Friday April 24, 2020
PM Abiy Ahmed conveying his Radaman Message on April 23, 2020 . Photo : EBC
In his Ramadan Message, Abiy Ahmed encouraged Ethiopian Muslims to practice social distancing and other COVID 19 prevention measures
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has conveyed Ramadan message, live video,on Thursday for the Muslims’ Holy Month of Ramadan which is starting on Friday.
Expressing his best wishes and noting that Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islamic faith, he said “The great Ramadan month is holy. A month of prayer and spirituality.”
Through his message, Abiy demonstrated that he has a good grasp of the basics of the faith. “The night the Holy Quran was sent down from Heaven is called ‘Yemewosegniyiyatu lelit’ [Night of Decree]. A good deed during that night is worth more than good deeds of thousands of months,” he said. His video message is longer than 12 minutes. Normally, best wish message on the occasion of Ramadan would have focused on Ramadan only, he said. “This year’s Ramadan is happening at a time when the world is affected by the Coronavirus pandemic and practicing social distancing, staying at home and avoiding handshakes”
He recalled that places of worship closed the world over, citing that Islamic teaching authorities have okayed prayer from home until the pandemic is eradicated.
Moreover, he said that Prophet Mohammed has taught about precaution measures in the event of a pandemic like Coronavirus, and we need to strictly practice it at this time.
“I have full confidence that followers of the Islamic faith will cooperate with health professionals to isolate infected persons,” he added.
The prime minister also conveyed economic messages. Pointing out the economic slow down due to the Coronavirus, he said that citizens need to play their part to support the government’s effort to minimize the negative economic impacts of the pandemic and that the Holy month of Ramadan is a good opportunity for that. For him, practices like that are in line with the concepts of Zakat and Sadaqah.