Covid-19 pandemic, or in other words, coronavirus. From my perspective, it is the invisible danger that makes visible the rotten pit into which humanity has fallen.

The coronavirus disease, which was officially announced in Turkey on March 10, 2020 with the Minister of Health’s statement that ‘the first case has been detected’, quickly spread globally after appearing in the city of Wuhan, China in the final days of 2019 (December 12) due to its highly contagious nature. It didn’t take long for the World Health Organization to declare a global pandemic, which was declared on March 11. But this is not my topic. I decided to write this post to talk about what I saw from my own perspective and our spiritual diseases. Besides, it wouldn’t do if I kept a blog and didn’t write anything about a disaster like Covid-19 that comes once in a hundred years.

At this point, I need to state this. My view of the flow of life and the events we experience is a bit different. I believe that the events that happen to us can be the result of the choices we made in the past, just as the reality of what we are can be the cause of what we deserve. In other words, a destinal perspective in the Islamic sense. For this reason, sometimes I try to focus on the meaning behind the curtain, not the events themselves.

Before moving on to what the pandemic process tells me, it is useful to remember what we are experiencing in general.

  • Distance: The introduction of the concept of social distance into our lives with the safe distance practice between people. The social distance practice later caused the closure of crowded environments such as wedding halls, restaurants, and mosques. I don’t need to tell you how important the closure of the Kaaba is for the Islamic world.
  • Quarantine – House Arrest: Social isolation and the restriction of our lives by the state, first as calls to ‘stay at home’, then a ‘curfew’, and finally as a ‘curfew restriction’.
  • Mask Application: Putting a mask on the mouth, which was first stated by scientists to have no benefit at all, and then considered indispensable and mandatory. The rules that make this mandatory in common areas, and furthermore, it is not clear when it will leave our lives.
  • Hand Washing and Hygiene Rules: When the virus first started to spread, special videos on how to wash hands all over the world and emphasizing the importance of soap use. Keeping hand sanitizers in public areas and constantly reminding of hygiene rules.
  • Funeral Practice with Close Relatives Only: The burial procedures of those who died due to the Covid-19 disease are carried out under special conditions, and only first-degree relatives can attend the funeral.
  • Meeting with Distance Education and Working from Home: In the days when the coronavirus started to spread, in order not to interrupt the education of students in schools that were suspended on March 19, the distance education application was launched. In the same way, companies started the working from home application for those who could handle their business at the computer or phone.
  • Rise of Online Video and Chat Applications: Sosyal isolation and distance quickly shifted today’s communication style to online environments. Zoom, the application for video meetings with many people, became the new shining star of the internet. Right after, big companies like Google (Meet) and Facebook (Rooms) also got involved. In the meantime, online movie/series/video viewing sites like YouTube and Netflix became the first choices of those who stayed at home. Online traffic increased so much that the sites had to lower the resolution of videos while streaming.
  • Booming Sales on Online Shopping Sites: The consumption frenzy did not care about the epidemic or house arrest. People could not go to shopping malls, but they literally attacked online shopping sites. Even daily grocery shopping shifted to online environments with immediate delivery applications.
  • Stockpiling: Especially in the first days of the epidemic, people panicking by meeting curfews, the rise of the dollar, the chaos created by the government announcing the weekend curfew only 2 hours in advance, and the turbulent process in the Turkish economy drove some to stockpile food and beverage products.
  • Opportunism / Exorbitant Prices: The fact that greed, which is actually always present but became fully exposed in the coronavirus epidemic, has settled in society. It is indeed exemplary to show what state we have become even in our most sensitive situations. It is unbelievable that prices of some products concerning public health, such as masks, cologne, and disinfectants, increased by 30-40 times. In addition, technology products such as webcams or game consoles also increased (there is also the effect of the rising dollar), but I won’t even mention them.
  • Covid-19 Being a Global Epidemic: I wanted to add this item in particular because it is one of the most important details of the flu epidemic we are currently experiencing. It affects everyone worldwide without making a distinction of religion, language, race, social status, rich or poor. Let’s also add the note that the death rate is high, especially in people over 60 years old.

What I think about the causes, effects, and what we might encounter when I change the perspective:

  • If we had kept our hearts clean before, just as we clean our mouths or hands when we see disease and death, these would not have happened to us now.
  • We were living such empty lives and talking so emptily that just as our mouths were closed, our Lord closed our bodies in our homes.
  • We broke family and kinship ties, and now Allah Azze and Celle increased the distance between everyone. We are not even allowed to go to the funerals of our close relatives.
  • Muslims suffered the same trouble as non-believers because they were living like them and resembled them.
  • He closed the Kaaba to us and showed that the time of torment has now come. The most sacred place in the world was closed.
  • Although there are about 2 billion Muslims, so few people went to mosques, now no one can go. Including those who perform prayers. Because they also worked for themselves and did not strive to be instrumental in others starting prayers.
  • Despite all these disasters and deaths, we still attacked worldly goods, and Allah celle celalühü left us alone with opportunists. With unnecessary and excessive expenditures, maybe the ground was prepared for greater financial disasters to come in the future.
  • Our attacking worldly goods and stockpiling caused the prices of some products to increase, just as it caused or will cause the value of some assets owned to fall. In the near future, we will see how depreciated they have become when we need them.
  • Economic imbalances and troubles formed worldwide in recent years will continue to increase with the effect of the pandemic. Many companies will close. Many people will lose their jobs. Many people will suffer from hunger.
  • We think that just like in previous disasters, a little bit will touch us now and then it will pass and we will return to our old life, we will wait long… I think that the virus may appear again in the autumn and the second wave could be more dangerous. There is only one recipe for salvation from this trouble: To repent and do righteous deeds.
  • Persons and events need not be obsessed over. We are at the point of economic, political, social, cultural, technological, and religious transformation. One must be very careful. There are too many traps to steal the religion of people (especially Muslims). They can bring out new idols. Looking at matter and thinking it will benefit, and even things that look like the goodness of people, can be deceptive and cause the actual bad end. The Muslim must be awake.
  • As Turkey, we will go through very, very, very difficult times. This much oppression will have a price. It won’t be easy to get out of the press we have been trapped in for years. May Allah celle celalühü be our helper.
  • Social upheavals may witness the collapse of some (large) states, the division of some, and the occupation of others. In these days when trust in states is shaken and autocratic leaders are increasing, opportunities may arise for some. I don’t know, maybe these are rehearsals for World War III.

Everything I write here binds me. There is no rule that the predictions I make for the future will happen. Allah Azze and Celle knows best. May my Lord grant me, my family, and all Muslims to spend these difficult days with minimum damage and by living on the straight path. May Allah celle celalühü not let His name be forgotten. Ameen.