Coronavirus Quarantine and Prophetic ﷺSayings

Coronavirus, Quarantine, Prophetic Sayings and Ibn Sina

Dr. Mozammel Haque

I have used these four words – Coronavirus (Covid-19), Quarantine, Prophetic Sayings and Ibn Sina – in the title because they are very much inter-related and well-connected. In the following paragraphs I would like to demonstrate how they are inter-related and well-connected.

Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Since Coronavirus first being recorded on 31 December in 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China, the Covid-19 coronavirus has spread around the world, irrespective of east and west, south and north of the glove;  and similarly irrespective of gender, colour, race and faith and it has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The virus, which causes the respiratory infection Covid-19, was first detected in the city of Wuhan, China on 31 December, 2019.

The Coronavirus Covid-19 is affecting 210 countries and territories around the world and 2 international conveyances. The list of countries and their continental regional classification is based on the United Nations Geoscheme, according to (worldometers.info)

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the outbreak a pandemic and it has spread to more than 190 countries around the world. (FT). The Coronovirus death toll exceeded the 200,000 threshold, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University – reported by Al-Jazeera on 25 April, 2020.

Europe became the focal point of coronavirus in early March when the disease spread rapidly across the continent. Italy soon became the country hard-hit by Covid-19 after China. (FT)

In the United Kingdom now more than 20,000  people have now died with coronavirus in the UK hospitals, the Department of Health has announced. The latest figures showed a total of 20,319 deaths in the UK, up by 813 on the previous day. At the Downing Street daily briefings: The Home Secretary Priti Patel said today, 25^th of April, 2020: “As the deaths caused by this terrible virus pass another tragic and terrible milestones, the entire nation is grieving.” (Reported by BBC 25 April 2020).

The invisible terrible virus has hit certain countries including Italy, Spain and the US, with particular cruelty. United Kingdom is the fifth country in the list of hardest hit.

Lockdown - Quarantine

Lockdown began from 25^th of March at midnight. And now extended till 3rd May.

*It's exactly 40 days from 25th March to 3rd may...*

I found the following information in the World Wide Web and I am going to share this with my readers:

“QUARANTINE The Latin root of the word "quarantine" is "forty". So what does the holy books say about 40?  The flood lasted 40 days. 40 years Moses fled Egypt. 40 days Moses stayed on Mount Sinai to receive the Commandments. Exodus lasted 40 years.  Jesus fasted for 40 days. Lent is 40 days. 40 days for a woman to rest after giving birth. A group of theologians thinks the number 40 represents "change”.  It is the time of preparing a person, or people, to make a fundamental change. Something will happen after these 40 days.”

“Remember we are in the year 2020, and 20 + 20 = 40,” he also mentioned this. 

Coronavirus*Hadith of Prophet Muhammad

(Peace be upon him) on **COVID-19*

It is well known and many members of different faith communities believe that God has created this universe and made mankind His Vicegerent on earth and other things of this earth are made subservient to the serve of the human beings. God has also given knowledge of this world to His Messengers. I found following Hadiths of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him in the World Wide Web on coronavirus. I am just sharing this information to my readers.

Coronavirus*Hadith of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ**COVID-19*

1) *QUARANTINE* is a Prophetic ﷺ advice.*

_“Run away from the leper (the one with contagious ailment) as you would run away from a lion.”_(Bukhari Volume 7, Book 71, Number 608)

2) *SOCIAL DISTANCING* is a Prophetic  ﷺ command.

_"Those with contagious diseases should be kept away from those who are healthy."_Bukhari (6771) and Muslim (2221)

3) *TRAVEL BAN* is a Prophetic ﷺ teaching.

_"Do not enter a land where the plague (contagious ailment) has broken out; don’t leave from where it has broken out”_Bukhaari (5739) and Muslim (2219)

4) *DON'T HARM OTHERS*, if you have symptoms.

_The Prophet ﷺ said: “Do not cause harm or return harm.”_Sunan Ibn Mājah (2340)

5) *STAYING HOME* is a Prophetic teaching

_“Those who stay at home to protect themselves and others are under the protection of Allah.”_Musnad Ahmed, Saheeh

6) If necessary, *HOUSE IS A MASJID*.

_The Prophet ﷺ said: “The entire earth has been made a Masjid, except graveyards and washrooms.”_Tirmidhi (al-Salaah, 291)

7) *THERE'S CURE*; patience is the virtue

_The Prophet ﷺ said “There is no disease that Allah sent without sending for it a cure.“_Bukhari (Volume 7, Book 71, Number 582)

8) Let’s *TREAT; ALLAH WILL CURE*

_The Prophet ﷺ said: “Every disease has a cure. If a cure is applied to the disease, it is relieved by the permission of Allah.”_Muslim (2204)

9) *FACE MASKING* is  a Prophetic ﷺ teaching

_Prophet (ﷺ) while sneezing, would cover his face with his hand or with his garment,”_Abu Dawud; Tirmidhi (Book 43, Hadith 2969), Sahih

10) *WASH HANDS* every time you enter home.

_The Prophet ﷺ said: “Cleanliness is half of faith.”_Muslim (223)

11) *HOME QUARANTINE* is a Prophetic advice

_“The plague (contagion) patient who remains in his home with patience and expectation of reward, knowing that nothing will befall him other than Allah’s decree will attain the reward or a martyr“_Musnad Aḥmad, Sahih also Bukhaari (2829) and Muslim (1914)

Quarantine – Ibn Sina

The origin of this word was from Ibn Sina (Avicenne) and mentioned in his book when he explained that when there is an epidemic a 40 days isolation is necessary to overcome that virus... this number in French is quarante and in Italian almost the same and the word quarantine the venetians made it out when there was an epidemic.... because Venice was the part of contemporary Italy in contact with almost all the world because of its trade with the East.

It was the Persian scholar of medicine, Ibn Sina (980-1037) who first came up with the idea of quarantine to prevent spread of diseases. He suspected that some diseases were spread by microorganisms; to prevent human-to-human contamination, he came up with the method of isolating people for 40 days. He called this method al-Arbaiiniya (“the forty”) Traders from Venice heard of his successful method and took this knowledge back to contemporary Italy. They called it “quarantena” (“the Forty” in Italian). This is where the word “quarantine” comes from.

Hence the origin of the methods currently being used in much of the world to fight pandemics have their origins in the Islamic world during the Golden Age of Islamic civilizations. Allah says in the Qur’an: “Who saves one human life, it is as if he has saved all mankind.” (5:32).

Even today Ibn Sina’s method saves thousands, perhaps millions of lives, Mashallah. That is another legacy filled with barakah.

But who is Ibn Sina?

“Ibn Sina’s full name  was Abu Ali Al-Hussein Ibn Abdullah Ibn Sina. In the West he is also known as Avicenna. He was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age, and the father of early modern medicine.

“Ibn Sina’s gigantic medical encyclopedia al-Qanun fi al Tibb (The Canon of Medicine), comprising of upwards of a million words, has been used as the standard medical textbook up until the seventeenth century and is still widely considered a valuable resource for the study of medicine.” (original posted by Bastiaan W and also by Reyyaz Salley)

Most of all, he was a Hafizul Qur’an. During the Golden Age of Islamic civilization, most of the scholars were trained and basic grounding on Qur’an and Hadiths from which they derived all their inspiration and knowledge.