A farm labourer and his wife in India who had worked hard for years to save money to go on Hajj have donated everything to aid the fight against coronavirus.
55 year old Abdurrahman Goodinabali and his wife were planning on embarking on the pilgrimage next year, but they feared that holding on to their money would bring them a curse when people around them were suffering due to the coronavirus lockdown.
“Like any Muslim, my parents too wished to go on the Hajj and had saved money after working for years,” said Elyas, Abdurrahman’s son, on Facebook in a post which has since gone viral.
“My father is a coolie and my mother rolls bidis for an earning. My father had been saving money for years to go to the pilgrimage. But he felt when people around him are suffering due to the lockdown, holding on to the money would bring a curse upon him. So he decided to feed the needy.”
While the family did not disclose how much they had saved for the pilgrimage, which costs several thousand pounds, Abdurrahman has so far distributed rice and other food essentials to 25 families in Goodinabali village of Bantwal taluk in Mangalore.
Mangalore is the chief port city of the Indian state of Karnataka located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats mountain range about 219 miles west of Bangalore, the state capital.
India seems to be bucking the coronavirus trend as death rates in major Indian cities are lower compared to global coronavirus hotspots.
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Nearly two months after its first recorded case, COVID-19 infections in the world’s second-most populous country have passed 27,000, with more than 800 deaths.
The government has even eased coronavirus restrictions, allowing the opening of neighbourhood and standalone shops, including those located in residential complexes within municipal areas.
