SINGAPORE – Around 9,100 people joined a Muslim virtual prayer session on Thursday night (April 16) that was streamed live on Facebook in Arabic, English, Malay and Tamil.

Local Muslim voluntary welfare organisation Jamiyah organised the event – the first of its kind here – to pray for relief and protection for all Singaporeans from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 30-minute prayer session featured four Islamic religious teachers, or asatizah, from Jamiyah and local mosques.

Places of worship are closed until May 4 and social gatherings are disallowed so prayer sessions that would usually be done in mosques are off the agenda.

The virtual prayer session involved reciting the Islamic holy book the Quran, short sermons and supplications read out in the four languages.

Dr Mohamed Nizam Mohamed Hamzah, Jamiyah’s director for corporate planning and strategy, said the session was rehearsed with the four asatizah to ensure that there would be no glitches.

“We went through the technical aspects with them as each of them would be delivering the supplication from their respective home. Then we tested the tele-conferencing,” he said.

“In the meantime, we did the publicity amongst our members, friends and contacts. It took a while to coordinate such event due to the circuit breaker restrictions on gathering for meetings, but it can be done.”

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