The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Shaikh Abdul Aziz Aal-ash Shaikh received the Covid-19 vaccine today, Saturday 2 January 2021. He attended the Vaccination Centre in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
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Al Arabiya news reported that the Shaikh also encouraged people to get vaccinated and was quoted as saying the vaccine was a “blessing from the blessings of Allah”
When the Covid-19 epidemic broke out, Shaikh Abdul Aziz Aal-ash Shaikh helped explain the severity and risk of the pandemic to Muslims. He issued a verdict allowing Muslims to not attend Mosques due to the pandemic. This forward-thinking approach helped alleviate the concerns of millions of Muslims who wanted to keep their religious duty but also keep safe.
Earlier in 2020 many scholars from Saudi Arabia and around the world encouraged people to follow the scientists and experts. There was unanimous agreement across the scholarship of the Muslim world that the guidelines set by experts should be followed.
From Saudi Arabia’s Shaikh Salih Al Fawzan to Pakistan’s Shaikh Abdullah Nasir Rehmani, the scholars were unanimous in their voice. Even an old fatwa surfaced from the former Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Shaikh bin Baaz who died in 1999, on the permissibility of vaccines.
Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allaah have mercy on him) was asked:
What is the ruling on giving treatment before sickness occurs, such as vaccinations?
He replied:
There is nothing wrong with giving treatment if there is the fear that the disease may occur because of the presence of an epidemic or other factors which may cause disease. There is nothing wrong with giving medicine to ward off the feared disease, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, according to the saheeh hadeeth, “Whoever eats seven dates of Madeenah in the morning will not be harmed by witchcraft or poison.” This is a kind of warding off a problem before it happens. So if there is the fear of sickness and a person is vaccinated against an infection that is present in the land or elsewhere, there is nothing wrong with that, because it is a kind of protection. But it is not permissible to wear or hang up amulets etc against sickness, the jinn or the evil eye, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) forbade that, and explained that this is a kind of minor shirk [associating others in worship with Allaah], so it must be avoided.
Fataawa al-Shaykh Ibn Baaz, 6/21
Other verdicts issued by scholars, even before this, showed that there was agreement among Muslim scholars on following only the people of knowledge such as medical doctors on matters of health.
This was all based on ayahs of the Quran such as:
“So ask the people of the knowledge if you do not know”
Quran 16:43
Some videos became popular on YouTube made by non-medical conspiracy theorists claiming the pandemic was a hoax or attacking the science behind vaccines.
Millions of doctors, epidemiologists, virologists across the world are in unanimous agreement on the virus and the precautions to be taken such as social distancing, masks and preventing large gatherings.
Many of the people who were spreading misinformation and conspiracies were falsely claiming to be medical doctors, usually misguiding people by wearing lab coats, surgical scrubs and titling themselves as “Dr” based on non-medical jobs such as Chiropractors and Osteopaths. The people in these conspiracy videos were not epidemiologist or proper virologists or medical doctors with specialities in these fields.
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You can watch more about this in the Covid-19 information video below:
