Traditional Muslim Education Regarding Pandemics: Lessons from Islamic Injunctions to Prevent COVID-19

Abstract

The foremost objective of this article was to explore whether traditional Muslim education addresses mechanisms of thwarting any pandemic such as the COVID-19. I used textual analysis of the holy Qur‟an and the Prophetic hadiths. The research questions were (1) What do Islamic scriptures instruct about personal and public health? (2) How do Islamic injunctions perceive pandemics? (3) What are the mechanisms to curb contagious diseases from Islamic education perspective? Based on the textual analysis and interpretations, it is concluded that Muslim education strongly emphasizes on the wellbeing of human beings physically, mentally, financially and spiritually. Treatment in Islam is based on a combination of religious, emotional, and material means. For this reason, the holy Qur‟an and the Sunnah of Prophetic practices stressed on the importance of keeping personal hygiene by washing more than five times per day, keeping physical distance from the sick, practicing quarantine during the pandemic and seeking for medical treatments whenever possible before and during the outbreak of any contagious diseases. Hence, I would like to recommend to health personals and education centres to communicate such and other related valuable mechanisms to save the lives of our people by using religious scholars in any public health projects especially in preventing the community from COVID-19.