KARACHI: Prayer leaders in Pakistan's southern megacity of Karachi have asked worshippers during Friday sermons to get vaccinated against the coronavirus in Ramadan as the number of those getting their jabs has dropped during the first days of the fasting month.
While sermons in the country usually revolve around topics such as worship, rituals, and the importance of charity during Ramadan, Maulana Muhammad Miskeen Naqshbandi, a prayer leader at Jamia Masjid Dargah Abdullah Shah Ghazi, stressed during his speech this Friday the importance of vaccination and that it should be done even while fasting, as the country is facing a third wave of the coronavirus disease.
“Injection of vaccine doesn’t violate the principles set by Islamic jurists for fasting. It neither goes to stomach nor mind, so there is no problem in getting any injection, be it the COVID-19 vaccine or normal injection,” Naqshbandi said.
He said he had realized the urgency of the situation after several worshipers had come to him for guidance.
"There was a misconception, which I removed in today’s sermon,” he told Arab News after Friday prayers.
"Mosque is the most effective medium to get people educated. People need vaccines to fight this pandemic," he said.
Dr. Umair Siqqiqui who delivers Friday sermons at Karachi's Majid Ali Haider Karar Clifton, last week, before the beginning of Ramadan, also after Friday prayers asked worshipers to get vaccinated. He said, however, that they can do so after Iftar, when they break the fast.
“Vaccines, including those of coronavirus should be received but there are different conditions," he told Arab News, adding that if doctors prescribe it as urgent, it would break the fast but the person who receives it could just fast again for one day after Ramadan.
“Religious scholars should provide guidelines,” he said, adding that as millions attend Friday prayers, mosques the world’s biggest media.
At Karachi's Khaliq Dina Hall, which is one of the busiest vaccination centers in the seaside metropolis, doctors say the number of visitors has dropped since the start of Ramadan.
“On normal days, we would vaccinate from 1,500 to 2,300 but the number has dropped to 1,000 daily,” Dr. Farhat Abbas, in charge of the vaccination center, told Arab News.
He expressed hope that the numbers will increase again after authorities have extended vaccination until midnight.
Pakistan Medical Association secretary general Dr. Qaisar Sajjad said that despite the fact that religious scholars have endorsed the opinion of doctors to continue with vaccination during the fast, more awareness is still needed.
“The government has done arrangement for vaccination during night but since we are going through the peak of a third wave and the cases of coronavirus infection are growing, the authorities should run a rigorous campaign with video messages of religious scholars so that the process may go fast all the time,” he said.
“This is a pandemic and people should be made aware,” Dr. Sajjad added.
Similar problems related to vaccination during the fasting month are also faced by Muslim communities abroad.
In the UK, the Muslim community has pop-up vaccination centers at mosques.
"We have been provided by National Health Service pop-up vaccination centers at mosques and community centers so that the process may not get slow," Muhammad Asimuddin, a British Pakistani and mosque committee member, told Arab News over the phone from London.
"The British Islamic Medical Association has told the community that getting vaccine jab will not break the fast."
