EID-EL-KABIR: PRAYER CAN’T CURB COVID-19 IF YOU FLOUT SAFETY PROTOCOL – MUSLIM LEADERS ADVISE

Reporter: CHUKWUBUIKE MADU

 Muslims have been admonished to take the COVID-19 precautionary measures seriously as they continue praying for an end to the ravaging pandemic. This was the view of Muslim leaders during a special prayer session at Enugu Central Mosque, Owerri Road, to mark this year’s Eid –El –Kabir.

The Chief Imam of the mosque, Saeed Zulquanaini, who observed that the 2020 celebration was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, urged Muslim faithful to adhere strictly to the NCDC protocol, if they wanted to curb the spread of the virus.

“We are happy that in spite of the COVID-19 we were able to say our prayers. We are in a time when this COVID-19 has changed many things. Some people have been slaughtering ram every year but this year a lot of people didn’t slaughter because of the high rate of inflation.

“I advise my brothers in Islam to take this an opportunity to pray for peace for Nigeria and the world and also pray Allah to curb this COVID-19 because it has damaged the economy seriously.

“I also advise fellow Muslims to follow the NCDC guidelines because after prayers the guideline will help us. We have to guard ourselves against contracting the virus even as we pray Allah to eradicate the pandemic,” Zulquanaini stated.

The Chief Imam also cautioned Muslims against rancor, acrimony, bad blood and engaging in physical fight during the celebration saying “it is the day of happiness. So one shouldn’t try to fight his brother or to fight his neighbour; always show happiness, even if anyone annoys you or provokes you, try to suppress your anger and don’t fight today because today is a day of happiness.”

Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed AbdurRahman, who also cautioned Muslims against flouting the COVID-19 protocol, said he had sensitized Muslim leaders to increase awareness of the virus among adherents of the faith.

“We always go round and tell the people to celebrate the sallah in line with COVID-19 protocol but you know when you gather people, you cannot control them in a water-tight compartment. But this is the Central mosque in Enugu, the multitude of people are here because it is inside in the metro. You see people washed their hands with hand sanitizers or detergent and wearing of face masks. The only problem we have is physical distancing.

“We have done a lot and this is one of the mosques, there are others that if you visited them, you would have seen that they were more compliant than this. I also gathered Imams of the mosques that they should preach to their adherents and followers that celebration should not be as usual because we are in an emergency situation all over the world,” the Police Commissioner admonished.

The Police Commissioner noted that the command had stepped up security patrol for a hitch-free celebration.

“For this celebration, one could see all the nooks and crannies we increased patrol; and all the nipping points, the black points, the key points and the vulnerable points are being manned,” CP AbdurRahman stated.

Also, the Sarki Hausawa and Leader, Northern Community in Enugu State, Alhaji Abubakar Yusuf Sambo, who joined in the call for observance of the precautionary measures against Coronavirus disease, thanked God that the celebration went on despite the economic downturn.

 “We have prayed that Allah will help us and heal the world so that we will be free of this pandemic as well as other known and unknown diseases. And we call on God to help us so that next time we will be celebrating and praying it’s going to be normal: there will be no face masks so that we will be disease free, virus free in the whole world.

“The celebration this time around has a lot of short coming, it’s low keyed because of social distancing and prohibited on large crowd in Nigeria. Again the pandemic affected the economy. You can see a lot of people could not slaughter ram this year. You know the pandemic is still hitting hard on every citizen,” Sarki Sambo lamented.

He urged the Muslim community in the state to remain law abiding, “obey constituted authority, love one another and be obedient. This is the teaching of the celebration. Some children, including Ahman Yahaya Abdulahi and Alihu Sani, told Radio Nigeria they were happy to be part of this year’s Eid-El-Kabir as they explained how to spend their day. The event at the Mosque ended with the ceremonial slaughtering of a ram.