REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesia nowdays experience the difficult condition handling the spread of coronavirus around countries. President Joko Widodo calls for people to move in their homes and stay away from the crowd. 

As a Muslim majority country, the value and view of Islam is very important for people here to address the current situation. What the government's call for staying at home is in line with Islamic guidance.

Dai (religious teacher) Ambassador of Dompet Dhuafa, Ustadz Alnof Dinar, explained about the plague and disaster that also happened to Muslims in the past. 

He said that Muslims had been hit by the plague of taún in the land of Amwas Sham at the time of the caliph Umar bin Khattab.

At that time, more than 20 thousand people died. Umar then sent a letter to the friend of Amru bin 'Ash, whose contents instructed him that the people clear the city, ordered the people to scatter into the mountains and valleys, and separate them from each other (may not gather). Only a few days, the plague disappeared by itself. 

Furthermore, the plague also hit people during the reign of Abdurrahman an-Nashir in Andalusia. At that time, he ordered the people to remain silent in their respective homes.

He then mobilized the army and all of its employees to serve the people's basic needs (food, clothing, and medicine).

Now, when the Corona virus outbreak has hit almost all countries, a number of world scholars have also issued fatwas. Al Azhar Senior Ulema Committee has issued an explanation to the ummah, that when the Corona outbreak occurred, Muslims may perform fard prayer in congregation in their respective homes and may perform Friday prayers replaced with four-raking Zhuhur prayers at home or in less crowded places.

Then a senior Saudi Arabia scholar, Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, also issued a fatwa in line with Egyptian scholars. Sheikh Noureddin Khadmi, a shariah maqashid expert from Tunisia, has also issued the same fatwa.

Sheikh Noureddin Khadmi further explained that safeguarding lives is part of preserving religion. It is said, that people who have different views from this concept, it means that they have no knowledge. He does not value life and does not glorify religion at all.

In this case, Ustaz Alnof said that Sheikh Noureddin reminded those who deny the fatwa of the ulama related to Friday prayers and congregational prayers at the time when the Corona outbreak was spreading. 

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