QUESTION: Imam Earl Abdulmalik Mohammed, I have read your recent commentary and have benefited greatly. I have benefited from all of your commentary. Many are benefitting. My question is what would you say we need to be most aware of in this time of uncertainty for society due to the spread of this pestilence?
IMAM EARL ABDULMALIK MOHAMMED: Strengthening the social bonds. This is what Allah wants us to understand and appreciate the importance of -the social bonds of human community. He wants us to appreciate the reality of our common life no matter where we are on this earth. That we are one humanity, and that we are, society is, dependent on each other's conscious choices and behavior.
We cannot act insolently toward another individual without repercussions. It extends from one person to whole nations, and now to affect the global condition of man in one moment in time. It has been brought to the awareness of the powerful and the powerless that man has been created from a single, core, common existence and his salvation, if not his survival, depends on that recognition. How small and weak and helpless the mighty and prideful appear now.
The counsel of governments that the society should practice 'social distancing' is a call to respect and strengthen the common social bonds -stay within your home and family's center and respect the sanctity of that center. There is no other salvation except this sensitivity which will in time focus our best minds and lead to a cure for this virus. The Corona -that which proceeds from the Crowns of arrogant Kings in the earth and their attitudes toward the worth of the common human life. I am not speaking of persons. I am speaking of dispositions.
I do not want to give you a long, complex answer. I do not want to disrespect the seriousness of the moment. I want to honor the health care workers who are on the front lines of defense and care in every nation on this earth. I thank Allah for them. Real hardships and permanent, society-altering changes are occurring in these very moments.
I do not think so highly of my own worth and opinion in relation to another human being's life and responsibilities, that I want to take too much time for someone to read this and take away time from something more meaningful for themselves or their families. I want to get to the point out of respect for and devotion to what Allah wants us to ponder.
If you could see me now, or if I were before you physically and others who will read this, you would see me in sajdah -humble recognition that Allah has no need of man, and recognition that man's social intelligence as devotion to Allah is the answer. He says "O man, it is you that have need of Allah. That He is al-Ghani (free of all needs)... and that He can remove man's existence and replace him with a new creation, and that it is easy for Him..."
He says that there will be the day when "a man will run from his brother, and his mother and his father, and his wife and his children." That he and the others will be so occupied with their own importance and pressing needs they will not have the conscious awareness or concern for the closest ones to them.
And He says, that He has "created man from water, and then He made for man blood-relations and ties of marriage..."
What is it that is common and permanent as a sacred commitment for human beings no matter their culture or language or color or ethnicity, or class or station? What did the Founders of this society hold in sacred regard that made it the envy of the nations? What are we honoring as Muslims, paying recognition to, when we all turn in the direction of the Sacred Mosque? It is that which secures our existence, right?
When we turn in the direction of the Sacred Mosque, together, at stated times -before the dawning of sunlight, sun high and bright, sunlight waning, or at darkness -no light at all not even the moonlight, we are acknowledging man's social origin and social destiny. So, it is this purity of consciousness that secures our human existence in this time of trouble and crisis. It is dependence on our best hearts and best minds in the human family.
The best hearts and minds in the history of human society have been those who focused the sanctity of human relationships, and identified the G'd That made those relationships and honored man as worthy of man's obedience. At this moment the messaging coming from centers of human arrogance is empty. Its message falls flat and serves no purpose. We look now to the centers of social care and concern -those who have taken oaths to preserve human life above their loyalties to boundaries.
With as much attention that this government has given recently to boundaries and borders, it is very likely that it will soon release detainees -thousands of them. Why? Because the social urge from which G'd created man is superior and stronger as an urge for correction in a time of crisis than national loyalties. Mankind recognizes that our commitment to one another, our love for the collective human cultural existence is far more important than the boundaries that nations compel us to recognize. It is this sensitivity, this pure water, that saves a national population.
In this understanding is a very special purity -like the purity of uncorrupted water. With this purity is a clear pool of reference that leads the conscious to a high regard for human ties, lineage, and care of families. All humans have this in common. All human communities depend upon this basis for social health, cultural health, economic health, and every expression of social stability.
The preservation of respect for man's basic social instincts or social urge in its original purity is what must be attended to. This is the 'new creation.' A new disposition in the global, social spirit of man. This is the great healing. Allah says that there will be those whose faces are bright in the time of crisis. Who are they? The ones who have this commitment and understanding, and act upon it.
We ask Allah, the Merciful Benefactor, the Merciful Redeemer, That is the Healer of Hearts and Minds and That has sent down the Healing and the Mercy, to inspire and summon our best hearts and best minds to the correct posture and most beneficial disposition in this time of difficulty.