The COVID Effect

By: Faiqa Awais

The other day, I went to the mall to buy a gift for someone. I had decided to buy a leather jacket and ultimately settled on visiting Forever 21 but couldn’t find the store. I asked a young man at a cafe to guide me to the location. His response surprised me. He said that the store had closed and pointed towards a location exactly behind me. I asked him again, puzzled, and with some uncertainty, “Forever 21?”

He smiled and said, “Yes, Forever 21.”

It was not the first store that closed down due to the pandemic.

About four months ago, I wanted to buy a cake for an occasion. I thought to purchase it on my way to work. It was convenient because it was for my colleagues. I was surprised when I could not find the cake shop I was looking for. I thought that I had missed the shop, and told my driver to check again after dropping me off. He called me to report that the shop had closed down. That, too, was the effect of the pandemic. It frustrated me, like many whose lives had been altered due to the pandemic.

After the aforementioned incident, I traveled out of town for the first time since the regulations began. On our way back, I went to the market, but the whole shopping mall was deserted. A single coffee shop and one other shop were open, with only one family sitting in the coffee shop. No lights, closed doors, silent escalators – all was quiet in the mall.

This was the impact of the pandemic. I felt sadness and fear, the fear of disease, the fear of helplessness, the fear of insecurity.

Gradually, lock-downs were lifted, curfews were ended, and public places were opened with restrictions. Life started moving, though at a slow pace. This led me to think: is there anything good that happened during this time, something good that is still happening?

This is what I learned:

People are slaves of habits. When habits are disturbed, we feel disappointed and heartbroken. But when we change our way of thinking, when we think about what we had been unable to focus on before, we can count the happinesses that we never appreciated.

Allah SWT says in the Quran, “Perhaps you dislike something which is good for you and like something which is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know,” (Surah Baqarah, 216).

Bad things can sometimes bring good things and sometimes, good things can bring bad effects. The world needs balance. We humans are shortsighted and not generous, so Allah SWT takes over the responsibility to restore and bless us with the balance.

I have gone out several times over the past months. The roads are clear, and traffic jams occur infrequently since educational institutions and many businesses are working on-line.Fewer vehicles on roads means that the environment is cleaner and time is being saved. My daughter is happy as she does not need to spend almost three hours every day on congested roads on her way to and back from school. It allows for a lot of physical and mental relaxation. It saves energy that can be used for prospective work.

People are altered in many ways: seldom going out, lower expenses, fewer dine-outs, reduced health problems from environmental effects, more time to walk, exercise, and attend to selfcare.

The pandemic has had another impact and that is the diminishing of unnecessary worries and menial concerns. Sometimes this slow pace of life is the only thing that we need. It is an energy booster, a refresher. When a computer is slow, we use the refresh command to recover it. This is a time to refresh everything in our lives—our relations, preferences, and whatever we need or want. The Qur’an frequently urges us to reflect, and now we can find the time to reflect, ponder and change our lives for the better.

We must acknowledge the silver lining of the pandemic, the lessons learnt, the changes—occurred or desired— and the blessings and happinesses. We may be apart from our families but we are, and ought to remain close at heart.

We may learn to be happy that our families, though away, are safe.

The pandemic gives us an opportunity to enhance our institutions of family, to strengthen our bonds with our children, parents and relatives. Many people have found time to do activities that are beneficial, or activities they enjoy. I read about one person who memorized the Qur’an during these months of staying home. It is quite possible that some of us recognized ourselves for the first time during this time.

We found hidden talents in us. We found time to write or read something that we had been planning to for a long time. We thought and felt what we had not before. We may have been able to get in touch with feelings unknown to us; or address problems that were never discussed. We now have the time to make prayers we never did, and develop goodness—if we had been unable to focus on ourselves before now. This is an opportunity to perform acts of kindness, help others and build hope. And it starts now.

Let us count blessings and search ways for how to make our days more useful and more fruitful.

We have discovered things that do not need money or drain our financial wellbeing.

We have discovered values that are not affected by our economies.

We have discovered objects deserving our love, care and happiness.

We have discovered sources that provide a sense of security.

Opportunities rarely strike twice. We must not let this opportunity go to waste. We must learn and survive!

Covid-19 is not biased. It affects the human race without discrimination of race, ethnicity, creed, religion, national origins, color or other identities. Though it brought disease and death, it also brought hope and unity.

We need to stay alike; together and apart but closer. We are aware of the predicaments, but we have to work, examine, treat and expose ourselves. We may have to sacrifice individually in order to protect and save the whole.

This is the “Covid Effect”.