Inter-religious Sensitivity in the Time of Covid-19

I was religiously pleased and humanly excited to read the story of a Hindu doctor reciting Kalima Shahada for a dying Muslim Covid patient in Kerala. Beevathu, 56 year old, was all isolated from her family in a covid ward. She had been there for 17 days, she was on a ventilator, and it was increasingly clear that there was no hope. After the consent from her family she was taken off from the ventilator.

Beevathu lies there between life and death. Nothing more to happen. But like any good dying Muslim, she perhaps wanted to hear the Kalima Shahada (the Islamic oath of faith) to be chanted to her by one of her family members; but there was none, the situation made it so.

Dr. Rekha, a Hindu doctor, was attending to her all these days. She knew what was happening, and she also knew what was not happening. Dr. Rekha knew the words of Kalima Shahada, thanks to her upbringing in UAE. She went close to Beevathu’s bed chanted into her ears, “La ilaha illallah Muhammadur rasulullah”. The woman grew peaceful and breathed her last.

Religion binds and it does not divide. Here we have two religious people. One sincerely and intently living the faith one believes in; another going even further and ensuring the spirit of every religion -peaceful living and peaceful death.

Patriarchy and priestly class have patented spiritual property rights of rituals and sacraments; and thus kept the majority away from doing the needful. Let faith and its sincere and sensitive expressions grow borderless, sexless, casteless, and inter-religious.

Another notable group who rose up to the occasion, going beyond religious division, is the Mercy angels –a group of Covid-19 volunteers in Bangalore. They took up the most dangerous task of giving the dead a decent burial or cremation. The fear of infection had kept even the nearest family away from the dead. Many bodies were not even claimed from the hospitals. They were sensitive to give a Christians a Christian burial, a Hindu a Hindu cremation, a Muslim a burial according to their rites. It is this sensitivity and thoughtfulness for one another that will make us truly religious, and if you want, inter-religious.

Comments

friar JamesmonMay 29, 2021 at 10:56 AM
Very insightful and need of the hour... May we have the ability and sensitivity to honour one another!
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friar JamesmonMay 29, 2021 at 10:57 AM
Very insightful and need of the hour... May we have the ability and sensitivity to honour one another!
ReplyDelete
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