Prepare for the next stage of your individual battle!

The Markaz Maulana has gone into hiding after spreading mischief and sowing the seeds of suspicion against the minority. Can you believe people still take their words when they proclaim: ‘Corona doesn’t spread in Masjids!’ It’s good to have unqualified and unconditional faith. But even the object of one’s faith would like some common sense among the followers. When they say that crowds in Masjids are safe from Corona, it’s as foolish to proclaim that you won’t be killed if you jump in front of a speeding truck. Allah loves you, but expects you to be loving and careful also, apart from having unconditional faith in Him.

Almost all the Muslims in India are peace loving citizens. Still there is a significant chunk who have been brainwashed in the name of faith to wage Jihad against the so-called non-believers. If they can destroy their bodies with suicide vests, the prospect of carrying Corona, where there is a big chance of survival of the self as well in comparison to the explosives, the prospect of offering their services as the live-agents of Corona are very much high. One can never rule this out.

Thousands had gathered at the Nizamuddin congregation. They have now spread into all four directions of the country. Many are still hiding and not coming forth for testing and isolation. The government has been hard-pressed to track their footprints in the chaotic well-beaten paths of populous India, making it very difficult to trace these virus carriers. You can expect Hindus to be offended. And out of the millions of offended Hindus, a few overzealous ones, having vested communal interests, may rake up the communal fire. Who will suffer? Of course, the poor, innocent commoners in the fold of Islam. The real culprits are too smart and shady and manage to sneak out. The communal consequences of the Corona pandemic can be really catastrophic in India.

The people are debating about the options of mass testing or isolation. Mass testing has worked in South Korea. But we should not forget, they are small countries with manageable population. There are hardly any social challenges put forth on the basis of caste, class, creed or religion. India is a mammoth society, always sitting on the Pandora box of countless differences ready to flare up at the slightest instigation. We have slum areas which have more population than the entire capitals of medium-sized countries. So we are hard-pressed when it comes to manage Corona like South Korea did.

Ideally, mass testing and complete lockdown are the best options against a virus that has no vaccination. Unfortunately, India hardly has any option in this regard. Our best chance lies in complete lock-down and keep pushing the deadline of community spread for as long as possible, allowing more and more time for mass awareness to sink into the roots of the individual conscience. There will be a community spread. There is hardly any doubt about it. But we can postpone that and break the momentum for exponential growth as witnessed in Western countries. Let there be a case anywhere and just clamp down on the locality and focus on the entire area with more strict measures. These are minor check-dams against the Tsunami. Of course, testing rates will go up as more and more focus is diverted to these relatively high risk areas. All we can do beyond is to hope for people’s cooperation in following the lockdown rules and then keep waging their daily battles to stay happy and healthy indoors.

Measures like changing railway coaches into quarantines centers are very practical. We have one of the largest railway networks in the world. These definitely have high prospects against the pandemic as mobile field hospitals.

As people like you and we are waging our individual battles against the pandemic by compromising on our freedoms, economic and social interests, the time and pause should be thoroughly utilized in preparing for the second stage of the fight. Right now we are fighting from our little posts, from the security of our houses. We have lot of choices. We have many safety sets defined by our four walls and our freedom to choose regarding what to do and what not to do. The individual safety manual during the lockdown has been repeated countless times till now. I think all of us can recall it with more clarity than any other theological or common interest book. The manual for personal isolation, the rules of individual hygiene, the rules of dos and donts. Recheck it if you haven’t done even till now!

However, what after the fight comes out in the open at the next stage? There is hardly any possibility that we will have a vaccine against Corona within the next one year. And no country can afford to shut down completely for that amount of time. It means we will have to come out to survive. Presently, it’s like a family patriarch or matriarch has stocked food and economic means for the emergency one or two months, so it is easier to fight from the safety of one’s house. But when the food is spent and you are forced to come out to wage another battle of socio-economic survival, and you still don’t have any vaccine, there will be equal chance of anyone getting infected anywhere in the world? What will you do?

You hardly have a choice about controlling the externals in this case. All you can do is to strengthen your immunity, forge your framework of holistic health, the sum total of your mental, physical and emotional health. Start preparing for that well in advance. All of us do have some idea about how to be mentally, physically and emotionally strong. Churn out your own individual survival kit. There is hardly any specific set of rules about that. Your inner self will guide you for that. We have commonalities to strengthen our physical selves, but we do have different emotional and mental needs to boost up our systems. Work out your holistic health plan while you have the option of staying within the safe premises of your house. Don’t postpone it. For you surely have to come out, right there on the broad stage of life, where there will be equal possibility of anyone getting infected anywhere in the world. The only vaccine as of now is how much aware we are and what we do to strength our ramparts for the second stage of war in the open battlefield.

Right now it’s like guerilla warfare. The next stage will be an open battlefield. There the stronger will survive and the weak may perish. It’s never too late. All of us have our strengths. Build upon that. Cut down on the weaknesses. Who knows it may come out as a happier and healthier world after this crisis is over!