India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, APRIL 22— The chief of Tablighi Jamaat has appealed to all Muslims and especially his members who have been cured of Coronavirus “to come forward and show this act of kindness to humanity, and help the society and government by donating blood plasma.”
Tablighi Jamaat chief Muhammad Saad is in self-quarantine after the end-March tragedy at the headquarters of his organization in Nizamuddin area of Delhi when hundreds of participants of Tablighi congregation were found to be infected with Coronavirus or COVID-19.
In his one-page appeal, both in Urdu and English, on Tuesday, the cleric said: “It’s my humble request to all Muslims and especially da’wah workers (Tablighi members) who receive this message, to come forward and show this act of kindness to humanity, and help the society and government by donating blood plasma to a sick person only for the sake of Allah’s pleasure.”
The cleric issued the appeal hours after the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, referring to ICMR and global reports, told media that with the blood plasma of persons cured of COVID-19, life of serious patients of this disease can be saved. The minister also asked the Indian Red Cross to encourage Corona survivors for blood donation.
In his appeal, the Tablighi chief invoked the sayings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) about love and affection for humanity and urged cured people to donate blood plasma.
“During this time of crisis, it is important to take care of people’s needs, food and other essential items and to enquire of their well-being especially of the poor and needy. But an even greater responsibility that we have at this time is to save the life of a sick person, and to expend our own life and wealth so that he/she can be cured of a terrible disease…If there is a person suffering from COVID disease anywhere in the world, this should affect all humanity, just like a part of the human body if it gets injured it pains the whole body,” he said.
The Tablighi chief claimed that majority of his members infected with Coronavirus have been treated and cured and urged cured persons to donate blood plasma.
“Alhamdulillah, most of our da’wah brothers who were quarantined didn’t have any infection and they tested negative for COVID. Even from amongst the ones who tested positive for the disease, Alhamdulillah, a majority of them have now undergone treatment and are now cured. While I and a few others are still under quarantine. It is required that such people who are now cured of this disease should donate blood plasma to others who are still fighting the disease and are under treatment,” he said.
In its daily press briefing, the Union Health Ministry had on April 18 said that out of 14,378 positive cases of Coronavirus in the country, 4,291 (29.84%) were linked to Tablighi Jamaat’s Nizamuddin Markaz congregation.
On March 30-31, over 2,000 people, many of them foreigners, were evacuated from Tablighi Jamaat’s headquarters-cum-mosque, also known as Nizamuddin Markaz. Hundreds of them were later found to be infected with COVID-19. They had come there to attend a Tablighi congregation between 13-15 March and extended their stay there. The ‘Janata Curfew’ was observed across the country on March 22 on the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and from March 23, Delhi went into lockdown. On March 13, the Delhi government had banned assembly of more than 50 people in the city. In the last week of March, the administrators of Nizamuddin Markaz had contacted concerned government officials for travel passes for the stranded persons but they could not get.
After the incident, the Police lodged a case against the Tablighi chief for holding the congregation even after the ban on assembly of people and after death of some COVID-19 patients, he was charged with culpable homicide.
Meanwhile, according to the Union Health Ministry, the total number of Coronavirus cases reached 19,984 in the country on Wednesday – 15474 of them were active cases, 3869 were cured and discharged and 640 died.
In Delhi, the number of active cases were 1498 on Tuesday. Besides, 611 have recovered and 47 have died.
