The photo of Masjid al-Haram empty of worshipers can be added to the archive of iconic photos of the human history. This photo is horrifying in its tranquility and what it entails in its confusing beauty, with its physical void pointing towards a haunting spiritual emptiness.
This immense emptiness has led to a revelation, in both the philosophical and artistic senses of the Kaaba as an entity that communicates with emptiness, in a painful and unprecedented scene.
In a heightened moment in the media that amplifies its impact on the receiver, whether people who spiritually identify with the Masjid or others who have just followed this universal spectacle on television and news agencies.
Suspending prayers in the Masjid is not an independent event that is limited to Muslims, but is a snapshot of a universal context that the "coronized" moment has imposed.
The view of the empty Masjid is a way for the media to remind believers of the importance and seriousness of the corona pandemic. It is also a painful image, like those of war and natural disasters, even if its visual appearance is more soft than ugly.
It is a woeful image, even if it appears calm and void of any trace of direct violence. Perhaps it is so because it does not only communicate with the conscience but also with the mind.
Emptiness is a language. It resembles pauses and cracks in literary texts. It is a body in the spiritual sense and an entity in the physical sense.
The photo mirrors an aggressive pandemic that reminds us to deal with it rationally and not emotionally.
