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Combating coronavirus: The times when Ramadan was observed amid plagues, pandemics

Dubai - There are many reports in history books about some pandemics or famines happening in Ramadan, and causing disturbance to normal life and practice.

Pandemics have swept the world over the years and Muslim countries were no exception.
"For sure, this is not the first Ramadan amid a pandemic," Dr Mohammed Eyada Ayoub Alkobaisi, a grand mufti with the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department in Dubai, told Khaleej Times.
There are many reports in history books about some pandemics or famines happening in Ramadan, and causing disturbance to normal life and practice, he added. "Probably, the first to happen during Ramadan was the plague of 131AH, in Basra, Iraq."
There was another plague dubbed in history books as 'the Great Epidemic', which started in 749AH in Levant and spread all the way to Egypt, followed by another one in Egypt in 787AH, Dr Alkobaisi pointed out.
There was also severe famine in 595AH, which afflicted many cities around the Nile river banks, and many lives were lost. Another famine happened there in 776AH which reportedly took a daily toll of 500.

Dr Mohammed Eyada Ayoub Alkobaisi, a grand mufti with the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department in Dubai. Supplied photo
Dr Alkobaisi said in some of these incidences, people would abstain from attending gatherings, or going to the masjid. Some of them will stay home, "while many would go to the mountains and desert land, until the epidemic was over".
Earliest pandemics 
The earliest reports about a pandemic within the Islamic ruling happened some eight years after the death of The Messenger (peace and blessing be upon him), in the year 18AH, during the ruling of Caliph Omar.
The plague broke out in a village called Amwas, near Bait Al Maqdis, Jerusalem, and then spread all over Ash-Sham (the Levant). It is reported that the death toll was between 25,000 and 30,000 among Muslims, he said.
Though none of these pandemics happened at the time of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), he had advised the faithful to value their lives and stay away from the affected places, according to Islamic researcher Dr Mohamed Ashmawy.
"Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) talked about the concept of quarantine more than 1,440 years ago. He was reported as saying: When you hear that [a plague] is in a land, do not go to it and if it occurs in a land that you are already in, then do not leave it."
ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com