Covid-19 has spread around the world. The unprecedented speed of Covid-19 has caused chaos and forced all stakeholders to address many unexpected and critical challenges.
Thus, the new normal in 2020 will require new and more flexible approaches in daily routine including at home, school, work, public area and others.
The coronavirus that emerged in late 2019 has rapidly become a nightmare for all, affecting economy and health, as well as socially and culturally. For Muslims, we must patiently endure any difficulties throughout this hardest time.
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: "Indeed the greatness of reward is according to the greatness of the trial, and when Allah loves the person, He tests him." (Narrated by at-Tirmidhi (2396).
Covid-19 certainly gives the most valuable lessons of life. Patience, honesty, empathy, hard work and cooperation are some of attributes that we learn and should adapt during this pandemic. Allah also provides the opportunity to get high rewards for those who have endured these challenges with patience rather than complaint and ingratitude.
The government recently introduced the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO), which means that Malaysia is on the path to recovery phase while still adhering to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and guidelines set up by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and other agencies. The RMCO enabled the nation to move further away from the grasp of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With Covid-19 affecting millions of people's lives, it has compelled everyone to prepare and respond to new and positive habits. Ironically, this transition phase requires people to change their attitude and practice self-control constantly.
The public must play an important role in fighting the pandemic outbreak, therefore showing blatant disregard to new practices and SOPs is no longer an option.
Malaysia has flattened the Covid-19 curve successfully, while other countries are still struggling to curb the effects of the pandemic. But, this is not the time to be complacent. The stigma of the global pandemic remains at varying degrees and aspects.
Everyone has the responsibility to embrace and follow all the guidelines by MOH to avoid a new wave of Covid-19, like what happened in other countries. Even though statistics has shown the decline of new infections, it should be noted that this reduction is only applicable to the clusters that were tested.
While we are still facing the challenges of dealing with the pandemic, we should also grab this opportunity to accommodate the inevitable change in our lives. RMCO should not be considered as free from pandemic but it's a transition phase for individuals to adopt new norms in all daily activities.
Everyone should be concerned about the importance of self-discipline, maintaining cleanliness, rebuilding relationship with people, learning new skills, and so forth. Being allowed to be involved in almost all social, economic, recreational and religious activities, we need to embrace the new norms as a way of life and adopt them as our new culture.
Keeping a significant physical distance is one of the public health practices to reduce the chance of infection among the high risk population. The best way to protect ourselves from the devastation of the coronavirus is by reducing face-to-face communication with others, thus minimising any form of close contact.
While eating outside with families or friends, we need to adopt a new social practice that comply with the existing SOPs. The new way we eat outside indicates the fear of being infected. This new normality is good as people nowadays are becoming more aware in personal hygiene to avoid the risk of infection.
On the other hand, there is no point in boasting that Malaysia has a great variety and tasty food, as we continuously tolerate food operators who ignore hygiene, proper protection and restaurants which are not kept clean.
While all of us are abiding to the guidelines and SOPs, high com
pliance is needed in order to break the virus infection's chain. Embracing high standard of hygiene should start within our family.
Therefore, children need to be taught on how to maintain and protect their health and safety as well as proper hygiene practices. Parents can play an important role. This effort can also help teachers to pay more attention to the teaching and learning aspect.
The Covid-19 outbreak has given us a lot of insight on the importance of health and cultural preparedness, so that the problem can be solved collectively and effectively. In short, this recovery phase is actually more challenging. Its success depends entirely on the people's willingness to change attitudes, improve their self-discipline and take responsibility in dealing with the threat of outbreak.
THE WRITER IS A FELLOW AT THE INSTITUT OF ISLAMIC UNDERSTANDING (IKIM) MALAYSIA
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
