Muslim clerics urge people to stay inside on Shab-e-Baraat

New Delhi, April 7: Some Muslim clerics and scholars have appealed to the members of the community to avoid visiting graveyards on Shab-e-Baraat on Wednesday to pray for their ancestors, but pay their respect to them while staying at home in view of the coronaviruspandemic.

On Shab-e-Baraat, Muslims visit the graveyards of their departedrelatives to pray for them. It falls on Wednesday, April 8, this year.

The appeal has been issued on behalf some well-known Muslim clerics and scholars of the country, including Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, President, Muslim Ittehad Parishad; Maulana Syed Mahmood Madni, General Secretary, Jamiat Ulamae Hind; Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan Azhari, Chairman, Delhi minorities commission; and Maulana Mufti Muhammad Mukarram, Shahi Imam, Fatehpuri Masjid.

They have also urged people to maintain social distance on this occasion. Coronavirus has evolved into a dangerous epidemic which has engulfed the whole world and thousands have lost their lives, while over a million have been infected, they said in a press statement.

In the country, the virus has infected over 4,000 people and asa safeguard, the whole country is under lockdown at present. As a result, congregational and Jumu'a prayers in mosques have been curtailed and people are offering their prayers at home, it stated.

“We appeal to all Muslims to spend Shab-e Bara’at at home offeringprayers, reciting the holy Quran and doing zikr and du’a. Muslims should not visit graveyards but pray for their departed relatives while staying at home,” it stated.