The tragic deaths of 97 people caused by a PIA plane crash on Friday, just seconds before landing at its Karachi destination, will be mourned for long across the country.  The wounds of the affected families would stay green for a long time to come, especially because of the timing of the tragedy. Their nears and dears left them for their heavenly abodes only a couple of days before Eid, which is celebrated after a month of fasting.

But in this tragedy is also a lesson for everybody to learn: That the time, place and cause of death of every mortal is pre-decided by the Creator of the Universe. Nothing of the three can be changed.

Those who were fated to die in the plane crash on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan have bidden farewell to this temporary world. And those destined to survive the tragic incident have miraculously been saved by the Lord of the worlds. This bears the testimony that The Creator of the Universe can save anyone He likes even in the worse situations.

Media reports say that while dozens of others perished, the recently-appointed president of the Bank of Punjab Zafar Masood survived because the nature threw him out of plane along with his seat. Isn’t it some unbelievable?

An unknown individual -Zubair - is also lucky that he has seen the tragedy with his own eyes and is surviving to complete his life term.

An airhostess survived because at the eleventh hour she was given some other assignment and she did not board the flight. And the airhostess who replaced her is no longer in this world.

A number of houses where the plane crashed have also been destroyed, leaving a number of worries for their inmates. They had never thought that suddenly something would happen and their houses would be razed to the ground.

All this proves that people staying away from mosques for the coronavirus fear are totally misled.

They must bear in mind that if they are not fated to die in mosque because of the pandemic, they will remain unaffected in all situations – even if all others die.

And if the contagion has to be somebody’s cause of death, they have to fall prey even if they quarantine themselves at homes and they stay away from public. Life and death are in Allah’s hands.

It’s a question of faith.

The faithful who have stopped going to mosques lest corona should attack them – should review their thinking without delay.

If they have more months/years/decades to live, corona or no other disease can cause them any harm. They have to complete their mandated terms.

But if the term is over, then quarantine or any other precautionary measure can’t save them.

By confining themselves to homes – and staying away from mosques – they are only depriving themselves of the huge awards promised by Allah in return for their worship.

Death is unavoidable. Nobody can escape it, quarantine or no quarantine.