WHITE FEAR……..AND MOTHERS AND THEIR CHILDREN

White fear permeating GAZA civilians

I am at a medical lecture. A surgeon has just returned from the border of GAZA, where he has been operating on civilians from GAZA.

He puts up a picture of the hospital people just sitting and waiting in the courtyard.  What is this I think, there is a war going on and people of the hospital are just lolling around? But before my judgmental self could go into high gear he explains:

“Patients are only brought when ceasefire occurs and it occurs only one to three hours every twenty-four hours”

I translate that into my mind……. cease fire, which means that not even patients are allowed to leave GAZA, unless in this uneven match the Israelis give permission to pause in the active process of a unilateral killing field…I think of the American TV commentator explaining why GAZA is being attacked: because Hamas has posted children and women on top of army installations……….and the sad commentary on the intellect of us Americans is that we may actually believe that.

I don’t want to second guess Allah Subhanawataala’s wisdom in this carnage……….but perhaps the hearts of his people have become so………HARD that he wants to show them some scenes of devastation in the hope that those hearts would soften with compassion………..perhaps.

A heart of stone

Another picture goes up, the surgeon is operating on some ones leg, all you can see is the stump of one leg which was amputated civil war style with a saw, and the other has a burn which has eaten up all except the bone. He continues:

“This is a phosphorus burn, (WHITE FEAR) he says and pauses……….as if recalling the horrific memory, the feeling of helplessness. A medical situation when even a well-equipped doctor cannot help a phosphorus burn because it continues to burn the flesh till nothing is left except the bone…………..”

I too pause and recall that use of white Phosphorus on civilians is a war crime……………visions of the Nuremberg trial appear, where the victims of those times are now the perpetrators of the present crime…

The surgeon continues…” Almost all the patients were women and children; there were a few elderly men and almost no young men”

I think of Tariq………..what happened to the young men……….I cannot even bear to think of it, this is no longer a medical lecture on the medical relief activities in the war on GAZA, but an hour of personal anguish………

I think of the mothers watching their young sons, being burnt to the bone, I hear their wails, their prayers to God…..asking Him to destroy the future generations of the Israelis and all those who help them, I see them pouring out their anguish to Him Subhanawataala cell by cell, their own hearts melting with pain like the flesh of their children melt with the white phosphorus………….

Can some one help…….they cry out and there is no answer, the powerful wait till the population of Gaza is burnt to the ground……………so that the Israelis can have their open-air cafes without fear of being bombed.

I am frozen in time, space and grief, I see the slide show changing, wound after wound being shown, the patients are all children they are alive and in pain……….I cannot hear him any longer.

He shows a picture of a seven-year-old girl with a huge gash sewed up in her thigh, from which he has removed a broken part of a rocket from an American gunship (given to Israel in its annual three billion dollar package)

a sterile image of the perpetrators

I am devastated as I see my tax money…being used to lodge pieces of rockets in the bodies of children condemning them to a life of legless ness.

and the end result is:

Burning alive

Will Allah Subhanawataala ever forgive me for this indirect participation, astighfirullah astighfirullah astighfirullah! I ask for forgiveness, He knows that I had no power over where my money is being sent.

Someone from the audience asks “why are the Jews of Israel maiming the children of GAZA?” what do they get out of it?”

I am surprised at the analytical American mind, which asked this question…….the answer however is an eye opener:

“ With the maiming of the young population of GAZA the Jews of Israel want to drain all the resources of the people there and make them completely dependant, exhausted and useless.” (Thus making slavery easier for the conquerors……….)

All I can say at that point is that on the Day of Judgment……….Allah Subhanawataala will not only question the Israeli and American Jews for methodically maiming the children of GAZA, but each person alive at this time in history will be asked” what did you do?”………………Including me.

What are we doing besides getting angry and using bad words for the perpetrators of this crime?
Is this softening our hearts with compassion?
Are we less attached now to things than the plight of people?
Has this impacted on the way we live, eat, drink and waste? Has this brought us closer to the fear and love of God?

I ask myself, how can help? How can I change myself towards taqwa? Do I know what Allah Subhanawataala says and enjoins for me in circumstances such as these?

Allah Subhanawataala has sent Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as a mercy for mankind, and in his life and actions we can find inspiration, healing and solutions.

I realize that history repeats itself………….. Do I know the history of Islam? and do I know what did Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) do when faced with such a disaster…………I don’t know…… because there is a large void in my knowledge………………Do you know?

A Dua from Sheikh Alafasy

WHEN WILL HELP COME…………….

who will lift the siege?

Who will fell The Wall?

Who will support the Palestinian resistance?

Who will free Palestine?

Who will wipe these tears?

FOR ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS AND MORE CHECK YOUR MIRROR AND YOUR HEART.

Allah Subhanawataala says in the Quran:

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YUSUFALI: When My servants ask thee concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them): I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calleth on Me: Let them also, with a will, Listen to My call, and believe in Me: That they may walk in the right way.

ARE WE CALLING HIM? (SUBHANAWATAALA)

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YUSUFALI: The life of this world is alluring to those who reject faith, and they scoff at those who believe. But the righteous will be above them on the Day of Resurrection; for Allah bestows His abundance without measure on whom He will.

DO WE REJECT FAITH IN FAVOR OF SMALL gods in everyday life?

002.213
YUSUFALI: Mankind was one single nation, and Allah sent Messengers with glad tidings and warnings; and with them He sent the Book in truth, to judge between people in matters wherein they differed; but the People of the Book, after the clear Signs came to them, did not differ among themselves, except through selfish contumacy. Allah by His Grace Guided the believers to the Truth, concerning that wherein they differed. For Allah guided whom He will to a path that is straight.

AND HERE IS HIS MESSAGE TO US WHO ASK…………………. WHEN WILL HELP COME?

002.214
YUSUFALI: Or do ye think that ye shall enter the Garden (of bliss) without such (trials) as came to those who passed away before you? they encountered suffering and adversity, and were so shaken in spirit that even the Messenger and those of faith who were with him cried: “When (will come) the help of Allah?” Ah! Verily, the help of Allah is (always) near!

IN STRIFE……..

ATTRIBUTES OF TRUE BELIEVERS (Surah Fath)
(29) MUHAMMAD is God’s Apostle; and those who are [truly] with him are firm and unyielding [This composite gives, I believe, the full meaning of the term ashidda (sing. shadid) in the above context.] towards all deniers of the truth, [yet] full of mercy towards one another. [Lit., “among themselves”. Cf.  5: 54 - “humble towards the believers, proud towards all who deny the truth”.] Thou canst see them bowing down, pros trating themselves [in prayer], seeking favour with God and [His] goodly acceptance: their marks are on their faces, traced by prostration. [The infinitive noun sujud (“prostration”) stands here for the innermost consummation of faith, while its “trace” signifies the spiritual reflection of that faith in the believer’s manner of life and even in his outward aspect. Since the “face” is the most expressive part of man’s personality, it is often used in the Quran in the sense of one’s “whole being”.] This is their parable in the Torah as well as their parable in the Gospel: [The posture of humility in prayer is indicated by prostration: i.e., Moses and Aaron “fell upon their faces”, Num. xvi. 22. Regarding the significance of the term Injil (“Gospel”) as used in the Quran, see the note on 3: 4.] [they are] like a seed that brings forth its shoot, and then He strengthens it, so that it grows stout, and [in the end] stands firm upon its stem, delighting the sowers. [Thus will God cause the believers to grow in strength,] so that through them He might confound the deniers of the truth. [Lit., “infuse with wrath”.] [But] unto such of them as may [yet] attain to faith and do righteous deeds, God has promised forgiveness and a reward supreme. [Whereas most of the classical commentators understand the above sentence as alluding to believers in general, Razi relates the pronoun minhum (“of them” or “among them”) explicitly to the deniers of the truth spoken of in the preceding sentence - i.e., to those of them who might yet attain to faith and thus achieve God’s forgiveness: a promise which was fulfilled within a few years after the revelation of this verse, inasmuch as most of the Arabian enemies of the Prophet embraced Islam, and many of them became its torchbearers. But in a wider sense, this divine promise remains open until Resurrection Day (Tabari), relating to everybody, at all times and in all cultural environments, who might yet attain to the truth and live up to it.]

WALL TO WALL OPPRESSION……

A Glimpse of freedon over the wall

Heavy supplies, gnarled hands

age is no barrier for the desire of freedom

carrying for the family and neighbors

marching for bread....children and adults

Never forgetting the animals

And now many of those alive and well in these pictures are dead in Gaza leaving behind grief stricken hearts all over the world……

Have your ever been prohibited from praying?

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

If you can pray when you want and where you want then pray two Rakaat of shukraana and think of the people in this picture:

In Ramadan: Palestinian men being stopped by Israeli soldiers from Praying at the Al Aqsa mosque

This was reported by the Boston Globe in its pictures on :Ramadan around the world:

Allah SWT may place us right next to the one of the holiest mosque in the world and even then we may not be able to pray in it.

It is by His (SWT) permission that good things happen and it is with His (SWT) permission that harm comes to us, but dua is the strongest weapon of the believer to keep harm at bay and to invoke Him (SWT) for the good things and for the ability and the honor to pray in the three holy mosques of this world ( The Haraam at the Kaaba, Masjid e Nabvi and Al Aqsa mosque)

What we pray for ourselves, remember also to pray for the Ummah.

Have you ever been prohibited from praying?

Why Can’t I Be Like Other Children……?

The heart of a child innocent of the politics of the times, beats with hope, faith and belief that one day he or she can be like the other children of the world.

While the news is full of the bombings and bulldozing of homes and orchards, ushering in death and disaster in GAZA…….the children do not let go of their hope that perhaps one day they will be able to enjoy a life of safety, reliability, predictability and protection from the horrors of Israeli air strikes, like everyone elsewhere in the world, living in their homes.

Her story:

His story: (English translation after opening scene)

Palestinian Children at Beit Jala

Dua: May Allah Subhana waataala give us strength and emaan to protect our children and guide our path so that we are neither opressed nor the opressor.

For more information contact the children’s medical rehabilitation unit of MECA or the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance at: www.mecaforpeace.org

THE SUPPLICATION FOR FEAR!

I am calmly swimming off the coral reef, when my hand goes to my waist and I panic, I am not wearing my life jacket, I have never swum this far without a life jacket. I can see where the wall of the reef begins and the depth of the ocean becomes immeasurable. As my panic rises I remember the dua that I often have to read from my piece of paper after the Dhuhr prayer but whose meaning I know well:

اللّهُـمَّ لا مانِعَ لِما أَعْطَـيْت، وَلا مُعْطِـيَ لِما مَنَـعْت، وَلا يَنْفَـعُ ذا الجَـدِّ مِنْـكَ الجَـد .

“Allaahumma laa maani‘a limaa a‘tayt, wa laa mu‘tiya limaa mana‘t. Wa laa yanfa‘u dhal-jaddi minkal-jadd.”

“Ô Allah, none can prevent what You have willed to bestow. And none can bestow what You have willed to prevent. And no wealth or majesty can benefit anyone, as from You is all wealth and majesty.”

My heart rate normalizes, I submit to the fact that I am in His (SWT) hands. I once again begin to enjoy Allah SWT’s beautiful ornamentation underwater, and forget how deep I have come.

It is early midday we are leaving the mosque. I ask her how her son did on his interview for his job. She tells me that her son has applied in a position where they usually do not take children of immigrants and he has told her that there may be some racial prejudice involved.

I am listening attentively, “so what did you advise him?” I ask. “I gave him this dua.” And she recites the dua given above, “No one can take away from him what Allah has willed….” She says, “Alhamdollillah!” I say visibly respectful at such a level of submission to Allah. The next day she tells me that her son was accepted for the job.

Dr. M sends an SOS from Gaza, she was here in the United States and came to our little town and presented her research and field work. She and her team of young people are working to improve the lives of those children who have lost their parents or their home to the bombing or sniper fire from the Israeli soldiers. She has created a small sanctuary for these children with severe post traumatic stress syndrome who in the confines of these walls can make pictures and sing songs as if there are no soldiers waiting to kill them or destroy their homes, and pretend as if life is normal.

Dr. M’s young assistant writes about the little Hospital she works in, and the news validates, and I paraphrase……….Please help, no food, no medicine, no electricity, respirators in danger of being shut off. The fuel for the generators is running out, electricity has already been turned off by the Israelis.

In other words the respirators will soon come to a grinding halt and all the babies and children on respirators in Gaza will die or be damaged irrevocably.

I read the email and a sense of frustration and anger rises in me. What have these sick children done to deserve this type of treatment?

The next day a young lady who has been to the Berlin Wall tells me” They blew a three mile hole in the Wall between Gaza and Egypt and people are spilling over to buy groceries, in Egypt. Reports say that the food stores in the little border village in Egypt are empty and the gunshop has not sold a single gun” I have been out of the political loop since my child died. Why is there a wall between Eygpt and Gaza? I wonder.

 

 

 

 

I am stupefied……….. Allah SWT has willed to bestow food and fuel to those innocents in the Hospital, who the humans were depriving………He (SWT) is giving respite to the opressed and desperately needy, those whose middle name is “collateral”. He (SWT) is pausing to see the reaction of the fellow human beings as to what do they do next to their own kind?

Pictures roll in of the desperate shopping for fuel, food and bedding and animals. People climbing up the shards of the broken wall, and walking several miles to the border Egyptian village and then walking back stooped down with the groceries to last ………how long? Till the wall comes up again with the American taxpayers money?

May Allah put mercy in the hearts of the ones who have no mercy in them at this time.