By Artuk, TwoCircles.net
Be it Judaism, Christianity or Islam – “Call of repentance” has been proclaimed by all the Abrahamic faiths in view of COVID19. During the American Civil War on March 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer in the hope of pardon of national sins and restoration of divided and suffering country.
There is an old hymn “…Drifting too far from the shore, You’re drifting too far from the shore, Come to Jesus today, Let Him show you the way. You’re drifting too far from the shore…..” The present tribulation can be seen through eyes of trials or punishments besides being viewed through the prism refracting the light of guidance of all colors for human life. Joseph A. Legan of James Madison University Scholarly Commons in his thesis writes that in 19th century Southern Ghana, outbreak of small pox caused number of deaths and subsequently, spiritual cause was extended as reason to the group of angry souls buried nearby. It says a lot about how any community or nation interprets tribulations as per their own beliefs and suitability.
He continued in his thesis that the ‘Black Death’ pandemic of 14th century caused mortality rates as high as 75% while by 1353, the Plague had spread throughout most of Europe, Asia and North Africa. Physicians were reliant on medical techniques and theories that dated back to Aristotles, Hippocrates and Galen. Along with religious causes, medical causes such as theories of Humors and the spread of pestilential Miasmas were put forth to explain the Plague. Even though medicine in the Middle East was more advanced than European medicines – particularly in the area of surgery and anatomy – physicians in both the regions were unsuccessful in treating the Plague. Even though the Black Death served to promote medical innovations that laid the foundations of modern medicines, hysteria due to Plague resulted in the widespread persecution of Jews as well as extensive Flagellism throughout Germany; the plague alone killing between 30% to 50% of Europe’s population by occurring every eleven years.
By 1349, the whole Middle East was inflicted by Black Death and in Alexandria mortality rate was around 300 people per day and reached high as 7000 a day. It continually reoccurred in a cycle of nine years. As no Greek version of Galen’s texts was available in Europe, they relied on the Arabic translations. European physicians relied on famous Muslim Physicians Ibn Sina’s “The Canon of Medicines.” It was used throughout Europe and Middle East as a medical text book having a summary of all medical and pharmaceutical knowledge up to Ibn Sina’s time. Doctors utilized the services of a pharmacist who would prepare various herbs, minerals, pills and concoctions while they concentrated on healing procedures.
The Arabs placed great emphasis on anatomy while Catholic education in general emphasized on philosophy and was only mildly practical, leading physicians to rely on Greek and Arabic medical treatises. Most of the European Christians believed the origin of the Plague was from God, though some also said it was from Satan or the anti-Christ. They believed it was sent as punishment of sins. This belief was rooted in Bible as David had chosen Plague as punishment for its people for carrying out a divinely forbidden cause. The religious convictions, however, did not stop physicians from treating the sick, for even though God sent the Plague, he had also given man tools to treat it.
Even though Muslims generally believed the ultimate cause of the Plague was the will of God, the manner that God caused it to occur among men was the subject of many explanations. Christian crusaders were impressed by Arabic hospitals and they modeled a network of hospitals in Rome after Islamic hospitals in Cairo and Damascus. Muslims medicines were also far more advanced in terms of surgery and dissection than European medicines. Andalusian polymath Ibn Rushd said that “whosoever becomes fully familiar with human anatomy and physiology his faith in God will increase”.
Spanish Jews had a great reputation for medical learning and an intense intellectual reputation which made Jewish medicines seem so attractive. But the dark side of the Plague was not only that Jews were persecuted in Europe but Muslims, along with other foreigners were also accused of causing the Plague. The attacks on Jews began after an accusation that they were responsible for the Plague by poisoning a well. Human society, too often looks for a scapegoat in times of plagues, like in America certain sort of American Christianity are made culprit for spread of Covid19.
The bright side was rise of study of surgery, moderation of hospitals, public health laws, evolution of medical ethics and more, thus emphasizing ‘Never let a crisis go to waste.’
Religion addresses the Why, science addresses the How
Quran says “And certainly, We shall test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits, but give glad tidings to As-Saabiroon (the patient).” 14th Century Islamic scholars say that blessing comes with plagues and epidemics and it is important to see three blessings in every tribulation: One, it could be worse. Two, it’s in your worldly matters, and three, it’s in this life and not in the next life. This belief is has attached importance of ‘repentance’ as despite our conscious and unconscious endeavors, we do fall short of the best human beings we can become. Even best nations, even most virtuous are not perfect.
“Is it you are good and righteous because of all the blessings, so if the blessings are taken away, how we behave?” A huge bulk of Islamic traditions about tribulations is that it is for us to see who we are and to reveal ourselves during these times: an individual biological unit of life or assets for society.
Islamic scholar and poet Rumi had said, “This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all!”
The saying extends the belief that a believer has two positions: before and after the situation, when it comes to pre-determination. Before the situation he seeks help, makes ‘dua’, asks goodness and then relies upon Him. After the situation, if the result was good the person thanks Allāh. In event of negative outcome the person is patient because he knows that Allāh will never forsake him.
God will not be asked about what God does but it is we who shall be asked about how we responded to the circumstances.
Belief in God does not obviate the need for actions as Plague tests the flexibility of religion, traditions and our reactions. Are we inching towards him or in status quo? As said by Hamza Yusuf, “Mystics love nothing more than isolation”, emphasizing ‘Never let a crisis go to waste.’
Lessons for society as a whole
One of the purposes of suffering is that it engenders and activates the virtue of humility within us. Helen Keller said, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” As human beings are created in a state of anxiety, we may see the best and worst of humanity as the world is going through polarization because of political disagreement, religious belief, etc.
Covid-19 has taught us the importance of being generous towards each other, not only in terms of philanthropy. An old woman in Belgium who was in need of ventilator because of the virus infection declined it in order to keep it safe for someone younger. On the other hand we witness the act of hoarding of food and resources such that despite money, several are forced into starvation. But we also see love as C S Lewis teaches us that love is: an instrument of charity, vocation, a verb. An act of willing for the good of the other for the sake of the other. Islamic traditions say do good for the sake of God so that you will not expect reciprocal from the beneficiaries but God.
COVID-19 has exposed lot of economic division in society such as allocation of resources, privileged hoarding of goods, and more, exposing those who can afford primary health care, and those who cannot afford to stay home having no fixed flow of income. For the first time for many of us we have realized there are those who have to go out to make a minimum wages every day of their lives. This gives us a clearer picture of the deeply set economic hierarchies, racial hierarchies, gender hierarchies and more important, regional hierarchies.
Our economic models need to be inclined to maintain the dignity of individual being. Economy is for the people not that people are for the economy as was experimented by UK with the ‘herd immunity’ concept.
As explained by David Brooks, there are two set of virtues, Resume (CV) virtues and Eulogy virtues. The CV virtues are skills you bring to the market place and the eulogy virtues are talked about at your funeral whether you were kind, brave, compassionate, honest and faithful. At the end of our lives what matters is how we lived and to live a meaningful life is to question what we are emphasizing on. Is our education making us hungry for justice and love or leading us to the road of obsession with wealth, status and power?
Education should teach us to be willing to acknowledge when we are wrong. Our educational institutions have become industries for minting money under the cover of giving us career skills. Such a time as this throws us at crossroads with life values, emphasizing the need for teaching of virtues. What we are taught is to search what I want from life, start from self and end with self, rather than what life is asking of me. Regarding our shift from ‘oral tradition’ to ‘online tradition’ of education, our focus should be on Explorative learning, Problem solving, Connectedness and building moral vocabulary, hence reverberating ‘Never let a crisis go to waste.’
Obligation to the environment
We should be at the forefront of this global movement keeping in mind that the utilization of existing resources must be in a manner to fulfill our needs as well as sustain for the life to come. The concept of sustainable development can be seen as preservation of beauty of ‘The Creator.’
We can draw the link between verses from the Quran “….and eat and drink but not extravagant….”, “verily spendthrifts are brothers of the Evil Ones; and the Evil One is to his Lord ungrateful.” These verses also stress on the global concept of three R’s – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle for creating a sustainable life.
The closing of synagogues, churches, temples and mosques is a message I understood from ‘The Sovereign’, as: “It is not ‘I’ who needs you rather it is ‘you’ who is in need.” This is a call to wake up from our deep slumber, a stimulant. We have glorified enough of earlier centuries’ contributions to the world however we have none at our present time to offer.
“Take what is good, leave what is bad.”