麻豆社

Covid-19 has had a profound impact on our lives. For me, the most challenging aspect of the lockdown has been the closure of mosques and conducting funerals without relatives and friends. For someone who has spent the last 15 years leading daily prayers and providing religious guidance to over 1,000 people every week, the feeling of loss has been immense.

But these difficult times have also brought opportunities. Although it is surreal sitting in the mosque all alone and live streaming, online sermons have given me the chance to connect with young men and women who may not otherwise have attended my mosque. As lockdown eases, I believe online services will have to form part of the offering provided by places of worship in the post-Covid-19 era.

Social media has also played a central role in connecting communities. It has mobilised young people to raise funds every week to help people in our city of Leeds. We have been dropping off food to NHS staff, essential items to the door-steps of those who are shielding and to the foodbank at a local church. Seeing Muslims queueing up outside supermarkets to buy food was made all the more powerful by the fact that they were themselves fasting for Ramadan. There is nothing more satisfying than the act of giving and sharing. Prophet Muhammad has said 鈥淪haring increases one鈥檚 wealth鈥�. A family who had turned off their fridge to save electricity because they had no food are now amongst my friends.

All faiths teach the principle of 鈥渓ove thy neighbour鈥� and in the Islamic tradition we consider forty houses to the right and forty houses to the left as our neighbours; one street being a neighbour to the other, one city being a neighbour to the next, and so on. This concept of 鈥渓ove thy neighbour鈥� was abundantly displayed when many of us actually got to know who lives on our street, and bonded with them over the weekly 鈥渃lap for carers鈥�.
Coronavirus has not only helped us to feel the presence of God in a much more personal and powerful way, it has also made us realise that we are all connected and vulnerable - and that shared vulnerability reveals our common humanity.

To defeat this virus, and build a more sustainable and equitable world, we need communities to stand together and robustly challenge those who wish to divide us or exploit the heightened uncertainty created by the ongoing pandemic. We have gone through this global crisis together, and I am confident that we can emerge from it with a renewed sense of community that works for the good of all.

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