Muslims can have anti-COVID-19 shots, Darul Iftah says
HEALTH • 14:15 PM Thu Mar 11, 2021
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By:
John M. Unson
Hundreds of Muslim frontliners in the Bangsamoro region have been given Sinovac shots. (John Unson)
COTABATO CITY - The Bangsamoro Darul Iftah declared Thursday as “halal” the anti-COVID-19 vaccines being administered to Muslim frontliners in five southern provinces.
Halal means either permissible, or acceptable in Arabic.
The Darul Iftah, also known as the House of Opinions and comprised of clerics, among them graduates of Islamic universities in the Middle East and North Africa, is helping oversee the religious affairs of the regional government of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Darul Iftah’s figurehead, Islamic theologian Abuhuraira Udasan, said Thursday Muslims should not worry about getting vaccinated due to speculations that vaccines has inoculants that are haram (forbidden) in Islam.
He said the vaccines are safe and are meant to protect humans from COVID-19.
Udasan said there is nothing wrong with Muslim frontliners getting jabs to protect them from the coronavirus disease.
Hundreds of Muslim health workers in the Bangsamoro region got jabs in a continuing vaccination program that rolled out Monday.
Udasan also called on BARMM’s Muslim communities to ignore insinuations by skeptics and pessimists that the use of anti-COVID-19 vaccines as protection from the viral disease is forbidden in Islam.