Social distancing during COVID-19 pandemic: the perspectives of Islam regarding religious congregations

As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire world is shattering. Maintaining social distancing at its different levels has been demonstrated as a key measure to minimize coronavirus transmission. In Islam, religious congregations are often held by its followers, and sometimes, it is strongly endorsed by some religious orders and inherited religious sentiments. Muslims have unique faith and principles about their religious convictions and performs. Congregational prayer is an essential part of Islamic tradition. However, a congregation of large amounts of people can be a fertile ground to spread novel pathogens, and such kinds of gatherings may lead to widespread potential dispersal of infection. This paper aims to investigate the sentiments of the Muslims behind these kinds of religious congregations and the teachings of Islam from this perspective. We reviewed the performing religious gathering by different Muslim communities worldwide and their sentiments behind this performance and Islamic teachings regarding this issue from the historical viewpoint. At the end of this review, we cover the perspectives of Islam regarding social distancing during the pandemics like COVID-19.