Q: Is social distancing in salaah permissible? My ustadhs say its not permissible and its makrooh tahreemi and that's what I follow but at home, my brother says its allowed because the hadith needs interpretations and that Hazrat Muhammed (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) said that flee from a leper. So how would you flee from a lion? He also said that Umar (radiyallahu anhu) didn't want to enter a land of the plague and he said that all the Ulama that say social distancing is not permissible are weak in usoolul fiqh and weak Ulama.
A: Hadhrat Umar (radhiyallahu anhu) did not enter the town, but he and the entire jamaat who were accompanying him, all performed their namaaz shoulder to shoulder in spite of the hadeeth saying flee from the leper. Then, all those who attend the musjid are not lepers. So why treat all the people as lepers. If from a crowd of 1000, 2 or 3 people are lepers then these 2 or 3 should be distancing, not the 998. And there is no precedent of this from the time of Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), the Sahaabah (radhiyallahu anhum) and the pious of the past. In this day and time, even the government does not recognise distancing. The government does their homework before passing anything. Passengers in all airplanes and taxis are shoulder to shoulder. In fact, within your own home there is no social distancing. Your parents are on the same bed together, at the time of meals there is no distancing and you also cuddle the small baby at home. So from a shar`ee perspective, legal perspective and social perspective the reasoning is flawed and lopsided.
And Allah Ta'ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
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