The Essence of Islam – Volume V — Page 90
90. Essence of Islam-V them to live in open spaces and avoid using dirty clothes. Moreover, they should not let anyone enter their towns or villages who comes from an infected or plagued area. And should anyone who falls prey to this disease, should be expelled from the village or town, and people must avoid coming into contact with such a person. Thus, according to these people, this is all that can be done with regard to the plague. This then is the opinion of intelligent doctors and physicians. I neither see it as an adequate or permanent remedy, nor do I dismiss it as utterly futile. I do not consider it adequate because experience has shown that some people have died even though they had moved out of their dwellings and some have departed from this world even though they took all the necessary hygienic measures. Others got vaccinated with great hopes but still landed in their graves. Hence who can claim or reassure us that these measures constitute an adequate remedy? In fact one has to admit that although all these measures are effective to a degree, they cannot by any means be considered a complete success in stamping out the plague from this country. . At the same time these measures are not completely useless, and are proving beneficial wherever God has so willed, but it is not something to be jubilant about. . It is true that if, for instance, a hundred people have been inoculated and the same number have not been inoculated, the rate of mortality is comparatively higher among those who were not inoculated. But since inoculation is only effective for up to two or