A LETTER OF CONSOLATION OF TRUST IN GOD TO MY BROTHERS & FRIENDS

Sarajevo March 28, 2020 Sh’aban2,1441 (PDF)

Dear Brothers & Friends,

I think of you these days more than ever before because this small invisible Coronavirus put us all alone at home. I miss you because I cannot see either your brotherly faces or shake your friendly hands. I can only think of you; I can only see you virtually as if you are with me at my home. Yes, indeed, I can have you now deeply in my soul and sincerely in my mind. I can write you this letter of consolation of trust in God so that you know that I am still alive thinking together with you about this fear. Allow me to say that the humanity should have been united by love and respect, but this small entity of Coronavirus has preceded our human claim of love and respect by spreading its deadly poison of fear. Thus, the whole humanity now is united more than ever before not necessarily by love and respect but by an inevitable fear and despair.

Dear Brothers & Friends,

Of course, we are wondering now what is this fear, where it comes from and when it will end so that we can resume fearlessly our lives again? However, I must tell you, my dear brothers & friends, there is no human life without fear. Indeed, the fear is the key for the humanity to survive on this planet Earth provided that the human beings know how to choose the right fear that would lead them to the right decision. This right fear is the fear of God as apposed to the false fear of man; this right fear is the soft fear as apposed to the hard fear that we are facing now by the Coronavirus. This right fear resides in the conscience of man in order to keep his life morally right. When this fear (taqwā) of God is not in the man’s conscience as it should be, the man is lost in his fearless (taqwāless) life of his moral conscience to meet a hard fear, which

awaits him around the corner of his ephemeral life here. If anything, man must learn by now from the message of this small and invisible enemy, which is capable to kill us all at once, that he must obey the code of morality because without it he cannot survive, without it he cannot continue to live his fearless human life.

Dear Brothers & Friends,

Man must have fear not from the Coronavirus but from God Almighty who knows how to disciple him if he crosses the forbidden lines (ḥudūd) of his conduct on this plant Earth, which belongs not only to him as he wrongly pretends, but also to all living beings which are there together with him for him before anything else. Man cannot run away with his search for evil weapons against his fellow human beings without paying a price for his crimes against humanity. This time the price is his own life. Because man thought to kill and then he killed himself instead the one he had thought to kill for his glory and fun. Man cannot shed blood of innocent people without being responsible for his heinous acts. This time the price for his responsibility is an isolation whereby he can think about it so that he may change his behaviour and so that innocent people may live. Man cannot promote an immoral sweetness of life, which had been condemned by Heavens and Earth without paying the price of his carelessness and fearlessness (taqwāless) of God who is watching him behave in such a way that threatens the continuity of the human race. This time the price is the fear of contact at all with another man until he learns the right way of his life which is a common to all mankind. And finally, man cannot hide his words behind God’s will, claiming that his will is God’s will, while he knows exactly that it is an utter lie, without being caught by God’s wrath, which makes his life hard. This time God is sending us the message that it is time for us to come to our sound senses while we are in an isolation to look up our souls, spirits, minds and hearts in order to find who we are and what we are for here on this planet of ours. Are we here just for a fun that is passing or we are here for a purpose that has an eternal meaning here and in the Hereafter?

Dear Brothers & Friends,

Please, don’t let me down in my conciliation of having you as my brothers & friends as I am trying to be with you in my thoughts, my fears and my hopes that the humanity will overcome this calamity and become stronger in morality, which is the key for our common continuity on this poor planet of ours, which is sick and tired of our failing promises that we will be better as we go along. I hope you will join me in my prayers that Almighty God will not forget us if we forget Him! That His mercy and grace will not miss us even if we miss some of His commands! May the Merciful God save us from our own mischiefs! May the All-knowing God teach us how to conduct our life here on Earth in accordance to His will and His guidance

May God bless you all! Amen!

Faithfully yours, Mustafa Ceric, Ph.D Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia