I thought Tuesdays class discussion regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on Islamic tradition, particularly the call to prayer and the hajj, was very interesting and raised a lot of important questions on this subject. When Muslim communities were unable to gather together for prayer due to the pandemic, it was interesting to learn about how the call to prayer itself was changed so that people would stay where they were and stay home and pray. I also did not know that people were actually sent around to people’s homes because people did not necessarily know what this new call to prayer meant when they heard it. However, I think it is important to note that even though the mosques were closed, the call to prayer was still a reminder to people to pray wherever they are despite there being that audible reminder that something is different. I also think this is a great example of how a religious tradition was able to remain united during the pandemic and even though they were unable to gather in community, we still learn a lot about Islamic tradition based on their response to continue the call to prayer.
It was also interesting to learn about COVID-19’s impact on the hajj, especially when considering what a central component this pilgrimage is to Islamic tradition. Because of the pandemic, the hajj was downsized to only 10,000 people living in Saudi Arabia. People were also required to wear masks and social distance. Once again, I think that this reveals a lot about the religious traditions of the Islamic community and that even during COVID-19, they did not cancel the Hajj but instead, continued to participate in this pilgrimage even if it looked a bit different.