Duties of the Islamic State and Government towards the Contagious Diseases

Human society throughout history has faced numerous calamities such as wars, natural disasters, and contagious diseases which have left behind lots of victims. Good or bad functions of the states in managing these events have played a decisive role in increasing or decreasing the number of victims, so it seems necessary to establish the duties of the Islamic state toward these events. Although in some researches mentions have been made to the duties of the states in this regard, this article seeks to establish the primary rule of the states’ duties toward the contagious diseases drawing upon the proofs of fiqh. Furthermore, apart from the government proofs of the guardianship of Muslim jurisconsult, the article tries to establish the states’ duties, drawing inspiration from the proofs of the necessity of prevention of constraint, the acquisition of its preliminaries, necessary measures as well as the necessity of taking care of the Muslims’ affairs. The result of the research reveals that, according to the primary rule, when the society is threatened by a contagious disease, it is incumbent upon the Islamic state to do whatever it can, to take necessary measures to prevent the spread of the disease in the society – no matter what it does may result in denying individuals’ freedom, business closure, closure of gatherings and religious ceremonies –, in order to resolve the economic problems caused by the spread of the disease and in line with the mentioned effective measures to fight disruptions.