Foremost Ibadan-based Islamic cleric, Alhaji Taofeek Akeugbagold has disclosed that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that both Muslim and Christian clerics are not as powerful as they claim.
Akeugbagold, who disclosed this in an interview with BBC Yoruba, also said that the pandemic is nothing but one of the small signs that indicate that the day of reckoning is approaching gradually.
“All the pastors that use to say there is no illness in this world they don’t have the cure for are now quiet because they know if care is not taken, they might get infected too.
“All the Islamic sheikhs that use to shout that they are the powerful ones, God has shown that they are not and they are now silent too.
“The Coronavirus issue is nothing really special. It is just another example of God showing how powerful he is.
“There is nothing that occur in this life that should surprise a Muslim because God had talked about everything in the Quran and the prophet addressed it in his hadith too.
“It is part of the small, small signs that show that the day of reckoning is close. The prophet said when the day is close, Almighty God will close the door go all the places we can go to seek for forgiveness.
He added that all place of worship globally including the haram in makkah and the Vatican city in Italy has been closed.
He also noted that there is a Quranic verse that stated that a time will come when a child will leave his parents and his parents will do the same too.
This, he said, had come to pass because if a child should get infected with COVID-19 now, his mother will leave him and should the mother get infected, she will do the same and go into isolation.
He added, “Coronavirus has shown that life’s luxury should be enjoyed linitedly because for example we will say we want to sleep but now we have slept and we are tired.”
Speaking on the month of Ramadan, he said, “God is an Almighty being, there is nothing the Quran and hadith did not teach us. Even if there is war, there are guidelines on what we should do and not do. There are times we don’t have to go to mosque to pray and this period is one of those times that Muslims are allowed to pray at home.
“God want to return Islam to how it was in the very beginning.”
He also enjoined Muslims to avoid thinking like an extremist who might insist on going to mosque.
