Avoiding Harm: A Muslim Response to COVID-19

By A. Rashied Omar and R. Scott Appleby

Research scholars have lamented the fact that most of the extant studies on religious responses to the COVID-19 pandemic focus on a particular religious group, typically Christian. This book fills this lacuna by providing some useful insights into how one Muslim religious institution responded to the pandemic. It portrays the sermons, advice, and guidance provided to the Claremont Main Road Mosque (CMRM) congregation in Cape Town, South Africa, by its Imams and elected board of governors during the course of the pandemic. The book carries a concluding chapter by Professor R. Scott Appleby, an expert in the study of lived religion, who critically reflects on this collection of sermons and the response of the mosque by providing some independent ruminations on the themes of religion, science, and the human person.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Oct 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9781666774818

A. Rashied Omar

A. Rashied Omar is associate teaching professor of Islamic studies and peacebuilding in the Keough School’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Book preview

Avoiding Harm

A Muslim Response to COVID-19

A. Rashied Omar

Conclusion by R. Scott Appleby

Avoiding Harm

A Muslim Response to COVID-

19

Copyright ©

2023

A. Rashied Omar. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

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paperback isbn: 978-1-6667-7479-5

hardcover isbn: 978-1-6667-7480-1

ebook isbn: 978-1-6667-7481-8

06/21/23

Table of Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1: Responding Compassionately to the Coronavirus

Chapter 2: The Preservation of Life and Temporary Closure of the Mosque

Chapter 3: Taking COVID-19 Vaccine Is an Act of Charity

Chapter 4: Transforming Our Homes into Sanctuaries of Prayer and Solace

Chapter 5: Physically Distant but Spiritually Connected

Chapter 6: Family Resilience in the Midst of the Pandemic

Chapter 7: Seeking Solace in Ritual Prayer and Supplication

Chapter 8: Nurturing Spiritual Fortitude through Fasting

Chapter 9: Death and Bereavement

Chapter 10: Spread Good News, Not Fake News

Chapter 11: Ḥajj

Chapter 12: The Pandemic and the Prospect for Renewing the Spirit and Etiquette of the Friday Congregational Jumu`ah Service77

Chapter 13: Imagining a More Compassionate Post-COVID-19 World

Chapter 14: Timeless Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Conclusion

Claremont Main Road Mosque’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Appendix

Abbreviations and Translation of Arabic Words, Names and Phrases

Bibliography

This book exemplifies how the COVID-19 pandemic brought out the best in leadership, community, and humanity. A. Rashied Omar in these riveting and thoughtful sermons demonstrates how spirituality, theology, and ethics form the backbone of a flourishing community under challenging conditions. Here the guidance of science and innovative theology can sustain community both virtually and actually. It is a model worthy of attention and reflection and therefore a must-read.

—Ebrahim Moosa, professor of Islamic thought and Muslim societies, University of Notre Dame

A. Rashied Omar has written a thoughtful and engaging book on the impact of COVID-19 on the Muslim community which will be of interest to people of all faiths. His analysis of the shift to virtual and home-based worship illustrates creative ways a Muslim religious community adapted its customs, rituals, and practices to fit a new virtual reality amidst social distancing guidelines. Omar goes beyond common categories of religion and showcases the Muslim way of life, indeed all religious life, amidst COVID-19.

—Ed Kessler, founder president, Woolf Institute

A significant contribution to our understanding of how an Islamic community interpreted its sacred sources to respond compassionately to the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. A. Rashied Omar’s exegesis of Islamic sources is learned and scholarly but also inspired by a deep faith, love, and commitment to the well-being of others. I hope his work inspires similar documentation by other world religions.

—Anantanand Rambachan, professor emeritus of religion, Saint Olaf College

"Avoiding Harm fills a lacuna in our understanding of religious discourse amid calamity, providing a compassionate care perspective in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Imam Dr. A. Rashied Omar provides the reader concrete insights into how Muslims should respond to re-arranged circumstances occasioned by catastrophic events. This well-written and uncanny text holds many lessons for how religious people generally and Muslims in particular should respond to the changing circumstances confronting life on our planet."

—Aslam Fataar, research and development professor of higher education transformation, Stellenbosch University

There is deep intelligence, creativity, care, and wisdom that shine luminously through the sermons in this collection. Responding to formidable challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, A. Rashid Omar and the governing board at the Claremont Main Road Masjid reflect forms of contemporary Muslim religious leadership that are morally courageous, intellectually astute, and ethically honed.

—Sa’diyya Shaikh, associate professor of religion, University of Cape Towne

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere and deep gratitude to the following:

•The Claremont Main Road Masjid Board of Governors, my colleague, Imam Shaheed Gamieldien, and the congregants for their trust in my leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic—one of the most trying periods in the 170-year history of the institution.

•I am especially grateful to Jaamia Galant, for her meticulous editing of these pandemic khutbahs, her help in putting together the manuscript, and her advice with the book project as a whole.

•I sincerely thank Professor R. Scott Appleby, dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs, for writing the excellent conclusion to this book and for his longstanding mentorship and support.

•The University of Notre Dame, and specifically the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies for providing me with the opportunity and space during the spring semesters to teach and to do my research. I was also the recipient of a modest Kroc Institute research fund which helped to cover some of the editing costs for this publication.

•My colleagues, especially Professor Ebrahim Moosa, Professor Aslam Fataar, and Professor Norbert Koppensteiner for their friendship and encouragement during the crafting and putting together of this book.

•The Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion based at the University of Notre Dame for providing funding for the launch of this book.

•Last but not least, my wife, Leila, for her loving support and encouragement. Thank you for putting up with me.

•I dedicate this book in memory of my loving mother, Hajja Latiefa Omar, who sadly passed away on 17 February 2021, during the period that most of these pandemic sermons were crafted and many souls returned to their Lord. She was my most avid reader and advocate. May God pardon her, have mercy on her soul, and grant her repose in the hereafter.

Introduction

A Muslim Community Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The outbreak of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic in early 2020 challenged all of humanity to respond. The overwhelming majority of the world’s population embraced and followed the scientific evidence and recognized the statistical reality of the threat posed by the SARS-COV-2 virus to human life and well-being and took action to mitigate its negative consequences. Almost all of the world’s countries imposed lockdown regulations to flatten the curve of infections and save lives.¹ The legal measures taken by governments to mitigate the spread of the virus were, however, only as effective as its compliance by ordinary citizens and the support it received from civil society organizations. Chief among the latter was that of religious institutions.

A few research studies have already been published examining the relationship between religion and COVID-19 and many more are anticipated in the next few months and years.² A team of sociologists of religion, Baker, Marti, Braunstein, Whitehead and Yukich, have published an article in the journal Sociology of Religion with an intriguing title: Religion in the Age of Social Distancing: How COVID-19 Presents New Directions for Research.³ A number of conferences, webinars, and seminars on the question of how religious institutions and organizations have responded to the pandemic have been convened and many more will follow.⁴ At this early stage of the religion-COVID-19 research agenda, Taragin-Zeller and Kessler (2021) have lamented the fact that most of the existing studies focus on a particular religious group, typically Christian.⁵

It is our ardent hope that this book will fill this lacuna by providing some useful insights into how one Muslim religious institution responded. The book captures the response of one mosque community to the COVID-19 pandemic.⁶ It portrays the sermons, advice, and guidance provided to the Claremont Main Road Mosque (CMRM) congregation in Cape Town, South Africa, by its Imams and elected Board of Governors during the course of the pandemic.⁷

Not surprisingly, the responses from religious groups to the COVID-19 pandemic were disparate and diverse both across and within religious traditions. The case of Islam and Muslims is no different. Cognizant of this reality, this book does not in any way claim to be the Islamic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.⁸ It is one modest Muslim response based on an interpretation of the primary sources of Islam. It is the latter which we invite readers to be attentive to. The key thread that animates this book is to demonstrate how the primary and classical sources of Islam were resourcefully mined and interpreted in order to craft a credible and coherent Muslim response to the challenges and immense suffering and deaths wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. We invite readers to consider the extent to which these interpretations of the sources of Islam were authentic and appropriate to the formidable challenge presented by the pandemic.

The chapters of this book are comprised of sermons delivered by myself to the Claremont Main Road Mosque congregation in direct response to the pandemic from 2020 to 2022. Most of the sermons featured here were homilies delivered online via the mosque’s YouTube and Facebook platforms during the time that the mosque was temporarily closed. These sermons were broadcast at 1:00 p.m. on Fridays to coincide with the sacred hour of jumu`ah. The jumu`ah service is a weekly obligatory congregational service which takes place at midday on Friday and consists of two sermons followed by two units of ritual prayer (salah). The jumu`ah service has to be performed in congregation and substitutes for the Friday midday ritual prayer, technically known as the zuhr Salah. These online lectures accompanied by recitations from the Muslim sacred scripture, the Qur’an, which were broadcasted every Friday at midday, were technically dubbed as Friday nasihas to distinguish them from Khutbahs, the latter being sermons delivered in person to a group congregated inside of a mosque. While there is an Islamic legal difference between the two, beyond this technicality there is a common purpose between the khutbah and the nasiha namely that of exhorting and prompting the congregation to reflect on how well they, the servants of the Lord of Compassion (`ibad al-rahman), are responding to the many challenges or tests (ibtila) that confront them from day to day.

The sermon chapters are grouped into the following broad categories: initial responses to the unfolding pandemic (chapter 1); the preservation of life in a time of pandemic (chapters 2 and 3); transforming our homes into sanctuaries of worship (chapters 4, 5, and 6); coping strategies and spiritual resources (chapters 7, 8, and 9); societal challenges (chapter 10); and learning lessons and looking forward to a post-COVID world (chapters 11, 12, 13, and 14).

For the concluding chapter, we invited an expert in the study of lived religion, R. Scott Appleby, to critically reflect on this collection of sermons and the response of the mosque to the COVID-19 pandemic by providing some independent ruminations on the theme of religion, science, and the human person.

In order to elaborate the social context in which these sermons were delivered, the book also includes an appendix of advisory guidelines issued by the Claremont Main Road Mosque (CMRM) Board of Governors at various intervals during the pandemic. The appendix is prefaced by the afterword, which expounds the ways in which the CMRM Board and Imams cultivated new forms of religious community, ritual, and praxis in the midst of the pandemic.⁹ These CMRM advisory notices, together with the collection of sermons, provide a rich resource for evaluating the evidences, both scientific and religious, that informed this mosque’s response to the pandemic.

The introduction below seeks to place the aforementioned sermons in the broader context of the trajectory of COVID-19 from 2020 to 2022.

COVID-19: A Public Health Emergency

On 31 January 2020, one day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern, I delivered a sermon (i.e., khutbah) at a small mosque located within the South Bend Memorial Hospital in Indiana, United States of America(chapter 1). At this very early stage of the pandemic, I argued against the view peddled at the time by some Muslims that the coronavirus was a punishment for the Chinese government’s persecution of its Uighur Muslims. I advised that as Muslims we should respond to the pandemic through the lens of rahma or compassion. An electronic version of the written text of the sermon was published and widely disseminated to the CMRM congregation. The theme of compassion (i.e., rahma) continued to be one which permeated the subsequent sermons, advice, and guidance provided to the mosque congregants.

In early March 2020, the first case of SARS-CoV-2 was identified in South Africa, and on 15 March 2020 the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, proclaimed a national state of disaster to mitigate the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.¹⁰ In response, the CMRM Board decided to temporarily close the mosque with immediate effect from 16 March 2020.

In the ensuing twenty months (March 2020–October 2021) the mosque remained closed, notwithstanding the periods of lower death and infection rates in the country and the consequent lowering of government COVID restrictions to allow for congregational gatherings of fifty worshippers. During this challenging period of close to two years of closure the mosque had to find innovative ways to continue to serve the spiritual, pastoral, educational, social, and other needs of its congregation.

Creativity in Delivering Online Homilies in the Midst of the Pandemic

Amid all the confusion and uncertainties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the CMRM Imams and Board of Governors were compelled to quickly learn to adjust to a new normal. The weekly Friday Jumu`ah khutbahs which were delivered in person to the mosque congregation were replaced by online Friday nasihas which were broadcast live every Friday at 1:00 p.m. on the CMRM YouTube and Facebook platforms.

The renaming of the CMRM Friday sermon from khutbah to nasiha represented a significant nuance in the Muslim ethico-legal debate about the validity of performing the ritual prayers (salah) and jumu`ah congregational services while following an Imam virtually. The vast majority of Islamic scholars concur that the Friday congregational service and especially the ritual prayers known as the jumu`ah salah required physical presence and had to be performed in person in order to be valid. Moreover, in accordance with the traditional Shafi`i law school (madhhab) which predominates in Cape Town, a minimum quorum for the validity of a jumu`ah service is forty adult men. A small number of individual scholars, including the Californian-based Muslim legal expert, Dr. Khalid Abou El-Fadl and two renowned African Muslim scholars, the famous Moroccan scholar Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghumari (2001), and the Mauritanian scholar Shaykh Muhammad Hassan Walad al-Dedaw al-Shanqiti, in March 2020, permitted this for people living in the same time zones. In contradistinction, the popular Grand Mufti of Zimbabwe, Mufti Ismail ibn Musa Menk, and the popular American Muslim scholar, Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi, were some of the vocal scholars opposing virtual jumu`ahs and other online salahs—i.e., ritual congregational prayers. The latter in particular was concerned that opening the door for legitimating online jumu`ah prayers during the pandemic would give rise to it becoming a permanent feature of Muslim worship.

The issue of permitting a congregational prayer to be performed while following an Imam via radio or virtually through the internet is a contentious debate within the Muslim community. In this context, CMRM chose to call on its congregants to substitute the jumu`ah service they were missing due to the closure of the mosque with a gathering of the household during the sacred hour of jumu`ah and to listen to or watch the online nasiha, followed by praying the mid-afternoon prayers (zuhr salah) together as a family in congregation.

Since the Friday nasihas were mainly prerecorded videos prepared for live broadcast, CMRM was also able to invite a number of national and internationally based guest speakers who ordinarily would not have been available for in-person jumu`ah services. Hence, in addition to the nasihas featured in this book, a number of guest speakers were invited to deliver Friday nasihas and share their perspectives on the pandemic and other contemporary issues. Some of the guest speakers built on themes that appear in this collection of sermons, including coping strategies for death and bereavement during the pandemic and encouraging vaccines as the primary source of protection from severe disease.

Initial Responses to the Pandemic

The tone of especially the initial series of online nasihas were modified to provide solace, support and hope to people coming to terms with the uncertainty and unprecedented challenges the pandemic presented. On 13 March 2020, two days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared