It is clear from my previous articles about the Corona epidemic, that the most prominent characteristic of the epidemic - that it is a general, influencing year - imposed its discussion from many approaches and disciplines: medical, juristic, verbal, economic, social, political, ethical, etc., because the epidemic raises many practical and theoretical questions. Among the questions that can be raised here is a verbal question related to the view of the epidemic itself, I mean the interpretation of its occurrence and its link with unseen causes on the one hand, and the identification of the purposes of its occurrence and its implications on the other hand.
It was said: O Messenger of God: We have known this challenge, so what is the plague? He said: prick your enemies from the jinn, and every testimony "(Narrated by Ahmad and others).
Historically, the plague has shed Muslims and books have been written for it, and we can classify its content in two things:
The first: an explanation of the reasons for the occurrence of this epidemic called the plague, as it formed a mystery in which the interpretations differed, but with the incoherence of the classic medical interpretation and its ineffectiveness in its resistance, the religious interpretation seemed more acceptable and reliable; Because it was based on the ambiguity of the material causes of the epidemic on the one hand, and the presence of prophetic hadiths, which give him a metaphysical explanation on the other hand.
Looking at the hadiths collected by Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani (d. 852 AH) in this matter, we find that the plague’s interpretations revolve around that he “pricked your enemies from the jinn”, and he elaborated on collecting accounts in this sense and explaining their methods and strengthening them, including the hadeeth “The death of my nation by stabbing and plague.” It was said: O Messenger of God: We have known this challenge, so what is the plague? He said: prick your enemies from the jinn, and in every testimony "(Narrated by Ahmad and others).
And the plague also - as in some accounts - was "a condescension to the one who passed from the infidels", then it became "a mercy for the believers and a testimony." And in some hadiths that the plague occurred at the time of the obscenity of obscenity as in the hadith "... the obscenity never appeared in a people until they worked with it except the plague appeared and the pains that were not past in their ancestors ..." (Narrated by Al-Hakim, Ibn Majah, Al-Tabarani and others).
Despite the numerous and different definitions of the scholars of the plague, and their general definitions describing its physical and material manifestations, the “prick of the jinn” was cared for by Abu Abdullah Al-Shibli (d. 769 AH) in “Akam Al-Murjan in the Rulings of the Elves”, then Ibn Hajar came to consider that what the plague separates from The epidemic is the "origin of the plague" and its origin, and this is what "doctors and no one who spoke in defining the plague" have been subjected to, and that is because it was from the stabbing of the jinn, and it expanded on that. The plague - on this - a divine punishment is carried out by metaphysical means (the jinn), which is the result of people's actions (disbelief and immorality).
But it is striking that Imam Abu Bakr Al-Kalabazi (d. 380 AH) made the plague two parts: one that takes place from “the predominance of some mixtures of burned blood or yellow or otherwise,” and a section that is “from the prick of the jinn”, which means that he did not make the prick of the jinn steady .
But Ibn Hajar, who triumphed over the idea of pricked the jinn and elaborated on it and in collecting her accounts and others followed in it, others were keen at the same time to reconcile this metaphysical interpretation with the medical data available in his time, and he said: The fact that the plague "from the prick of the jinn does not contradict the doctors’ statement that it arises Because of toxic substance or blood raging, or its effusion into an organ or otherwise, because there is no objection that this occurs from the internal stab, then toxic substance occurs or irritation or blood arises because of it. Doctors - as they have not been subjected to being stabbed by the jinn - are excused, because that does not He is aware of reason and not of experience, but we have received it from the news of the street, so they talked about what arose from that challenge, as much as required by the rules of their knowledge. "
Ibn Hajar presented in his book “Executing the Ritual” a modern textual study of the plague, in which he tried to synthesize between the various hadiths to build a coherent perception, and he followed the prevailing scientific standards in his era (scholarship) with high audits that made him a reference for his successor, but what concerns us here is that compromise attempt He gave a brief reference, and he may be influenced by the behavior of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, who is sometimes quoted from him. The importance of this reference is due to two things, as he did not resort to opposition between the news and experimental data to use one of them to deny the other, and distinguishes between two fields: medicine and its source of reason and experience, faith and its source of the audible news, and we will return to this later.
The second matter that concerns the literature of the plagues is to research its religious effects, which are: (1) the actions of the believer during the plague, (2) and the consequential penalty in the hereafter. In the actions of the believer, the discussion comes about “mentioning the effects mentioned in the dhikr that the guardian says are from the plot of the jinn” based on the belief that it is the prick of the jinn, as you talk about the legitimacy of supplication by raising it (even though it is mercy and testimony), and the patience and good will of God, and the prevention of suffering And by not entering the land where he fell. With regard to the penalty for it in the hereafter, we find hadiths stating that it is "a mercy for the believers and a reference to the disbelievers", researching the reward of martyrdom for those who were stabbed (plagued by plague) or died in the time of the plague even if he died in others, and specifying the conditions for proving martyrdom for those who die because of him or in him (i.e. In his time).
The literature of the plagues was to give the plague unfulfilled privacy in general epidemics; Due to its occurrence in the time of the Companions, and the narratives contained in it, then the frequency and the destruction of many creation because of it, among them imams and scholars
From the sum of these two things (causes and effects), multiple problems arise, the first of which is related to the relationship between religion and modern science (especially epidemiology here) and its relationship to religion, and the second is moral, so how is the epidemic itself that afflicts everyone the mercy of the believer and the punishment of the infidel? If the epidemic occurs due to the failure of sins, will it be a testimony for all believers, even disobedient ones? I will limit myself here to addressing the first verbal problem, to single out a separate article for the second moral issue.
Although the epidemic is a medical topic, but the word plague when the hadiths came, religious scholars have to strive to understand it and determine its relevance to the word epidemic; Because it was based on various provisions that do not stop at the foregoing causes and effects, but rather go back to some religious practices (such as prayer and supplication) and some financial behavior, whether for the injured person or for those who have not yet been injured (is his behavior correct or not? Is it considered as someone who supervised death and his actions are nullified? ). And which Ibn Hajar concluded that the epidemic is a general origin, and that the plague is an epidemic but has its specificity, so every plague is an epidemic and not every plague is plague.
The literature of the plagues took place to give the plague unfulfilled privacy in general epidemics. Due to its occurrence in the time of the Companions, and the narratives contained in it, then the frequency and the death of many creatures because of them, imams and scholars. It seems that these interpretations are closer to the apparent ones, but the plague was called in the novels. Because it was the pandemic prevailing in those times, and if we follow the dead that some of the accounts came to prove the reward or degree of testimony to the owner, we find that they are severely dead.
However, recent developments in the field of medicine and epidemics put my idea: the prick of the jinn and the pestilence of the plague are problematic, as the causes, types and characteristics of the plague are known, and I find an antidote to it as well. Indeed, the human plague itself became rare in most parts of the world after it was constantly sweeping the ancient world. Here, the debate - which Ibn Hajar fought through accounts, audits and synthesizing between them according to the knowledge available in his time - becomes part of religious history.
Ibn Hajar's arguments were not limited to textual arguments, but also used some experimental arguments to prove his perceptions, and to support the validity of the inner cause, which is "prick of the jinn", such as the fact that plague occurs in the fairest and healthiest chapters, etc. But if we also used his method for the pilgrims, how would we explain the decline of the plague in modern times? Does this mean that the jinn's prick stops or stops working? Or that the will of man overcame the will of God - the Almighty - and worldly punishment (plague) was no longer feasible? Does the decline in epidemics in general and their scarcity mean that God Almighty is satisfied with his creation and that they have stopped doing obscenity? These questions put us at the heart of verbal preoccupation, and we realize through them the impact of recent developments on old verbal perceptions.
Previously, the medical interpretation of the plague was neither coherent nor convincing, but it became convincing and effective as well, while the metaphysical explanation (the inner cause) established by some accounts has not lacked consistency and persuasion on the impact of recent scientific developments, and the systematic distinction presented by Ibn Hajar is no longer Here, it is useful to justify the power of esoteric interpretation just because the news is received. Because the news itself needed a new interpretation.
And if Ibn Hajar was familiarized with the apparent and internal causes of the plague, Rashid Rida had gone further when he considered that "the jinn" included "microbes"; It is a type of jinn and has been proven to be the ailments of most diseases. It is as if he carried the words of the speakers that “the jinn are living hidden objects” to the words of the doctors in the microbes (although Corona, for example, is not a living being!). With this, Rashid Rida solved the problem of "prick of the jinn", but it occurred in another problem, which is that some viruses do not have the status of life. Reda wanted to settle "the dispute between what the science has proven and the doctors decided," and dispensed with "correcting some unilateral narratives" if it violated the science.
Speech is based on a central idea revolving around the formative divine will (the act of God in nature and the universe) as opposed to its legislative will (its command and its prohibition that addresses human actions in the universe) in which jurisprudence is concerned, and the Qur'an uses for this division the expression (creation and command)
The distinction presented by Ibn Hajar has his systematic function (what comes from the experience, and what comes from the news), but the problem is in the area in which they intersect so that they deny each other, so the medical question is a scouting question that does not constantly diminish the area of the unknown; Because it contains information, and he is so descriptive that does not involve a standardized characteristic, as he describes the causes of the disease, how it happened and the means of transmission, then he tries to put treatment after defining those descriptions and characteristics so that he can resist them currently and prevent their occurrence in the future as well. While auditory issues are also expert and scouting, but they also have standard orthodontic or classification characteristics, then apparently incompatibility is subject to interpretation, although auditory is more comprehensive than scholarly; Because it involves additional dimensions (the normative ones), and the criterion of discrimination in the event of conflict remains with regard to the subject itself, it is neither the subject of religion nor its function to describe the origin and origin of the disease nor the status of treatments for it, because with the advancement of knowledge such interpretations will become irrelevant on the one hand And it may be a reason to challenge the issue of religion itself on the other hand, although the dispute here if it occurs will be in his job, as well as the case with knowledge, while while he expands what is possible, the transformation of what is possible into an existing one lacks what is normative (moral and religious) It is outside the subject matter of science itself (the ability to reproduce, for example, does not mean to do it).
The previous discussion leads us to invalidate the perception that the more knowledge progresses, the less the question of speech and vice versa. Religions - in general - possess perceptions about God, man and the world, and theology is based on a central idea that revolves around the formative divine will (God’s action in nature and the universe) in exchange for its legislative will (his command) Its end, which addresses human actions in the universe) in which jurisprudence is preoccupied, and the Qur’an uses for this division the expression (creation and command). And part of the function of religion is to establish that harmony between the movement of man and the realities of the universe so that a person is excited by his events and active in him, so he does not move except between a creation and an order from God, and a choice and appreciation from himself.
This harmony between man and the universe is reflected in the association of devotions with cosmic signs. The prayers and fasting are based on cosmic signs (seeing the crescent, the setting of the sun, its setting and its disappearance, ...), and there are acts of worship that exist only with the existence of their universal cause, such as the eclipses of eclipses, eclipses, ascites, and prayers to drive earthquakes, disasters, etc. That is, there is an overlap between existential and epistemic, and between material and metaphysical. Hence, the creation and command of God implies a meaning that we strive to attain and receive by revelational inspiration at times, and with horizontal mental reflection at another time. The act of God Almighty is not a verb without wisdom or meaning, and has no purely subjective natures (it is not related to an actor and has no purpose).
And this meaning that we are looking for has two sides, a scientific aspect is necessary for a more accurate and deeper understanding of nature and its laws, which is the creation and action of God, hence the divine command came (say walk in the earth and see how the creation began), and a legal aspect of my belief (from the lesson) which is that disasters Epidemics are of the genus of trials that life has brought upon, and the Qur’an decides the origin of the affliction and that calamities have functions and involve moral meanings such as reward (so they are bad for what they have done), or awakening and alerting so that they are a reason for entrusting man to God and a principle of self-moral purification.
This dual meaning is appropriate to human composition, material, mental, psychological, and metaphysical needs, and an understanding of the laws and material reasons through which God Almighty’s act manifests, does not negate the need to understand the metaphysical dimension of what is happening also. Epidemics may cause some panic, in which the scientific interpretation does not enrich, and the ranks and emotions of people vary, so there are those who "become more anxious, more bored, and more hateful, and they are transformed into tricks by pushing them with different types of things" according to the description of Ibn Hajar, and this occurs especially in periods of ambiguity or absence Effective countermeasures that protect against it. Whereas those named by Ibn Hajar as “the people of goodness” are in contradiction to the aforementioned attribute, and that is that some of them are heralded by God’s mercy as happened to Mu’adh bin Jabal Because he sees in it a testimony, and some of them who are Muslim delegated are satisfied with God if he falls, and some of them who are Muslim but he is not prepared to die now; Because he wants to do righteous deeds as he gets rid of the consequences of his invalid deeds that were preceded by him.
This syntax I explain explains the dual need for the scientific and metaphysical dimensions, and that their interaction is evidence of healthy thinking. Just as the scientific interpretation alone is deficient, scientific progress stops us on new verbal questions and challenges some of our old rhetorical perceptions, which leads us to rethink and correct, and if the change of societies and norms has It leads to a change in the legislative provisions that were based on a past custom. The change in scientific data may lead to a change in some verbal details related to the interpretation of some material phenomena as in the plague.