COVID-19: Muslim clerics appeal to community member not to visit graveyards on Shab-e Bara'at

Some Muslim clerics and scholars have appealed to the members of the community to avoid visiting graveyards on Shab-e Bara'at on Wednesday to pray for their ancestors, but pay their respect to them while staying at home in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

On Shab-e Bara'at, Muslims visit the graveyards of their departed relatives 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 Ulama-e 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 as a 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 offering prayers, 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.

"We appeal, in particular, to our youth to completely refrain from going out of their homes during this night. We appeal to them: stay at home, offer prayers and make du'as, and pray to Allah the Almighty in particular to safeguard all our compatriots from this epidemic," it stated.

Muslims every year observe vigil at night at mosques on the occasion of Shab-e Bara'at, offering special prayers, reciting the holy Quran and visiting graveyards.

"An effective way to protect ourselves from this virus is to observe social distancing and people should not assemble in any place. It is part of wisdom and expediency that same is observed during the Shab-e Bara'at," says the appeal.

Syed Saadatullah Husaini, Amir, Jamaat Islami Hind; Maulana Asghar Ali Imam Salfi, Amir, Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e Hadees; Hazrat Muhammad Tanveer Hashmi, Sajjada Nasheen Khanqah Hashimiya, Bijapur, Karnataka; Hazrat Muhammad Mueen Miyan, Peer-e Tareeqat, Mumbai; Mujtaba Farooq, secretary general, All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, have supported the appeal, said the statement.