Fear and panic overwhelmed the valley when the first case of COVID-19 appeared in Kashmir. I remember those days when the majority of people were in anxiety and had sleepless nights at that time.
People were highly cautious and were maintaining social distance, wore masks, and were frequently washing and sanitizing their hands. But now the whole scenario has changed amid the alarming spike of COVID 19 positive cases and fatalities. Despite that, people can be seen fearless.
people are seen unnecessarily roaming on streets without mask putting their lives and others at risk. The fear has wiped out among the people of Kashmir. Even the so-called educated people call it Government-sponsored Virus and endorsing irresponsible gossip about the conspiracy theories ; this could not be perilous in Kashmir as we live in a special place called “Peer Vaer” (land of spiritual saints).
Indeed we have to put trust in Allah (SWT) who is our sustainer. As per one of the hadith, Anas ibn Malik reported: One day, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) noticed a Bedouin leaving his camel without tying it. He asked the Bedouin, “Why don’t you tie down your camel?”The Bedouin answered, “I placed my trust in Allah.”
Prophet Muhammad said, “Tie your camel and place your trust in Allah” (Tirmidhi). The lesson from this hadith that can be learnt is that we need to use all the resources available to us to solve our problems, and then trust Allah for the outcome as “Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” (Qur’an 13.11) .As of now, the hospitals are running out of beds with this colossal rise in COVID -19 positive cases.
Our negligence is worsening the situation. We can tackle this pandemic by taking precautions. According to the study conducted by researchers from western countries, the best way to stop the airborne transmission of COVID-19 is to wear a mask. They claim that wearing a mask to cover the nose and mouth to a large extent decreases the chance of getting infected. They have compared the data from pandemic epicenter Wuhan and concluded that social distancing and other parameters work best when people wear masks.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is now continuously advising the general public to wear masks. It is the most inexpensive and effective way to prevent human-to-human transmission of the virus.
In sha Allah soon, this pandemic curve will get flattened, but have to tie the camel first, which means we have to use precautionary measures.
Now we have to choose a mask or shroud. Choice is ours .
Gowhar Rashid is a research scholar in the Department of Clinical Biochemistry Sher-I- Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Srinagar
