The Essence of Islam – Volume V — Page 91
The Plague 91 three months at the most, those who are inoculated will continue to be at risk until they die. The differ- ence is that whereas those who do not get inoculated are riding on a horse which can convey them to the valley of death in twenty-four hours, those who do get inoculated are riding on a slow-moving pony that will take them to the same place in twenty-four days. At any rate, all the medical measures that have been adopted are neither fully satisfactory, nor utterly inef- fectual. And since the plague is devouring the country so rapidly, our compassion for mankind demands that we should find some alternative method for averting this calamity. Muslims as is evident from the announcement pub- lished during this month, April 1902, by Miān Shams-ud-Din, Secretary, Anjuman Himāyat-e-Islam, Lahore-seem to stress the idea that all sects of the Muslims, Shiites, Sunnis, Muqallid and non- Muqallid, should gather in open spaces on one par- ticular day and should supplicate and pray according to their respective tenets. This, in their view, is the formula which can instantly do away with the plague. But they do not say how it will possible for them to all come together. How will it be possible for the Hanafis to pray along with the Wahābīs, when the lat- ter do not consider it lawful to pray without reciting Fatihah. Would this not result in a conflict between them? Besides, the author of the announcement does 26 Muqallid: Followers of one of the four Imams in Islamic Jurisprudence. [Publisher]