Cancel Trip if Hear of Plague

The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “If you hear the news of the spread of plague in any town, do not go there at all, and if at any place this disease spreads and you are present there, then do not come out from there.” [Bukhaari]

Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) has informed us of the best way in which to contain the spread of communicable diseases. The plague was a dreaded disease and people ran away from it. Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) clarified that one must not approach a place where it is known that the disease has broken out. However, if a person is already in that town or city when they hear of its occurance, they should not leave that area either.

A person may think that since they are not exhibiting the symptoms of the disease they won’t be taking the disease with them if they leave the afflicted place to go elsewhere. However, those who leave may be in the latent stage of the disease, which means that they won’t be outwardly sick yet, but will nevertheless be infected and capable of infecting others. Wherever they go they will take the disease with them. Hence, instead of the disease being contained to one locality, it will spread to a large land mass and, with modern transportation, possibly even the whole world.