Somehow we’re at the heart of Gaza. We, a few women. The beginnings were at a university in the US in the 80s when I was standing for the rights of oppressed in South Africa*. The beginnings were when my mother was born a few counts away from the becoming of an Israel*. The beginnings were during the peak of the economic crash, when initiatives were sprouting in Dubai. The beginnings were when she messaged saying please don’t leave me, please don’t forget me. The beginnings were in Ramadan 1441 (Hijri year) when women circled around the Quran and have kept the circle since. The beginnings were in my intention and hers. The beginnings where in Allah‘s Mercy and Wisdom. The beginnings were in the stories told through generations from Iskandaron to Haifa and Poland. The beginnings have everything to do with everything we have done and not done, everything that those before us had intended or forgot or were pulled away from or enticed towards. It is simply that none is The beginning and all are the reasons alasbab الأسباب that make this, what is, be.
It is a great gift, to be received with shukr : appreciation. Appreciation: increase in value [Merriam-Webster].
To be connected to a human soul who has undergone and continues to undergo imminent death, one who stands on their feet after witnessing savage acts of mass killing, disfiguring, erasure, burning, unforgiving noise non-stop, one who has, only by the verdict of Allah, kept their breath, is nothing short of reason to prostrate to Allah Allmighty knowing that this opening is not a passing encounter. That to be given this is to be handed an infant and that any dismissive move, a thought even that this is one of every and many life encounters, is a very act of rejecting life, the pulse of life handed right into one’s arms.
What does it take for me, for the women that we are, together, to be equipped? We’re not. Our formal training goes against the flow of what this is. This is not a project. It is not a to do list. It is also not an aid, emergency or call for immediate relief. This is the Creator’s putting his creations in places to now rise into the best of what the Creator has equipped us with, and hand hold one another from falling into the worst version of ourselves.
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Holy Quran, surah 91, الشمس Ash-Shams, The Sun
91:7
وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا
Wa nafsinw wa maa sawwaahaa
And [by] the soul and He who proportioned it
91:8
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا
Fa-alhamahaa fujoorahaa wa taqwaahaa
And inspired it [with discernment of] its wickedness and its righteousness,
91:9
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّاهَا
Qad aflaha man zakkaahaa
He has succeeded who purifies it,
91:10
وَقَدْ خَابَ مَن دَسَّاهَا
Wa qad khaaba man dassaahaa
And he has failed who instills it [with corruption].
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In the midst of an erasure of a people, it is palpable to me what my role is, that I not fall into the delusion of the saviour role. Who is saving who is deeply felt in me.
Thank you, each of you who have allowed me (each of us women) to be in the realm of your life. It is a matter I (each of us women) take with the utmost awareness that I (each of us women) is not equipped except that I (each of us women) carry a deeply rooted awareness that nothing after this point can remain the same as I have known myself to be. أتوكل على الله ونعم الوكيل atawakkalu ala Allah wa ni’ma lwakil I trust in Allah [He is] the best Disposer of affairs.
* This is the story of one of the women, not mine. The I here embodies the collective, the group of women.
Context: A few women came together early 2024 in a single location, some knowing each other and others trusting without knowing any or many, to see what we can be for the Palestinian edSeed students of Gaza. A few months later, we’re starting to understand why we came together.
Friday 7 June 2024, 1 Thul Qi’da 1445. Dubai.