WHEN WILT THOU SAVE THE PEOPLE?

WHEN WILT THOU SAVE THE PEOPLE?

Corona Virus is here, there and everywhere.  Thousands of its victims have died and thousands and thousands more are likely to die in the near future. There is as yet no remedy to overpower it and cure its afflicted preys in medical establishments.   Lockdowns of places and social isolations of patients are the only preventive measures.  That’s the wisest approach being exercised by current governments all over the world.

I am a great supporter of prevention and prescription because if prevention is better than cure is an eternal piece of wisdom, medical prescription is no less prudential.  The medicines prescribed by qualified physicians must be taken as per their directions. But remember, if you can, that in many a doctor’s clinic patients found this humble statement written boldly within their eyeshot: I TREAT BUT HE CURES. ‘HE’ here stands for GOD THE ALMIGHTY, GOD THE MERCIFUL.

An Urdu poet Jigar Murdabadi says in one of his lyrics:

ALLAH AGAR TAUFIQ NA DE, INSAN KE BAS KA KAAM NAHIN.

 In English it means man cannot march ahead unless guided and empowered by God.  It is in this sense that the recitation of prayer becomes a vital necessity in times of obstinate epidemics like Corona Virus.

Let me here clarify. Prayer is not a substitute for preventive measures and medical treatments.  It is however a powerful spiritual supplement which acts like nectar for humans’ body and mind. Whereas disease disturbs people, prayer soothes them.  It is a respectful request to the Supreme Creator to shower His mercy and bless them again with perfect health.       

    The lines that follow comprise the first six lines of the poem ‘When Wilt Thou Save The people” written by an English poet Ebenezer Elliott (1781-1849). They are worth reciting until the deadly virus called CORONA is completely terminated or at least made curable:

 

“When wilt thou save the people?

O God of Mercy, when?

Not kings and lords, but nations!

Not thrones and crowns, but men!

Flowers of Thy heart, O God, are they;

Let them not pass, like weeds, away,

24^th March 2020                            G. R. KANWAL