17/05/2020
JOINT STATEMENT OF THE ULAMA OF ZAMBOANGA CITY ON THE GENERAL COMMUNITY QUARANTINE AMIDST THE COVID19 PANDEMIC
The U’lama Council of Zamboanga Peninsula, Sabiel Al Muhtadeen Foundation, and sector representatives with the likes of Dr. Afdal Kunting from the Zamboanga City Medical Center, Dr. Hussein Sahijuan III from the City Health Office, and Sir Yahya "Jojo" Abdussalam from the Office of the City Mayor conducted a meeting last May 16, 2020 at the Dar Al Husna, RT Lim Boulevard, Zamboanga City to assess the current state of Zamboanga City and its recent lifting of the Enhanced Community Quarantine to General Community Quarantine amidst the spread of Novel Coronavirus in the country. As Allah SWT said “ Fas Alu Ahla Dhikri In kuntum La Ta’lamuwn” "So ask the people (who are learned) if you do not know." The said meeting gathered updates from our local health authorities and furthermore explained the difference between ECQ and GCQ (under Executive Order BC 567-2020) by Sir Abdussalam, the Head of the city's Office for Muslim Affairs.
As per medical experts Dr. Kunting and Dr. Sahidjuan, it is indeed true that Zamboanga City is still unsafe from COVID19 and we are anticipating that COVID patients may continuously increase in the following days as the positive cases in the City Reformatory Center are not yet done and its origin from the said place is not yet traced. Therefore, safety precautionary measures must still be applied alongside our Local Government Unit's strengthening of their implementation of the aforementioned Executive Order effective on May 16 to May 31. Also, in the recent EO released by the City Mayor under Section 7, Prohibition on Social Gathering, it is stated that only a maximum of 10 individuals are allowed to gather for any type of religious ceremony. It is safe to presume therefore that we will find it difficult to prevent the influx of jamaa' who wish to come to the Masajid, thus causing possible violations to the said EO.
Based on the evidences from the Qur'an and Hadith and the numerous facts elaborated by our Health Authorities, we are still unanimously firm with regards to our previous decision on enjoining the Administrators of all the Masajid in Zamboanga City to suspend any form of salatul jamaa (five congregational daily prayers, Salatul Jumuah and Salatut Tarawee) and/or religious gatherings in the Masjid. In addition, the upcoming mass prayer for Salatul Eid will also be cancelled whether it be conducted in the masjid or in an open field.
Albeit tirelessly repeating this, we ask all our Muslim brothers and sisters in Zamboanga City for utmost understanding, patience and full cooperation. We assure you that we have not taken this decision lightly, rather, it is grounded on extreme necessity. In shaa Allah, anyone who used to regularly attend these congregational prayers in the Masjid and hoping to join the accustomed mass prayer of salatul eid will still get the same reward for praying at home due to a valid excuse as evidenced by a Hadith. Let us all pray that the situation normalizes very soon so that we could resume our congregational prayers in the Masajid. We ask everyone, especially the Masjid Administrators, to disseminate this information to all the members of the Muslim communities in the city of Zamboanga.
