The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), has urged Nigerian citizens especially Muslims to take the COVID-19 vaccine without reservation.
MURIC Director Ishaq Akintola said this in a statement in Lagos on Saturday.
” The whole country is aware of the arrival of about four million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines since Tuesday, 2nd March, 2021.
” It is our candid opinion that Nigerians cannot afford to sit on the fence in the face of daunting COVID-19 statistics around the world.
116,874,912 cases have been confirmed globally as at yesterday, Friday, 12th March, 2021. There have also been 2,597,381 COVID-19 related deaths around the world.
Nigeria needs the vaccine as much as countries that have suffered high death rate from the pandemic. Nonetheless, a large number of citizens are still very skeptical about the efficacy of the vaccine. MURIC’s message of today is directed at this conspiracy theory camp, particularly the Muslim population.
“We reaffirm the position of scholars of Islam especially that of the prolific Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah in his Majmu‘ al-Fataawa (37 volumes). The concensus of Islamic scholars is that vaccination is halaal (permissible). They cited the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him) where he said ‘Seek medical treatment’.
“COVID-19 vaccine is designed to give protection to those who take it by making their bodies produce substances known as antibodies whose function is to fight disease.
” We have seen our leaders (both at the federal and state levels) taking the injection. This is to build confidence in us.
He urged Muslim faithful and the rest of the citizenry to embrace the vaccine.
“Let us obey our leaders as enshrined in the Glorious Qur’an (4:59),” he said.
He, therefore, called on cynics to have a rethink, face reality and accept the vaccine.
“We are concerned with the right of every Nigerian to live a healthy life free from any disease.
In particular, we believe that Nigerian lives matter as no Nigerian deserves to lose his life to any epidemic when a panacea has been made available, ” he said.
