Leaving a Settlement Struck by an Epidemic

Question

(1) In a certain village plague is continuing. Is leaving this village lawful (mashru‘) or unlawful? For half the people have left, and half are in the settlement. (2) If someone has gone away to the fields because of the disease, what is the ruling for him?

Answer

(1) Leaving such a settlement with the thought that “if we stay here we shall be afflicted with the plague, and if we go elsewhere we shall be saved” is impermissible and a sin; its prohibition has come in fiqh and in hadith (as in “al-Ashbah wa al-Naza’ir”). (2) The answer to this has also come under No. (1).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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