief description of what,
Imam Osama does.
Imam Osama is,
the founder
and president of the Yaqeen Institute For Islamic
Research
and an adjunct professor of Islamic Studies in
the Gradual Liberal Studies program
at SMU, Southern Methodist University.
He's also the resident scholar at Valley Ranch
Islamic Center and the cochair of Faith Forward
Dallas
at Thanksgiving Square.
He holds a bachelor's in accounting, a bachelor's
in Islamic law, a master's in Islamic finance,
and a master's in political history,
and he is currently pursuing a PhD in
Islamic thought and civilization
from the International Islamic University of Malaysia.
And so without further ado, I'd like to
have doctor, Imam Omar Saliman,
join us on the webinar.
I
hope
you
all
can
see
me
Alright.
I first want to begin by just saying
how much I've enjoyed thus far the reflections.
May Allah bless all of,
my co panelists,
doctor Ingrid Monson,
doctor Avani Awad,
doctor Noor,
and, of course, Namzaid, doctor Abdul Luh Sayed,
Asayid, and and, of course, to come,
Namzaid, and so on. But just I've really
enjoyed thus far these reflections. I also wanna
thank them for
mentioning doctor Lang just mentioned the Christchurch,
victims.
I mean, can I think it's it's
it's important for us to just take a
moment and think how difficult it must be
for them to be observing now the 1
year anniversary of these shootings in isolation as
well? They're not able to gather,
you know, in these moments. So
we ask Allah to comfort,
the families that have been left behind
to accept their loved ones as shuhada and
to join them all together in the station
of shuhada
and, to be as near to the prophet
through those as possible to not deprive us
of that reward.
I wanna pick up
where doctor Vania
spoke about this idea of doing good as
a means of warding off anxiety.
There's really a beautiful saying from Imam Al
Qayyin
about good deeds
warding off anxiety and illness.
If you some of you might have attended
the webinar that we did with the Yapine
Institute,
for Islamic research yesterday, and we actually just
put on the infographic. So if you go
to yapineinstitute.org,
you'll see an infographic there that our team
put together at hamdullilah.
And you'll find this quote from
and this idea of doing good. And that's
really what I wanna speak about with
a few minutes that I have in terms
of doing good,
while we're in this period.
The benefits of a hasanat, the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam connected a sense of anxiety
or a sense of urgency to good. So
for example, when the prophet
said,
the the day of judgement, if the day
of judgement is upon you,
Whoever amongst you can,
plant
can plant something. If you have something in
your hands,
Whoever amongst you can plant that, even if
you know that the day of judgment is
upon you, then let them do so. The
prophet
said Badri Abu al-'amal Islamiha,
rushed to do good deeds.
Essentially that every moment of anxiety
should cause us to remember death, and every
remembrance of death should cause us to do
good. And that's sort of the connection,
between those 3 at all times. And so
from the benefits of good deeds, number 1,
in the Hasanatiuh ibn Nasayi'at.
What Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells us is
that good deeds do away with sins. They're
means of expiating our sins.
Number 2, the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned
good deeds as a means of having our
duas accepted. Good deeds are a form of
tawasul, are a form
of inter intercession for us when we make
du'a to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. As in
the hadith of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam,
where he mentioned the 3 men,
that were in the cave. And as they
were stuck in the cave, they all called
upon Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala using a good
deed that they had committed. And so I
know that we're all going to be making
dua, and you'll rightfully be reminded to constantly
stay in a state of supplication.
Good deeds are a means of having our
supplication accepted in the. So trying to do
some of those unique good deeds.
Some of them that were beautifully illustrated by
doctor, Matson about,
you know, the Maqasid and then bringing that
into play right now,
with everything that's happening around us. Right? Thinking
with service, thinking about how we can benefit
the environment, the people around us inshaAllah ta'ala
in these times.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, as he
tells us that good deeds are means of
having our dua accepted.
The salaf Dubai's predecessors used to make dua
to Allah
that they used to seek refuge in Allah
from the sins that cause our supplications to
not be answered, and the sins that cause
tragedy to rain down upon us. And so
the first one is the removal of sin.
The second one is the acceptance of supplication.
The third one is where the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam talked about,
good deeds extending the lifespan.
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam mentioned that nothing
changes a person's other,
changes a person's,
divine decree
like doing good deeds. And particularly, the prophet
mentioned salaba, mentioned charity. And I want you
to think about how beneficial it is. Alhamdulillah,
here we are
in these moments.
And in the past when people were quarantined,
they didn't have the ability to do sadaqa,
right?
You know, we can still give sadaqa online
and we can still go out and serve
our communities
inshallah, taking the proper
safety protocols with the necessary
medical knowledge that we now have. And so
Allah
has opened those doors of sadaqa,
for you and those doors of good deeds
for you inshallah ta'ala. So again, the first
one was the,
the first one was the removal of sin.
The second one was the acceptance of supplication.
And now the third one was, that it
extends the lifespan and and and wards off,
the harm that could be decreed for you
if a person engages in those.
The 4th one is this idea of bringing
about happiness in a person's life. Prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam said, If your good deeds
make you happy and your bad deeds make
you sad, then that makes you a believer.
So it's from a sign of imam, a
sign of belief
that a person,
finds happiness and joy in their good deeds,
a great sense of purpose.
And so it does ward off anxiety. It
does ward off,
you know, that sense of of paralysis,
and it makes you feel useful. And so
with those four things, dear brothers and sisters,
when we're talking about,
good deeds. And of course, the 5th one
as I mentioned already was warding off illness.
Right? And that's something that's implied in the
statement of Ibn Al Qayim Rahimullah.
In the general idea of extending a person's
lifespan, warding off harm,
and the idea of having our duas accepted.
It's all interconnected
and giving us a sense of happiness. This
last thing that I wanna say is just
like with Ramadan,
you know, you sort of set your goals.
One of the best ways to work
towards something productive is to think about where
you want to be at the end of
it.
Now with Ramadan, obviously, it's a stated period.
You've got, you know, 29 or 30 days,
and so you know how much you wanna
finish in those 29 30 days. Allah knows
how long we're gonna be in this situation.
But I want you to ask yourselves and
to actually write it down in and say,
you know, what do I want to achieve
when this is all said and done? Right?
What do I want to achieve when this
is all said and done?
What are the habits that I hope I
would have picked up?
Because,
you know, social distancing is a chance to
get closer to Allah. Right? Social distancing is
a is a chance to get closer to
Allah and to close the distance between you
and the creator.
What are the tangible
things that I wanna pick up in this
very unique time
and make use of those opportunities,
that that the previous,
speakers,
so eloquently alluded to. And so
note that down, write your goals down.
Again,
you know, please do, you know,
come and check out what we've put together
at YUPIN Institute. We'll continue to put together
content
and engage the the wonderful campaign that Celebrate
Mercy is doing through LaunchGood with Penny Appeal
and others.
You know, let's try to think proactively
about how we can make the most of
this.
And I pray that Allah
allow us to be connected
as one by heart in these days and
to be of benefit to humanity and to
be accepted to Allah to acceptable
in the sight of Allah
in these moments and to have our good
deeds accepted. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala enable
us to do good in these times. May
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala remove this salah, remove
this hardship,
from our world, protect our brothers and sisters,
from it, and may Allah
allow those who are most vulnerable
to be empowered in this in these moments
through the work that we're able to do
in initiatives like this. So
and thank you, Imam Omar Suleiman. It's definitely
an honor to have, to have you with
us.
I also do want to mention that Yaqeen
Institute
For Islamic Research is one of our webinar
sponsors today,
and they graciously
and, beautifully,
had a webinar yesterday as well themselves,
and, also plugged
today's webinar with Celebrate Mercy. So we we
really love collaborating
with other organizations and especially, Yaqeen Institute.
So we're very grateful to them. If you
don't know what Yaqeen is, they are a
nonprofit
research initiative aimed to address relevant topics
head on with the help of the foremost
experts in this space.
In addition to translating and analyzing classical works
works on the subject matter, They also aim
to actively participate in the current day discourse
touching on all topics that are related to
establishing conviction,
yaqeen,
in the hearts and minds of Muslims in
battling the false notions
that underlie Islamophobia
and extremism.
So please do check them out online, their
YouTube channel, their website, the amazing publications that
they have, and we're very grateful,
again, to have, Yaqeen Institute as one of
our sponsors. We also wanted to mention a
couple of other sponsors. One is,
Khalil Center,
And and doctor Runya
actually, I mispronounced doctor Runya's last name, and
I apologize to that too, doctor Runya. It's
not Awad.
It's Awad.
So I hope I got that right. Someone
actually texted me and said there's
a on the wow. You know? So it's
doctor Awad.
So thank you for correcting me, whoever sent
me that text message. Masha'Allah.
The Khalil Center is a zakat Foundation project.
It's a community psychological and spiritual wellness center,
Khalil Center approach.
Khalil Center's approach emphasizing
emphasizes
psychological reconstruction,
behavior behavioral
reformation, and spiritual elevation.
Kavil Center utilizes
faith based approaches rooted in Islamic theological concepts
while integrating the science
of psychology towards addressing social,
psychological,
communal,
and spiritual health. Find out more at chalilcenter.visitchalilcenter.com.
And we mentioned that they are a Zakat
Foundation project,
So I have to mention Zakat Foundation.
Let's see where
Zakat Foundation
slide is. Give me a second here.
I'll have to bring that up later, but
I do have a slide for Zakat Foundation
as well.
But let me mention what they are. Zakat
Foundation of America is a US based Muslim
run charity organization
that serves needy communities at home and abroad.
They channel the spirit of zakat into a
global vision of social development
and stand as the foremost authority
on interpreting zakat as a factor for positive
change. To learn more about Zakat Foundation of
America
and their other projects, please visit
zakat
dotorg,
zakat.org.
So thank you to all these sponsors. We
have a couple of other sponsors we'll mention
after our next speaker,
Insha'Allah.
As you all know, you saw when you
entered the webinar, we were asking for donations.
This webinar has a cost
to us of around 4 to $5,000.
So some of you donated when you entered
the webinar. Some of you may donate
when you take the survey,
but, these sponsors also help us with webinar
expenses.
So we really do appreciate,
having these, sponsors and other organizations that have
helped us to fund
today's webinar. And, by the way, we organize
this webinar
within 3 days.
As you probably saw the the flyer just
3 days ago,
the save the date email,
We put this all together within 3 days,
as a as a response to this pandemic
and this crisis that keeps getting worse by
the day.
So without any further delay, I'll mention Fawakkah
Institute right after Imam Zaid. We are going
to have Soufan introduce
Imam Zaid Shakir, and then he will give
his talk followed by
a q and a session inshallah.
Assalamualaikum everyone.
So now I'd like to introduce Imamzid Shaker.
Imamzid Shaker has taught courses in Arabic Islamic
spirituality
and contemporary Muslim thought, and Shafi'i Iffik at
Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim liberal arts
in the United States and US history, and
he presently teaches Islamic history and politics.
He speaks and writes on a wide range
of topics and has become a voice of
conscience for American Muslims as well as people
of other faiths.
He is regularly included as one of the
Western world's most influential Muslim scholars in the
Muslim 500,
an annual ranking edited by John Esposito and
Ibrahim Kameel.
He is also one of the signatories of
a common word between us and you, which
is an open letter by Islamic scholars to
Christian leaders that calls for peace and mutual
understanding.
He holds a master's in political science from
Rutgers University,
and he is one of the 3 cofounders
of Zaytuna College and serves on its board
of trustees. So So without further ado, I'd
like to have Imam Zayd Shakir take over.
I would like to thank, celebrate Mercy and
all of the organizers of this webinar, all
of the
co panelists.
I wasn't here from the beginning, so I
wouldn't want to
mention any any names. But may Allah bless
them for their efforts, their sacrifices, and the
work that they do, not just,
in the face of this particular crisis, but
whenever the Muslims need a a clear voice,
a clear message,
articulate spokesman and spokeswoman,
many of the people involved,
with this,
webinar,
many of the speakers and presenters,
are the people that the community looks to.
So may Allah bless them and
give them all all of the good that
they can that could possibly accrue to them
in this world and the next. I'd like
to start,
by
reiterating what I heard doctor Aranya, dear sister,
doctor Aranya,
Awad
and
our dear brother,
hardworking brother, Omar
Suleiman,
Sheikh Omar Suleiman,
both of them, and all of the others,
doctor Batson and,
Abdul Sayed
and others. Those are the ones I caught,
about New Zealand, that this is,
the day that that gruesome deed that occurred
a year ago was
commemorated, and may
bless all of them,
all of those who are afflicted,
in those tragic, tragic events at the 2
masjids there in Christ
Christ Church New Zealand. May
bless them with the highest ranks of Jannah.
And,
may they all
be reckoned as being amongst the martyrs,
which is a good segue into the coronavirus.
We should never forget
that those who might perish in this,
pandemic, they they are also martyrs.
The martyrs are 5, and there are other
categories. 1 who dies
of
some epidemic ill illness. In this case, mentioned
in the hadith, the the plague, one who
dies from severe
stomach disorder, dysentery or typhoid, other things that
might occur, for example, in the aftermath of
a tsunami when the water systems are knocked
out.
The, the one who drowned, so the tsunami
people drowned. By way of example,
the tsunami
of the waves smashed up the houses and
structures and buildings near the shore and a
lot of people died. And those demolished structures.
So if the,
one
who was afflicted
by a stomach disorder,
then one who is afflicted in the lungs,
which is the primary cause of death in
this case,
which should certainly,
be a martyr.
One hadith of the prophet
really beautifully summarizes
the attitude the Muslims
should have
in this particular instance.
So it's related by Abi Huray That
is,
So the there is,
there's no, infectious
disease.
In other words, the actual causative
agent is the will, the decree, the,
the will
of Allah
that is the effective
cause of the disease and not what might,
be the superficial
or readily visible,
cause of the infection.
And there's no evil omen. And just to
summarize,
It just summarize all 3 by saying there's
no evil omen. They're different nuances, but in
the interest of time
But then and flee from the leper as
you would flee
from the lion.
And so here we see 2 things operative.
Number 1,
understanding that, ultimately, everything is caused by the
will and decree of Allah, and the believer
should understand that. So we shouldn't,
think that what is meant to afflict us,
we're going to escape ultimately.
But we shouldn't be obsessed
with
burning ourselves down,
with thinking that
all of the obvious means,
are the ultimate cause of things.
I say that to say this.
We should be praying to Allah first and
foremost.
We should be praying to Allah
If you seek anything, 1st and foremost, seek
it from Allah.
And if, if you ask of anything, 1st
and foremost, ask from Allah. If you seek
assistance, 1st and foremost, seek it from Allah.
So our first
place
of seeking help and seeking relief
from this courage is the loss
first and foremost.
And that's all connected with those things from,
the the unseen realm and the realities of
that realm as they play out in the
world.
But then he says,
but flee away from the leper as you
would flee away from the lion.
So there's apparently a contradiction between the first,
everything is from the law, what's decreed is
inescapable,
and at the end, flee away from the
leper.
And so the message there is we take
every possible worldly means,
to protect ourselves and to to protect others
from highly,
contagious diseases.
And so we we don't
just have a
a happy go lucky, carefree
approach. We trust in Allah. We put our
trust in Allah. The messenger of Allah said,
flee away
from a possible source of harm the way
you flee away.
You will flee from a lion. And so
this is beautiful because we we balance between
the advice, the counsel
that we might receive from our religious scholars
in terms of how best to approach this
from a a spiritual
psycho psychological
approach. How can we maintain our sanity? How
can we remain calm? How can we continue
with our daily activities to the extent
advisable?
On the other hand, we highly respect and
we take the advice
of the medical profession professionals, the public health
professionals by taking every possible mean means that's
recommended for us because this is taking the
means. And so the believer balances between the
2. We don't neglect the one at the
expense of the others. So we appreciate the,
contributions
of, doctor Noor.
We received I didn't hear her on the
webinar, but I did receive the,
the, or counsel that she and others have
put out there. And so we respect we
respect that tremendously.
And in respecting that, we take every means
to make sure that we're doing everything in
our power to protect our lives and the
lives
of others.
And so we we
closed down the Jummah. We closed down the
congregations because
this is these are measures that will help
in the words of many of the medical
professionals to flatten the curve
and to allow our health care systems, which
could be easily
become overwhelmed even more so than in Italy,
which is far less populous,
than United States and their health care system,
particularly in the northern provinces
provinces,
have become overwhelmed.
And so to flatten the curve and to
spread out the the spikes and peaks that
can occur when we have a disease that
no one is immune from on the other
hand, and there's no known effective vaccine
or treatment. And so, potentially, everyone in this
country could get it. Everyone in this world
could get
it, potentially. And so the the public health
danger should be clear to everyone. And in
light of that danger, we take every means.
Some people are uneasy with canceling the jumu'ah,
but as I believe doctor Rania mentioned, there's
the hadith of ibn Abbas who reordered his
to tell tell the people
pray in your houses.
And the people were uneasy with that, and
mentioned
may Allah be pleased with him and his
father
that one better than we ordered the people
to do to take a similar measure,
referring to the messenger of Allah
So as doctor Rania mentioned as,
and others mentioned, there are religious precedences
for the measures that have been recommended by
the likes of the ISN, ISNOCIT
Council and many of our,
and others. Many of the FIT Councils, many
of the learning
and scholarly individuals
in our com in our community.
So we pray that
and
despair.
A prayer office of the
and wish
day and
everything. At this
The name of
with
word, and that
is.
So I I in the name of Allah,
whose name nothing is harmed, neither in the
heavens nor in the earth, and he is
the hearing, the knowing. And the second hadith,
which I,
prematurely
commented on,
I seek refuge with the perfect word of
Allah. It's mentioned in the the plural, but
it's a reference to the singular in another
version. The
from the evil of has created. And that
word perfected word of Allah
is.
And so everything,
the coronavirus
and everything else in the world only exist
be the with the command of Allah, be.
And so we seek refuge with the law
from the evil of what he has created.
So may we seek refuge with the law
when when may we mention Allah
pray to Allah, turn to Allah during these
difficult times, and when may we also heed
every bit of advice that the medical and
public health professionals off, offer to us. And
combined between these, and
we'll be safe.
And those
who it might be decreed that they move
on and this is the,
immediate cause they're moving on that
Rest assured that
and continue to to pray for good and
to be part of, as doctor
mentioned,
a wonderful
communal
response. I think the community has responded very
maturely
to this situation.
So, Mela,
all of you, all of our scholars, all
of our teachers,
all
organizers,
institutions,
may they all continue to play a role
in a very,
horrible, the very
Muslim community.
Thank you to Imam Zayed Shakir and,
for your insights, for your wisdom. Imam Zaid
has been my teacher for a long time
and someone that I love dearly.
Imam Zayed Shekhar.
Before we move on to the q and
a session,
I want to mention 2 last sponsors. Actually,
one last sponsor.
That is Fuweki Institute.
And as you know, we don't even know
how long many of us are going to
be spending more time at home,
not able to travel,
not able to go to work, some of
us,
not able to go to public events or
crowded events,
and for many of us maybe maybe even
not even going to Jummah prayer.
There is a beautiful opportunity here while we're
home to learn Arabic, and Fuwaqah Institute
is an online institute that that allows you
to learn Qur'anic
Arabic.
They have
semesters where you can learn Quranic Arabic with
live teachers, live instruction.
Their next
course begins in June,
and they actually have a special deal going
on right now. We're also gonna send you
an email about this, but you may want
to
note down the link there at the bottom.
Because if you register
before the end of this week for their
next
semester,
you would actually get a $200 discount.
This is a weekly class that takes place
with qualified
teachers.
You can see here,
some of the testimonials from students that have
taken their online Arabic classes, including
Dalia Mogahed
there. So, I highly highly I I have
actually attended their online sessions as well. The
the teachers are amazing.
The instruction is amazing, and you can come
away even after learning level 1 Arabic.
When you hear the Quran being recited, you
can start to grasp
many of the words and the meanings
of what you're hearing
just after finishing
level 1 of their Arabic,
their Arabic level. So we wanna encourage everyone
to sign up. Here is a,
the coupon code is c mercy for celebrate
mercy. C mercy. 15
15 people will get a
a $200
discount if they use that code and sign
up for their next semester of Arabic. And
this is the slide I was looking for
earlier about Zakat Foundation. I've already,
talked about what who Zakat Foundation is, but
we're grateful to them also
as sponsors of this webinar.
So we are now going to go to
our question and answer session.
We have all of our speakers here for
q and a except,
Imam Omar Suleiman. He actually texted me that
he had an urgent call with the Dallas
Dallas, Texas County or the Dallas County
government,
regarding the the pandemic, and he is very
civically engaged, masha'Allah, in the in the Dallas
community. So he had to drop off for
an urgent call with
Dallas County. But we have all of our
other teachers here for q and a. And,
one of our team members, our operations manager,
Hasna
Alruzul,
will be
asking the questions that she has received through
the webinar. So I'm gonna hand it off
to Hasna, and,
I guess we're gonna need to turn on
all of the webcams
and the microphones
for our panelists.
And, Hasna, you can take over.
I think we're going to be doing this
for about 20 minutes,
20 minutes of q and a,
before we close, and and We'll copy
Great.
Yeah. I will be, turning on the mic
for all of our speakers who are still
with us.
So,
and then I'm going to ask the questions
1 by 1, and,
please feel free to, chime in or, take
a question
and, reply.
So our first question is gonna be more
for our doctors.
What are some suggestions to enhance one's immunity
in this case?
These are a lot of pistachios.
So I'll I'll just jump in.
You know, the immune system generally is a
function of your overall health. If you exercise
and eat well, make sure that you're fortifying
your body with,
with micronutrients
that,
that it can leverage to to empower your
your immune system.
That said,
this is a novel
virus that humanity has not before as far
as we know.
And if that's the case, because humanity has
not seen it,
we're in a situation where,
your your immune system just has not does
not know how to handle it, and that's
why it's causing the kind of illness that
it's causing is that, humanity is somewhat so
it's spreading like wildfire between us, and, people
haven't haven't haven't become immune yet. There's also,
right now, it's unclear whether or not having
had the
virus infection, you become fully immune. That's usually
the case with viral infections where,
you become immune to a new virus after
you you get it, but that's not the
case with all viruses. And we're not sure,
if that's the case with this one.
And so the most important thing, again, that
people can do is protect themselves from exposure,
and they can protect other people who are
more vulnerable as well from that same exposure.
But,
again, also in, younger people,
it's it's less likely to cause a very
serious infection,
though it's far more likely to in in
older folks. But, again, part of the work
of public health,
isn't just protecting yourself, it's protecting the whole
community through yourself.
And every time,
one of us does something that is irresponsible
and,
and and becomes infected, we then become a
nidus to infect everybody else. And so,
one sort of psychological trick that I think
is really helpful for folks is, you know,
pretend like you have it and that you
don't wanna spread it to anybody else. That's
how you should be behaving.
Not just that you're trying to protect yourself,
but it's thinking also about protecting everyone else,
from you spreading it.
For that, complete answer. The, second question will
be for our spiritual leaders.
The closing or keeping of the Masjid open
has become a hot topic.
What's the panelist's recommendation in a situation where
the community is split into 2 opposing views?
Should the board of directors enforce its view
as the authority body of the masjid?
Doctor Madsen or?
Yeah. I'll I'll take that,
and and give my my answer. In general,
I mean, this is a this is a
the fact that,
this is happening highlights
one of the
chronic structural problems in our communities that,
you know, maybe having gone through this, maybe
we can go back and solve it. It
it shows how if you have
if you have,
dysfunctions in the system before a crisis happens,
it will only get worse.
And we and so what I wanna point
to is there's a difference between
knowledge,
and knowledge can about an issue and about
what's permissible
can
can yield conflicting opinions. So we know that
there can be in Islam about different opinions.
So knowledge is one thing, authority is something
else,
executive authority.
So every community also needs that executive authority.
So in the absence of, you know, in
our
communities, which are voluntary
voluntary communities
in Canada and the US and the UK,
we have to construct our own executive authority
because there's not a government,
or a sultan or imam or someone who
can who can enforce
a public policy.
So and and throughout Islamic history, ever since
the settling,
the prophet
Muhammad settled in Medina,
we have not been,
without
you know, all different kinds of communities have
never been without that executive authority,
who was able to enforce opinions,
a particular
position for the public good,
no matter how many opinions there were in
community.
So we need to be able to have
that in our communities. We need to have
we need to have an executive authority,
made of,
whatever that executive authority is, whether it's the
board of directors or whatever it is, but
they really need to understand
their fiduciary responsibility
to,
care for the community, to protect the community,
and to put in place,
regulations,
that everyone will follow. So it is their
responsibility. It's not only their,
what you could say, like,
right or something like that, but it is
a responsibility.
And,
they,
if they're unable to do that, then, you
know, unfortunately, there is some dysfunction. There will
be always
pushy people who will not accept the decision,
but nevertheless, you have to go ahead and
do the responsible thing.
I'd like to say something briefly on that.
I think we we need to educate our
communities
on some basic principles. I think, doctor Matson,
earlier, you were speaking,
very appropriately about principles. One of the fundamental
principles
is our of our religion is that the
religion
exists at a very basic level to do
2 things, to secure benefit and to ward
off harm.
The warding off of harm is given precedence
over the securing of benefit. So the people
want the Masjid open. They want to get
the benefit of praying in jama'ah, the enhanced
reward of that, and perhaps other benefits.
And the people are encouraging the Masjids to
be closed, are warding off harm. And so
the the the argument to ward off harm
has a priority
in this case, especially as, I think doctor,
alluded to, there's no immunity from this disease.
Everyone could potentially get it. And the mortality
rate, we need more testing,
to really determine what it might be. But
all of the experts are saying it's upwards
to 10 times more lethal
than the common flu, which kills tens of
thousands of people in this country every year.
So I think we have to really emphasize
this basic principle, warding off
harm has priority over securing
benefit. And so whatever benefit that might accrue
to us
from praying in congregation,
the potential harm is far more severe. And
we reference the hadith of,
ibn Abbas. He told them to to,
announce to the people, pray in your houses
because of a severe rainstorm. And you didn't
even want them to walk through the mud
and the manure,
in the olden days that was in the
the pathways.
So
the this is far more,
dangerous and far more potentially
devastating than people getting mud and manure on
their bodies and clothing. And so it's even
more fitting that people
stay home during this couple week period that's
being recommended
or even longer possible.
And,
would you have another question,
that's, health related?
What advice would you have for those who
work in the health care field and are
on the front lines?
I mean, I could take that one.
You know, just
being safe, handwashing,
your hospital or your,
your public health department or your infection control
people should be giving you advice about how
to handle this. So if you're at a
hospital,
and depending on what city you're at you're
at,
like in Chicago, for example,
in the last 24 hours, we've had 30
new cases, so we went from 60 to
90. And so at this point, we're just
assuming anybody with a respiratory illness that comes
into the hospital is infected with COVID 19,
and we're,
wearing masks and face shields and and gloves
and gowns for those people. So,
so if you're at an outpatient facility, it's
it's kind of hard to say. It,
There has been, unfortunately,
a lack of leadership from the national level
on,
on expecting this illness to come to the
United States. So a lot of, health care
workers in the in in, private settings are
having a lot of difficulty in what what
they're supposed to be doing. But I think
if you're in a city where there's community
transmission, which is probably many cities now, you
need to just assume that anyone that's coming
into your office with fever and respiratory
symptoms
is probably infected and and,
take the proper precautions by wearing the, protective,
equipment that's necessary.
Alright. Thank you. Thank you very much. We're
going to show just a couple of tweets
from from people who, have tweeted,
for this, webinar.
And, we encourage
everybody to do so as well and use
the hashtag
corona cn.
So I'm gonna share it right now.
So this is from Amira Al Gabawi,
Celebrate Mercy. I really appreciate this informative session
on COVID 19 response.
Key takeaway,
our communities must do all they can to
support the global response
to flattening the curve and supporting low income
families who will be most impacted by the
quarantine.
The second one, trust from.
Trust in God, but tie your camel. Doctor
Abdul Sayed explains that tying our camel right
now is practicing social distancing,
disinfecting services, and washing hands frequently
and thoroughly.
Webinar. Thank you very much, to both of
you for, tweet tweeting, and then we'll show
a couple of more later on.
And now to, another question for our spiritual
leaders.
And this,
is there any possibility of scholars recommending Muslims
to not fast during Ramadan? Would the logic
be needing to drink lots of fluids to
boost immune and minimize chances of getting the
virus?
Doctor Ingrid? I
defer to doctor.
Well, I I this question is based on
the assumption that,
that drinking lots of fluids will boost your
immunity. I mean,
so that's a that's a,
I would defer to a health professional
on that.
Doctor Noor?
I mean certainly when you when you get
a virus,
drinking lots of fluids and sleeping more, will
help your body, fight it off.
But I don't know if if preventatively
drinking lots of fluids is going to prevent
you from getting the virus.
So so the the methods we know that's
gonna prevent you from getting the virus is
washing your hands
frequently, sanitizing,
being aware of when you touch your your
your face because those are the portals of
entry, your eyes, your nose, your mouth,
and,
keeping your distance from people who are actively
coughing and sneezing.
So those are the ways we know that
you're going to, try to protect yourself,
but I don't think necessarily drinking more is
going to protect you unless you're actually you
actually
become infected and have active symptoms,
in which case,
I would recommend as a health care professional
that you you break your fast, you drink
more fluids,
you sleep longer,
to help your body fight it off.
Thank you. The next question, it's a little
bit long but it's very helpful.
It is very difficult to get tested for
COVID 19 in the US right now. Many
have the symptoms but are unable to get
tested due to many barriers whether be it
cost or availability.
If people acquire what they suspect to be
a mild form of the virus and are
able to recover at home, when is it
safe for them to interact with others again?
How long will they remain able to infect
others? And how
so for health care workers, they're recommending the
quarantine to be 14 days. So 14 days
from when you get symptoms, when the when
you initially get stem symptoms, so staying home
for 14 days.
You know, there's potential that that you could
continue to shed the virus for longer than
that, but that's the average duration and so
that's what we're recommending,
at this time. So just once you get
symptoms to just stay home and quarantine yourself
from other people for 14 days.
The the only thing I I I wanna
add to that, and doctor Norris' point was
spot on,
is that there's an incubation period,
between when you may be exposed,
when you may feel symptoms, and,
the evidence suggests
that you may be shedding virus for,
before you even are are are are,
facing symptoms. And, you know, I'm just gonna
say again, this is why it's so critical
to protect yourself from being exposed in the
first place because,
the minute you're exposed and that virus,
hooks into the the cells in your lower
lungs, it's gonna start replicating. And even if
it hasn't hit the degree to which it's
giving you now symptoms and it's triggering immune
response, which is which is what you feel
when you feel sick,
your body it's still your body still becomes
an it is for it. And so,
the best defense is is to be protected
in the first place.
And,
and then the the other,
thing that that I will say too is
that there have been some cases that
have been quarantined from,
that one,
ocean liner that they, they quarantined,
where there was at least one individual
who had been through that 14 day period
who was still actively shedding virus. And so,
even what we think we know is based
on a very limited number of cases. And
so the biology of the virus itself is
just not that well defined.
And so, you know, the the best thing
to do is to prevent exposure in the
first place. And even after that, if you
think you're infected,
being able to get the test and come
to medical,
medical knowledge is really important because one of
the things that they can do is keep
testing you to make sure you're not shedding,
although we're limited for the number of tests
that we have. And that's a problem at
the at the federal leadership level.
Thank thank you to both. And staying in
that topic, doctor Usay, there was a question
specifically for you. How can we push our
local, state, national leaders to close schools, public
spaces, cancel
events, public gatherings,
increase availability of tests, and take other steps
that we need to keep the community safe?
Yeah.
Public officials dealing with an outbreak like this,
you have to remember, are just are just
being bombarded and overwhelmed.
The most important thing we can do is
listen. If they tell us to do something,
then we should do it. If they tell
us not to do something, we shouldn't do
it.
The the other part of this though is,
you don't have to wait for public officials
to tell you to socially distance,
and you can just decide that, you know
what,
I'm going,
to take, responsibility for the institutions that I'm
a part of, and make sure that folks
know how dangerous this is. You know, and
if I'm on the board of a masjid
or I'm on the board of a,
of a Muslim private school or I'm on
the board of the Saturday school,
then I'm going to push to make sure
that we are
complying with the spirit of the the recommendations
that our public officials are making.
The other thing I'll say is that, you
know, I
we we right now in in our country,
a bigger picture issue, and I'm I'm not
gonna talk about the politics of this, although,
most
I the the our we our response has
been too little too late. There is not
the availability of effective tests that, we should
have been able,
to deploy at scale. And so it's left
us in this scenario where everybody's trying to
make decisions,
on a dime. And so the worst thing
that you, you know, you face in the
middle of a public health emergency,
is,
inability to communicate
communicate effectively either up or down, and the
second is the lack of resources that you
need to be able to deploy.
And right now, our public officials, particularly at
the local and the state level, are facing
both of those challenges.
And so,
you know, the the the thing I'll say
is
take,
take the the spirit of of of the
precautions that we've been talking about all day
today,
and take them to your local institutions in
which you have power and you have influence.
And 2,
make sure that anything you hear from local
public officials, you're then broadcasting through your social
media networks and the people around you know,
what the recommendations are and how to follow
them. And then lastly, take the precautions. You
know, all of us are
are are in from our tradition,
as the prophet says that all of us
are are shepherds,
and everyone is responsible for their for their
herd,
and that may mean just your own family.
And so, being able to take precautions with
your family and and and make sure that
they both understand what to do and why
they're doing it, I think is really critical.
Thanks again. We're going to,
do 2 more questions,
at
in this session,
and I will I will ask both of
them at the same time.
We got a lot of questions regarding
parents, aging parents who are not
listening, who are not taking it very seriously.
And, part of the question is how do
we convince our parents to
take it more seriously that this is not
just a decree from Allah? Some of them
think if they
are going to to get sick they will
because it's a Hadar.
So how do we convince them otherwise?
And,
are there any resources in different languages like
Urdu or Arabic
for our parents, who are not very fluent
in English.
The second question is,
regarding
those who have died from this sickness
and they are Muslims.
How can we observe Janaza? How can they
how can we do the,
given all the
risks that they are still infectious
and the family is, quarantined as well?
I'll I'll ask
to endeavor to answer the first part. But
the second part, I think that that is
again, a medical
question,
because there are a lot of technicalities
in terms of handling,
the body of an infected person. But my
89 year old mother-in-law lives with us, and
believe me, she's taking it very, very seriously.
So, I think
that there might be some elderly folks out
there who aren't, but my experience
is that most are taking this
very, very seriously, and they realize the potential
danger,
that's out there.
Those who aren't, I would just remind we
continue
to remind
people,
as gently
and as respectfully
as possible of the urgency
and to make sure
that we're doing everything in our power to
minimize,
their exposure
to anything,
that might,
jeopardize their health.
I I can take the part of I'd
like to answer.
Got it. Go ahead, Ingrid.
Okay.
I was
going to say,
about the elderly
people, and I've seen the questions.
I'm not a psychologist
or psychiatrist, doctor Aronia could probably give more
nuance about this, but I do,
engage in pastoral care. And one of the
things that we teach in pastoral care and
chaplaincy
is that often,
what people
sort of the the,
explanations that people give
are often just,
sort of the superficial,
presentation
of what, of something else much deeper that's
going on. So if you spoke to those
elderly people and said, okay. Well, if you
think it's just about Tuwakim,
you know, should I would you think if
I just send my grandkids out to go
play with people who have coronavirus?
And you're gonna see them saying, you know,
don't do that. Right? So
so then you're going to realize that it's
not really about
that they don't believe it's it's
contagious
or or that you shouldn't take precautions,
but there's something else behind it. And I
think that for many, it has so much
to do with loneliness.
And, you know,
maybe,
you know, this is one thing we can
learn as those of us
to
are able
able
body
and
normally able to go out in
society every day
to the point where, I mean, we're or
any many other people in our community,
young people even who are
homebound, but also many older people
who don't have much social contact. And for
them,
Jummah or going to the masjid a couple
times a day is the only time that
they interact with other people, the only time
that that someone talks to them where they
feel they have a sense of purpose.
So I think we really need to dig
a little deeper
into these explanations and realize that all of
us,
have been negligent
in
in taking care of our communal obligation of
our
to visit the sick, to be present, to
have
for those who are elderly in our community,
who are lonely. We know that before this
pandemic
that,
we were told that we have an epidemic
of loneliness in our society.
So,
so I think many people are so afraid
of having that last opportunity
for engaging with others,
being cut off. And so we need to
address that issue
and find ways to be present,
for other people,
especially for those who are,
normally
in normal times cut off and isolated.
Thank you, doctor Matson. I'm just gonna add
another couple of things here.
And I couldn't agree more. I think so
much of what you're saying is so right
and that there is definitely an underlying underlying,
anxiety, particularly by those who are most impacted,
which of course our elders,
are feeling the brunt of this the most.
And so I really do encourage kind of
getting,
very,
trying to get to the bottom of what
it is that's causing that kind of pain
in them. And sometimes it is the fear
of death which all of us carry and
sometimes it's it's the loneliness and sometimes it's
also, the worry that nobody will actually check
up on them. And so in the the
5 items I had said before, number 4
was take action and be creative about it
and also being careful not to, you know,
infect our elders.
So we were giving recommendations, for example, grandparents
and elders,
of actually not visiting, especially with younger children
or people who may have been, carrying,
the virus, though seemingly healthy. And so we
were encouraging things like FaceTiming. And even if
these are not biological,
biologically related,
grandparents
or elders,
to still kind of form
a, you know, FaceTiming or kind of like
through video conferencing, video messaging,
so that they're actually connected. And it would
be so creative to be able to, do
that for all the different members of our
community. And that may actually help stem some
of the the feeling or need of wanting
to go out of that isolation knowing that
people are checking on them, people are getting
their groceries for them,
and, and and certainly kind of quelling that
anxiety as much as
possible.
We
We still have the question regarding Tecnema's
or someone who
had been sick.
How should it be handled?
I could,
talk to you about the the process. I
think
the body of the deceased should be handled
the same way that we medical professionals,
decide to interact with people that we are
just now assuming all are infected. So
that would be to have the people doing
the usul, be gowned, gloved, and, have a
face
mask and shield the eyes, during the usr
process.
I think,
one of the scholars should talk about, like,
the Janaza,
with the
being,
canceled or or postponed because of the proximity
of people,
you know, it it's gonna be a very
difficult,
thing because, you know, obviously, the the family
of the deceased,
they wanna be consoled and they need to
be consoled and and and not having
a prayer for their, loved one is probably
very difficult, but I think,
I don't know one either Imamzade or or
Ingrid, you guys could,
talk about, like, in
in this
circumstance.
I think the the best thing to kind
of touch all of the bases from the
religious and public health
angles would be to pray outside at the,
gravesite
with a tremendous amount of social distancing.
So maybe spacing the believers out,
and there's ample room in most cemeteries,
maybe
2 arms' length from each other.
And there's more virtue and more rows, so
that could be quite a long row, but
making 6, 7, 8 rows that are spaced
like that, I think that that will probably
meet most of the,
requirements.
You're outdoors
and you're spaced even more than the distance
that's recommended.
To all of our speakers for your input.
I will, pass the mic now to Tara
Khome Sadie, the founder and director of Celebrate
Mercy, for just a a quick minute before
Imam Zayed,
closes with a dua.
Thank you.
Thank you so much,
to all of our speakers.
We really appreciate having you all with us
for your insights and for your wisdom.
Doctor Abdul, I also wanna just congratulate you
as well because I know that you have
recently become a CNN
commentator.
I don't know if you'll be on tonight
after the debate, but, it's been great seeing
your, your perspective.
And your your podcast is is amazing as
well, America Dissected,
Insha'Allah.
We encourage everyone to check that out, America
Dissected podcast. So thank you to all our
speakers.
One thing I wanna mention at the very
end here, let me share this picture,
is
next
Saturday next Saturday night,
is the night of Isra al Mi'raj.
It is the night when the prophet
made his miraculous
journey
from
Mecca
to Jerusalem to Masjid Al Aqsa and then
into the heavens.
And,
we all know that story from the Sira,
but that is happening
next weekend on Saturday night, Insha'Allah.
It's a very blessed night,
and we wanna encourage everyone to take advantage
of the day and the night of Israa
Miraj.
I think we're all gonna be home anyways,
given the current situation.
But, Insha'Allah, we are actually planning
as well on Friday evening, the day before
or the night before,
we're planning,
a webinar on that topic, reminding our community
of the story
of the Isra and Mi'raj journey,
the the year of sadness that the Prophet
experienced,
Ta'if,
and the and the night of Isra'a Mi'raj.
So it's a day and a night when
we can do extra worship, extra du'a, extra
prayers,
and it's a night that we will
commemorate on Friday night with a specific webinar
about that story and the lessons from that
story. So be on the lookout. We will
be sharing some information about that. We've had
to readjust.
Celebrate Mercy's had to do a lot of
readjustment as a result of this pandemic as
well. We're gonna try to respond by putting
out more educational programs, more
webinars.
We're gonna have to shift around our whole
fundraising plan that we had for Ramadan where
we usually do traveling, iftar dinners.
But,
we'll we'll all get through this together as
a community.
One last thing I'll say is a reminder
about our survey.
Celebrate mercy.com/survey.celebratemercy.com/survey.
Let me share that
slide with you here.
Here we go.
Yes.
Celebrate mercy.com/survey.
This is where
you can let us know how how you
like the web the the webinar.
Give us your feedback.
You can also make a donation towards the
cost of the webinar, but please do take
that survey. We're gonna be posting the link
in the chat room.
Without any further delay, I wanna thank everyone
for joining, all of our teachers, and pass
it on to Imam Zayed Shaker for
a closing dua.
Can I request that doctor Rania mix the?
Absolutely.
So doctor Rania, please. We haven't heard much
from her in, thing.
So
Absolutely. We get the last word, Michelle.
But I think Ramzade, it would be so
much better if it was you,
We ask
you to shower your mercy down upon us.
In these days of difficulty and these days
of illness in these days of fear, in
these days of anxiety,
we ask you
to show your mercy upon to shower your
mercy, dawn, upon all of us, You kareem.
You Allah, please quell the anxiety that's in
our hearts and the fear that we are
carrying. You Rabbi, we ask you for,
full and complete,
full and complete cure for those who have
been afflicted.
We ask you,
to grant everybody who is affected,
recovery.
And those who have passed away, we ask
to increase them and to uplift them and
to grant them the highest levels of jannah
and to count them amongst the martyrs, You
kareem.
We
ask you in these times to keep our
feet steadfast on the straight track until the
last day. You Rabbi, in these days of
difficulty, we ask you You Rabbi to strengthen
our iman, our faith in you.
You Rabbi, to make it clear to us,
you Rabbi, that you, our boss,
you Karim,
just as you have brought this virus to
it to us, we ask you to bring
us through it,
We ask you that just as we can
this virus is a small, little unseen thing
that we cannot, but we feel its sheer
effect. We ask
to
take the and difficulty away from all of
us across the world, the ummah, and all
of humanity.
You Rabbi, we ask you to turn inward
in these times to really think and contemplate
as to why we are here. You Rabbi,
this tribulation you have sent to us may
be a punishment and we ask you, you
Rabbi, to alleviate us from it. We do
not know and only you know, You Karim.
Rabbi, we ask you that this tribulation that
has affected all of us across the world,
You Rabbi, that you and only you have
the power to lift it up,
so lift it from us, We
ask you in these days that we are
close, we are in the month of Raja
b'akarim. You Rabbi help us get to Shaaban
and then to
Ramadan.
And You Rabbi, let those days be for
us the day
days of forgiveness
and days of mercy
and days of connecting to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam and days of connecting to
the Quran that we have neglected and our
prayers that we have neglected. You rabbi, let
that Quran and our prayers be a source
of fortification
for us.
You Rabbi, we ask you in these days
in which we are worried about connecting with
our family members, and you Rabbi, them being
in close proximity with us in all hours
of the day and night and that's causing
us anxiety, we ask that actually those hours
and those days become healing and blessing for
us,
That the disconnected that disconnection
that we've had with our families and the
dysfunction that we have been feeling, let these
days actually be a healing for that,
You rabbi, we ask you to connect us
to your Quran and to connect us to
your sunnah and to connect us to the
divine wisdom, yakareem, that you hold, that you've
taught the prophet Muhammad
and by which you have taught us through
the Sunnah. Let us uphold that and fulfill
that
yaqareem. Increase our heart with loves with love
of you and with love of the prophet
Muhammad
You
Rabbi, make us beloved to you and beloved
to him.
You Rabbi, let us be people who are
actionable,
who do upon what they have they have
learned. You Rabbi, do not let us be
from the hypocrites that learn but do not
obey. You Rabbi, let us implement all that
we have learned and increase us in knowledge
and increase us in goodness and increase us
in barakah.
You Rabbi increases in the kind of blessing,
You Rabbi Al Amin, that allows us to
get through difficulties
like this at a communal level.
Help us fulfill our obligations, the fara'id,
for ourselves, but also the communal obligations,
the helping all of our neighbors and all
of our sisters and brothers in faith and
all of humanity.
You Rabbi, let us lift our hands and
and pray for those who are vulnerable and
those who are oppressed and those who are
afflicted by disease and those who are afflicted
by poverty and by war and by oppression.
You, Rabbi, let us be a reason why
they are actually able to get help by
our duas and by our donations and charity
and sadaqa and zakya. And you Rabbi, by
by our charity of our time
and of our knowledge and our energy and
our effort,
You Rabbi, we ask you to be from
those, You Rabbi, who are that help spread
the knowledge of Islam and the good practices
within it, You Rabbi, to all of humanity
around us. You Rabbi, let us be good
examples and never a reason why people,
shun away from this deen, You
Rabbi, we ask you on that last day
that we are identified
clearly from the ummah of Muhammad
by the nur,
the
do
in our prayers. Let that that let let
demarcation
on our faces and limbs
be a reason why our shaded on the
day when none other are shaded. And you
ought to be on that day when you
ask us the questions that you surely will
ask us, including this particular epidemic pandemic,
We ask that you are pleased and hope
that you are pleased with our answers, Yaqareem.
When we stand before you alone and none
is with us, we ask you
that you accept our answers and that we
are from people who go straight to Jannah
and have nothing to do with the hellfire.
Let us fly on
straight into Jannah along with our loved ones
and our family members and our parents and
our teachers. And uplift all of them and
grant us the highest levels of Jannah with
the prophet
Muhammad and the Anbia and the Shuhada.
And and you Rabbi, let us be from
those who you accept, and let us be,
You Rabbi, from those who die.
And let the last of our days be
the best of them, and the last of
our words be the kalima. And, You Rabbi,
we ask you for.
The best of endings, You Rabbi
Sisters and brothers, for acceptance of this dua,
please read with me.
To doctor Rania, to all of our teachers
and doctors who joined us.
Again, just a reminder to please take the
survey, and thank you to the Celebrate Mercy
team members,
Afifa and Samar,
Afifa Khawaja, Samar Melek, Supan Vahora, Hasna Aguazul.
Thank you to our team members who pulled
this off in within a 3 day period.
We hope that you'll join us Friday night
for the webinar on Isra and Mi'raj,
and, please keep us in your prayers as
well.
And we pray that Allah gets us through
these difficult times, Insha'Allah. Assalamu alaikum.