A tweet circulating widely on social media states:
Text of the post:
“The novel coronavirus has proved to the world that the face veil is the protection, ablution the disinfectant, supplication the antidote and mixing the epidemic.”
Comment:
1. As coronavirus spreads worldwide and causes panic, some insist on using this event to serve a utilitarian interpretation of religion, diverting certain commands and prohibitions from their true purpose and distorting their meaning. This creates contradictions that undermine religion and offer an opportunity to those wishing to attack and ridicule it, God forbid. Defending this religion is our duty in every circumstance. While the world is occupied with this epidemic, we should not leave those who seek to tamper with religion and distort its texts and aims free to exploit events as they please. Such wares sell only in such circumstances. God is the One whose help is sought.
2. They claim that the face veil protects against disease. In ordinary usage, the face veil means the garment with which a Muslim woman covers her face. Scholars agree that it is religiously legitimate for an adult Muslim woman, while differing over whether it is obligatory or recommended. That is the first point. Second, God did not command the face veil as protection from an epidemic. Had that been its purpose, He would have commanded it for everyone, male or female, young or old, as with protective masks. Rather, God prescribed and commanded covering in connection with lowering the gaze, guarding against temptation and purifying the heart. He says: “Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and guard their chastity; that is purer for them. God is fully aware of what they do. And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their chastity, and not to display their adornment except what ordinarily appears, and to draw their coverings over their chests” (al-Nur 24:30–31).
3. Medical specialists have explained the falsity of this claim and that the virus can penetrate the face veil because it is much smaller than its openings, as in this video:
Video cited in the source post
4. The mixing prohibited in Islamic law is mixing between men and women who are not within the permanently unmarriageable categories of kinship. It leads to the preceding outcome: exposure to temptation, beginning with failure to lower the gaze and ending in indecency and fornication. Islamic law takes this into account by separating the sexes in several settings. Many people who have been lax about this in various countries and societies have fallen into these dangers. To God we bring our complaint.
The mixing prohibited because of this epidemic, however, includes everyone, strangers and relatives, men with other men and women with other women. There is no connection between this temporary preventive restriction on mixing and the mixing permanently prohibited by Islamic law. The two must not be confused. Take heed.
5. Ablution undoubtedly has many health benefits. But when encouraging it, we must focus on its devotional aspect, its fundamental aim and purpose. Among the reasons for its prescription is preparation for one of the greatest acts of worship, which brings a servant close to God and increases love and reverence for their Master, the purpose for which they were created and brought into existence. These meanings must come first. After that, there is no objection to recalling that ablution removes dirt and germs. God knows best.
For more, see:
Encouraging prostration by magnifying its worldly benefits