AMJA’s Position on COVID-19 Vaccines

allows officer mozzarella and he or savage Marian This is going to be a quick summary of amateurs recommendations as of the end of January 2021, on the COVID-19 vaccines. As some of you may know, Amgen is the assembly of Muslim jurists of America. They are a body of experts on Islamic law that serve to better inform the Muslims as to the Islamic positions on newly emerging events, contemporary issues that we as Muslim minorities in particular, are challenged by in non Muslim majority contexts. And so, the methodology of amateurs that it usually consults the experts whenever that is applicable, to better understand the context on the ground to best apply the Islamic

principles to those actual realities. And so with the COVID-19 vaccines, for example, they would be consulting the biologists, the immunologists, the pulmonologist, the lung doctors, the infectious disease specialists, the pharmacologists. And based on that, they issued this statement. At the beginning, they reminded in the preface as to where this discussion comes from, and the way in which they arrived at these recommendations, which were in a nutshell, encouraging and endorsing and validating the importance of availing ourselves these FDA approved vaccines. Pfizer and Madonna in particular at the moment, are the two that have been authorized. So these fundamental Maxim's in

Islamic law, first and foremost is the preservation of life. That is one of the higher objectives of the Sharia. The five major objectives of Islamic law are the preservation of religion, life, intellect, wealth, and honor or family,

or lineage. And so the preservation of life was given such importance. For example, in Islamic law that eating a carcass an animal that just died on the side of the road, for example, wasn't properly slaughtered, was allowed for the sake of preserving life when there was no alternatives, uttering a word of disbelief, was permitted in Islamic law, when a person's life was on the line. And that was the only way to save their lives, they are encouraged to do this, or permitted to do this. So that's the first principle. The second is availing oneself or loss concessions, many people may have misplaced guilt, about, you know, taking the cop out, or the easier route. It is not just that our

love permits,

ease and concessions and hardship, we are told that Allah loves it when his servant accepts the concessions, he extends to them. As a matter of fact, not just as a lot love it, meaning it is you know, a good thing and it is commendable at times, it is even mandatory, when not taking the concession can result in such great harm or cause the person to miss out on something even more mandatory or something so important. So willing loves concession, something Allah loves, and it can fluctuate between being, you know, recommended and between being mandatory. The third principle is the concept of ingredients and trivial amounts, are they consequential, and, you know, these are all

principles that are universal in Islamic law agreed upon or nearly so, you know, a shares the letter Kamala, who you know, something that's just so rare, so insignificant in its amount, such as a substance use, you will not have much legal bearing will not have much of a consequence in terms of the laws so many times and when we're speaking about, you know, the the microscopic elements within vaccines.

This is very relevant.

The fourth is the importance of acting on greater likelihood, you know, our Dean validates the necessity to not paralyze ourselves in life to not stagnate until certainty arrives. So many times being absolutely certain is just unattainable in our world. So, in the absence of certainty, acting on what is most likely greater likelihood is the way that you engage reality that does not have certainty so many times right. The the cement concrete certainties are actually much less than we would like them to be. And that is part of the the exam of life, if you will.

And then the fifth principle very quickly is that whenever there's competing elements, right benefits and harms, you know, risks and gains, maximizing benefit and minimizing harm, not locking oneself in some idealistic thoughts, some utopian fantasy is the way to be pragmatic and beneficial to yourself, your well being and the world around you. So these were, in a nutshell, the five they prefaced the declaration with and then they spoke about some concerns people may have regarding where these vaccines come from the first of them was the discussion on these vaccines coming from a place of production from within fetal tissue. And first and foremost off the bat. This does not

Apply to the authorized vaccines today, right Pfizer and Madonna vaccines. This is not even a discussion. They were not produced

in anything, you know, related to fetal tissue. This may stand true for the AstraZeneca vaccine.

But once again, that is not available yet to enemy anyway Pfizer and Madonna are. The second point of information that has to be stated here is that it was not quite in fetal tissue. Yes, the vaccine that is in the pipeline was sourced from a fetus of an abortion decades ago in the 70s.

But it is not

produced in that really, it is produced in a cell line, which is a laboratory mechanism. It's a little bit different or

not exactly as what some may assume. And then we say, let us assume, just for the sake of it, that it was produced in fetal tissue, even if it were this would be permitted by most scholars, because, you know, most contemporary scholars, you know, and juristic assembly assemblies of Islamic law, they accept the notion that human organs and human cells can be used. Of course, they have regulators like we're not going to abort the pregnancy to use it. And you know, we're not going to use it against the will of the parents, and we're not going to use the organ of a person that would die, you know, and it would be upon his death that we can make use of his organ when there's a need

for it. But in principle, the majority of scholars accepted this. There's nothing wrong with this usage of human organ human cell, let alone when there is such a demand, warranting it.

The next point of contention is that it's produced in porcine tissue, right, coming from pork.

And so first of all, there's no confirmed reports about this. But we should still allow ourselves to learn make it a learning moment, and to benefit from the fact that even if it were, let's just talk about this in the hypothetical, let us say it was cultivated inside porcine cells.

That would be the usual way that it would happen if it were using porcine tissue. And so if that were the case, we need to realize that the cellular parts of the pork don't wind up in the vaccine, it is made within the porcine cell, usually within the sell of whatever, right, and then it is removed. And so we're talking about two factors here that really simplify things for us, that we're talking about trivial amounts, microscopic elements, and that have come in contact with pork, but they are not pork. And proximity, being close to something coming in contact with something impure and edges is very different than something that is actually nudges itself, that makes a big

difference, according to you know, so many of you know, mainstream Islamic scholars direct Georgia schools of Islamic law and interpretation. So that is the issue, it should really be easily excused in the mind of the jurists to understand these principles, considering, you know, the damage and the risk and the ongoing toll of this worldwide pandemic. So it's a trivial amount within proximity of majesta, and not even a gesture, and so it's not as problematic. As we may think, the second way porcine tissue may be used is that it actually is used now, right? Where like the pork cells, the porcine cells are directed through, you know, mRNA to produce proteins that look like viruses out of

this originally pork cell, so that the body thinks the virus and then it creates the antibodies for it and then the person gets the immunity, that is a possibility. Another hypothetical, and they said, if that unlikely occurrence, happens or likely occurrence happens irrespective in the case of necessity, and insufficient alternatives.

Scholars, the vast majority of them permit the use of impure not something in the proximity of the impure something impure.

for medical treatment, when there are no no alternatives, or no sufficient alternatives, and the only exception they make is wine, they the other impurities or substances that are considered nudges. They don't exempt them from the realm of usability in the cases of need.

And so that would be the way to understand why this wouldn't be problematic. In short loads on the last point that needs to be discussed here is the risk benefit ratio, but it's so risky to take the vaccine, we don't know that it's actually safe.

And upon consulting the experts, they said, you know, the Pfizer vaccine, for example, this does not have the company's approval. This has the Federal Drug Administration's approval,

which is an indicator

The body that is recognized and does not work in a vacuum like it does not work behind closed doors, right? It showed us how neither of them have had side effects. When they went through the trials. Pfizer, you know, had a trial with 40,000 people in it, 20,000 of them received the vaccine, and there was no serious side effects whatsoever. No red flags. And on top of that, you know, it is not like they short circuited, or prematurely said there's no side effects, or serious side effects. The period of usual side effects was awaited for both visor and Madonna. There was no cutting corners in that either. The fact that we can produce vaccines when the whole world is collaborating on it after

we've benefited so much from the past 15 years of trying to produce other vaccines is why the vaccine came about as fast as it did with the testing period for the approval was the same according to what information they received from the experts.

And also, it is important to mention that there are

legal frameworks in place to ensure that the data continues to come in. So it wasn't just you know, the 30 day wait period for serious side effects. To date, there's 25 to 30 million that have received the Pfizer or Madonna vaccines. And it is an ongoing observation that there are no serious side effects. But they're not that doesn't say there cannot be rare complications or that another vaccine

cannot have serious side effects. When we get to that bridge, we can cross it and you know, we're assuming that there would be one, and that it would get approved, which is not the case and a very far hypothetical at the moment.

And in general, considering the systems put in place.

And then we want to consider one side effects happen. What are the risks of non vaccination? Like think of the people that have died in the United States alone, coming close to half a million people now? The people that have gotten sick and long term effects of this What about you know the the financial devastation of so many people around the world economically, these have cost long term costs.

So are they less or more than the side effects based on that they arrived at the recommendation they are encouraging everyone to avail themselves. These vaccines that have been proven effective and proven safe. And our trust and reliance is on Allah subhanho wa Taala ultimately, who is the creator of every means we are simply reaching for the fruit that he placed in front of us. May Allah Subhana Allah, Allah grant us the height

of these modern medical interventions and protect us from every evil. May Allah subhanho wa Taala Have mercy on those that have succumbed to this virus and

accept them among the martyrs and expand to them their graves and illuminate their graves for them. May Allah raise their ranks and forgive their sins And may Allah cure all those that are sick and all those that have suffered and provide for and sustain and alleviate all those struggling financially and all of those struggling emotionally in grieving, elaborate this world of the pandemic and not make us the last and the least to benefit from it. And not for may protect us from falling back into heedlessness. After it we asked a lot of diligent who has shown us through this pandemic, his power to show us and allow us to experience and taste Now his mercy a lot I mean, is

like locally and everybody loves a lot of water kind of Vienna, Mohammed Allah and he was happy. He said I want to buy