Managing the pandemic breakout from Siasah Syar’iyyah perspective

Abstract EN

At the end of December 2019, a pandemic of life-threatening disease known as Covid-19, caused by a virus that is highly infective and capable of damaging the respiratory system of a human body, to eventually causing death within a short span of time, has been reported in Wuhan, china.

this virus has spread to hundreds of countries with hundred thousand positive cases of Covid-19, as well as thousands of death recorded until April 2020.

similarly, Malaysia also faces the pandemic of covid-19 and recorded an increase of positive cases with more than 50 deaths until today.

multiple drastic preventive measures and steps have been implemented by the authorities in Malaysia to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak.

hence, this study is conducted to identify control measures that have been used globally, by looking into recent literature studies and focusing on the enforcement of restriction of movement Order (RMO) measure in Malaysia.

in evaluating the legality of the implementation, the concept of Siasah Syar’iyyah, which is an effective mechanism in safeguarding the public interest or common good as required in Islam, must be taken into consideration.

therefore, qualitative methodology was duly adopted to explore the jurisprudential approach of prior Muslim governments, by analyzing highly regarded principal references that addressed similar cases.

the basic principles of islam, as contained in the Quran and ḥadīth of Rasulullah PBUH, applied in the decision making process and the rationality of actions taken in addressing any pandemic of disease would also be observed through data analysis methodology (content analysis).

the approach of Islamic jurispru-dence methodology that is relevant and its application to this issue is also very important to be elaborated to understand that the process used before arriving at each decision by the authorities should adhere to the concept of maqāṣid and main principles of sharī‘ah.

the result of the study found that the preventive measures to control the pandemic outbreak currently implemented by Malaysian government as well as the policies being enforced in dealing with the life-threatening pandemic is consistent with the injunctions of Islamic law that should be obeyed by all parties.