It was my Son’s Birthday, a milestone in his life and mine. If you would have told me when he was first born, OK on your son’s 10th birthday there is going to be a worldwide pandemic, there is going to be a virus going around and businesses and schools are going to shut down. You will have to stay in your house as much as possible only going out for food and a little exercise, in some countries you cannot leave your house at all, this will be government-mandated.

You have to keep a 2-meter distance from everyone and will be queuing outside to buy food in a supermarket, you cannot see your friends and family that you don’t live with, hardly any airplanes are flying and the borders are shut, all entertainment and places of worship are shut down.

The virus spreads rapidly a lot of people are being infected and dying. People will be wearing face masks and gloves in public. Nobody will be in Makkah doing Umrah during Ramadan, it will be practically empty but when they are praying they cannot stand next to each other. I would have never have believed it let alone envisioned it. But 10 years later this is exactly what I and many millions of people across the globe are living through. Lockdown in London. We’re living through history and nothing I’ve experienced in my lifetime.

When it initially happened in Wuhan China they were saying on the news there was a virus spreading at an alarming rate and people were dying. The UK, Europe and the US didn’t take it seriously at all. I was paying attention to it, people initially said it spread from a wet market where they sell live wild animals as food. People also said it spread from Chinese people eating bat soup. When they locked down Wuhan I knew it was serious and I didn’t want my husband (who works in Heathrow airport) to go there to work. Nobody was taking it seriously at the airport (he didn’t listen).

Initially, I was worried and anxious about catching the virus and for my family. People were panic buying in all the stores, you didn’t think you would be able to get food because they literally ransacked all the stores! We were concerned we couldn’t get nappies for the baby.

When they first started limiting the number of people going into the supermarket I remember we were standing outside with the baby and it was cold weather and I was feeling like we had turned into refugee status overnight. People were worried, people were panicking, queuing for food, the shelves were bare, prices were going up and it made me think of the Syrian people and their plight.

People in the UK acted more selfish than a lot of countries in Europe with the hoarding and panic buying but I’m not surprised, in this country you’re taught greed and selfishness and to think about only yourself and your own family. The media virtue signal and claim there’s a community but a lot are the religious communities and ethnic minority communities.

Islamic scriptures came to my mind about the day of judgment and just how quickly this pandemic took over and changed our lives. Surah al Kahf (The Cave 18) in the holy Quran about being worried and not knowing what to do with yourself but be worried and turn your hands about.

The world was turned on its head from something we cannot even see and it made me reflect on the power and might of God. How his will came to manifest so quickly in a way we could never think of, from something we cannot see but we fear being carried in people that are killing them but so tiny it fits on the head of a pin, Glory be to God!

It’s ironic, Muslim women have been persecuted for a long time for wearing the face veil, now it’s become mandatory to wear face coverings on public transport or you’ll be fined and people don’t even see the irony in it.

Seeing the holy mosque in Makkah and seeing nobody doing the obligatory circumambulating compared to it being packed to the brimful was sad and scary. It made me think of the end of times and a hadith that states there will be a time where there will be no Muslims left to defend the Kabah and people will come to demolish it brick by brick.

It’s like we’ve been given an insight and a warning. My husband said the holy mosque is going to be like the Greek Colosseum, just ruins. Also with all of the mosques closed shows us what life will be like without it, the lack of community and a place of worship would be a sad life for us which easily descends into people being isolated and a lack of faith without a central focal point in the community. May this never happen in this country. It made me think of the atheists and those that don’t actively engage in worship and how empty it feels for them without it.

People have been saying maybe God didn’t want our prayers and is not pleased with us because our lack of unity as an ummah and our neglect of our brothers and sisters facing major injustices all around the world. May he forgive us and invite us all to his home again to worship. I used to moan about the number of people in the haraam but having nobody there is far worse.

This life-altering pandemic has forced me to slow down. I’ve been running around for a while, 6 days a week chasing life. God is very much in control of everything and I must trust the process, even though a lot of the time I don’t like it.

The lifeblood of London is the people. I always moan that it’s always so busy, the traffic, parking, but being out when it was ghost town was so eerie.

I didn’t take advantage of having to be home so much, I didn’t have time because of the kids. I watched 2 movies, I didn’t read any books and my productivity went way down, I slept a lot in the beginning, the stay at home tiredness is real.

There’s been a lot of Alex Jones conspiracy theories flying around about the virus. That it was unleashed by China or a new world order or the removal of cash payments. Whatever anyone’s agenda is we cannot control or worry about that, we have to put our faith in God and do what we feel is best to protect ourselves, nothing is going to happen without his permission.

The economy has been turned on its head with footballers that make 100k a week doing nothing and shelf stackers in supermarkets being the most important people in society. Seeing haram businesses having to close is bemusing, the society has been forced towards an Islamic way of life and we shouldn’t be going back to what it was before. The virus has exposed all of the bad and inequalities and if they don’t want this again they need to make important changes.

Without the constant entertainment and grinding for your bread What Is the Purpose of Life?

An islamic teacher said we’re using what God has given us to chase what God has already written for us.

With all of the other politics, Dominic Cummings, the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in plain sight and the protests and riots it’s sparked worldwide 2020 has been hell of a year and it’s only halfway through. Again we are living through history.

People have managed to take advantage though as some always will. Jeff Bezo became a trillionaire because Amazon still operated at a high level whilst everyone else shut up shop and failed to adapt to changing circumstances. Some people are able to take advantage of a bad situation.

This is ever-changing let’s see what we’re going to be hit with next in 2020. Allah protect us, Allah forgive us.

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