The government has instructed all residents of the areas locked down to prevent the spread of coronavirus, marked as Red Zones, to offer their prayers at home. Only the khatibs, imams, muezzins and khadims will be able to offer prayers at the mosques. The Muslims have been told even on Friday to offer ‘zohr’ prayers at home, rather than congregate at the mosques to offer ‘jumma’ prayers.
Persons of other religions in these zones where the prevalence of COVID-19 is high, have also been asked to perform their worship and offer prayers at their own homes, and not to gather at their respective houses of worship.
The directives have been issued in keeping with principles of all religions and in the interests of national security. If government orders are violated in this regard, the administration will be obliged to take legal action against those responsible.
The religious affairs ministry issued these directives in an urgent notice on Saturday. On Friday, at a meeting chaired by health minister Zahid Maleque, it was advised that all mosques, temples, churches, pagodas and other houses of worship in the Red Zones be closed to public. The religious affairs ministry issued the notice accordingly.
The notice stated, in order to keep up the offering of prayers five times a day at the mosques, 5 persons including the khatib, imam, muezzin and khadim can pray at the mosque, maintaining social distance and following the health regulations. On Friday, for the jumma prayers, this can be increased to a maximum of 10 persons. In public interest, no others can join in the prayers inside of the mosque.
Also during this time, religious gatherings such as waaz mehfil, tafsir mehfil, tablighi talim or milad mahfil cannot be held anywhere in the country. People can individually carry out religious rituals of tilawat (recitations), zikr (incantation) and prayer at their own homes. Similarly, persons of other faiths cannot congregate for religious or social rituals.
The notice said that the directives have been issued in keeping with the principles of all religions and in the interests of national security. If government orders are violated in this regard, the administration will be obliged to take legal action against those responsible.