Today the first post I saw on my Facebook feed was of the Groundhog Day celebration--a popular tradition observed in US and Canada on 02/02. It seemed so hilarious and ridiculous to watch a crowd of thousands cheering in anticipation of a groundhog to declare if we’ll be having an early spring or not? And the senior members coordinating this commotion appeared so proud and happy as if they’re going to share the Coronavirus vaccination. Seriously, we the self-proclaimed most civilized nation still relies on a naive animal to predict seasons!
Who's smart? The people eating the wild animals or the people using the wild animals to make predictions?
We the smart people, living in the smart world, using our smart phones, ironically have forgotten that it’s us who made the world smart, who created these smart phones,…not the other way round. Allah SWT has blessed us with intelligence and wisdom, which Mashallha used by some benefitted all! But since we get all the fresh feeds from CNN, BBC, etc.,…we have developed this illusion of being the knowing-all generation.
Wrong!
We need to understand and be awakened on the fact that anything said, theorized, or believed by media are their opinions, not the facts or reality. We unknowingly have become the medias’ unpaid employees…whatever they say, we blindly believe, share, and spread…without even taking a moment to ensure its authenticity, thus, naively making a news contagious!
During this pandemic of Coronavirus, we all felt disgusted and shared the viral video of a girl with bat soup. Seriously how many of us checked on when and where was it taken? We became the judges and started stigmatizing Chinese and their eating habits. Again how many of us checked on this weird food consumption in terms of their population frequency? It's wrong to generalize a mistake by few towards all. This would be similar to considering all the Muslims as terrorists based on few extreme scenarios. Let's not repeat that!
And to my dear fellow Muslims, Alhumdulliha we all abide by the concept of Halal and Haram, but it doesn't grant us the right to spread disgust against other people and their traditions. Plus, there had been viral epidemics in Halal eating countries, as Swine Flu and Bird Flu in Pakistan. Moreover, on what grounds can we declare that Allha SWT is taking revenge on Chinese for their hatred towards Muslims? If that’s the case why Israel, India, and even United States are still intact?
To me, Allah SWT is simply reminding us of our vulnerability and His grandeur. Our reality is not the smart technology or the tallest sky scrappers, in fact in the bigger scheme we are a mere speck of sand. Having today's all advancement, we still are unable to unveil many of His mysteries. All in all, we always need to be grateful for his blessings and remember that we are destined to be questioned on the Day of Judgement of our doings.
In this critical health crisis, we all need to show empathy not hatred, disgust, or pride to fuel any new form of Xenophobia. We Muslims sure know how it feels to be cornered :(
So let’s act truly smart by understanding that…Virus is in China; Chinese are not the virus!
