Muslim scholars urge members to back PM’s 9pm call on Apr 5

LUCKNOW/GORAKHPUR/MEERUT/VARANASI: In a video clip, which is doing the rounds in some closed WhatsApp groups, a Muslim doctor based in the US can be seen advising community members to light a candle or diya (earthen lamp)at 9pm on Sunday, April 5, to “remain in the mainstream of the country”.

“Today, people, including our own neighbours, are looking at us with suspicion. They will be watching us. Do light diyas to remove all misgivings about the community,” he says.

With the Nizamuddin Markaz emerging as a hotspot of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the country, influential members of the Muslim community have taken to mobilising the people to take steps that help bust myths, not just about coronavirus but also about the community.

Getting Muslims to answer the call given by the Prime Minister to light diyas, candles or flash torchlights on Sunday is one of them. With mosques practically closed due to the lockdown, WhatsApp messages have come in as a handy tool for the clerics and scholars to disseminate the message.

Mufti Obaid-ur- Rahman of Gorakhpur feels the Nizamuddin incident has dented Islam’s image and thus it is their (the community’s) duty to correct it. He says, “There are WhatsApp groups of madarsa teachers, clerics, intellectuals and commoners, wherein appeals are being made repeatedly to abide by social distancing rules and join countrymen in lighting candles outside doors and on balconies on April 5.” In Lucknow, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali, Imam of Eidgah (Aishbagh), says:

“Muslims love their country and they must come out of this communal mindset to defeat coronavirus.”

In Agra, social activist and footwear exporter Nazeer Ahmad says, “The PM’s appeal is to Hindustanis and not Muslims and Hindus. Lighting lamps may not be a treatment of the coronavirus, but it is a token of the country’s unity to fight the disease.”

In Meerut, Shahar Mufti Qazie-Shariat Darul Qaza Saif-urRehman, in a video released on social media, can be seen asking people not to move in groups as it will expose them to the virus and, in turn, cause problems for others.

On the PM’s appeal, Zainus Rasheedin, the Nayab Shahar Qazi and Aligarh president of Jamiat- Ulema- e- Hind, says, “It is a personal decision but one can use a cell phone torch instead of a candle or diya.”