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Fatwa CenterTaking Available Means to Prevent the Spread of the Pandemic: Legitimate
Question
فصل ب?ن المصل?ن بسبب الامراض المعدية
Due to Corona virus is a pandemic (Waba) that spreads due to close contact between people. The world health organization and other organizations working for human safety have directed people to observe social distancing. Is it not better to keep distance among people standing in suf of salat to avoid contact.
We are going for prayers in mosque, it is feasible to leave some space between people standing in a saf of salat due to Cornavirus.
When hadiths are also there
يَقُولُ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم " لاَ عَدْوَى وَلاَ طِيَرَةَ وَلاَ هَامَةَ وَلاَ صَفَرَ، وَفِرَّ مِنَ الْمَجْذُومِ كَمَا تَفِرُّ مِنَ
الأَسَدِ
The hadith in Muslim when the prophet (saw) did not shake hands for beats when a wafad came for acceptance of Islam.
Another hadith
عن عائشة انها قالت سألت رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم عن الطاعون فأخبرني رسول الله صلى الله عليه و سلم : انه كان عذابا يبعثه الله على من يشاء فجعله رحمة للمؤمنين فليس من رجل يقع الطاعون فيمكث في بيته صابرا محتسبا يعلم انه لا يصيبه الا ما كتب الله له الا كان له مثل أجر الشهيد
تعليق شعيب الأرنؤوط : إسناده صحيح على شرط البخاري
Please clarify
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Utilizing the available means to prevent the spread of infection does not go against the Islamic Sharee‘ah, nor does it contradict true reliance on Allah, The Exalted. Actually, a Muslim is Islamically required to utilize the available means, as evidenced by the two Ahadeeth you mentioned. The Prophet said: “Run away from the leper as you run away from a lion.” [Al-Bukhari] It was narrated on the authority of ‘Amr ibn Ash-Shareed from his father that there was a leper among the delegation of Thaqeef. The Prophet sent a message to him: “We have accepted your pledge of allegiance; you may go back.” [Muslim]
One of the means to prevent the spread of this pandemic – by the permission of Allah – is observing a safe distance among the praying people standing in the rows during the congregational prayers held at the mosque. There is nothing wrong with this, Allah willing, and it is rather required, being a means to prevent the spread of the pandemic. As readily known, the means to an end takes the same ruling as the end.
In fact, observing distance among the worshipers in congregational prayers is permissible and valid according to the majority of scholars, even if there is no need for such distance, so how about the case when there is a considerable need for it, namely taking the required precautions against the transmission and spread of the infection?
As for the Hadeeth narrated on the authority of ‘Aa’ishah 
it has nothing to do with utilizing the available means to prevent the spread of the pandemic!
As for the saying of the Prophet : “There is no infection,” it means that an infection cannot affect a person in and of itself but that it rather affects him only by the Decree and Predestination of Allah, The Exalted, and the norm of causality (i.e. the cause-and-effect relations) established by Him.
Allah Knows best.
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