This land was theirs


This land was theirs

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9484.shtml

Hannah Mermelstein, The Electronic Intifada, 24 April 2008

080424-mermestein-nakba

On 20 March 1941, Yosef Weitz of the Jewish National Fund wrote: "The complete evacuation of the country from its other inhabitants and handing it over to the Jewish people is the answer."

On this day in 1948, almost two months before the first "Arab-Israeli war" technically began, the 1,125 inhabitants of the Palestinian village Umm Khalid fled a Haganah military operation. Like their brethren from more than 500 villages, they likely thought they would return to their homes within a few weeks, after the fighting blew over and new political borders were or were not drawn.

Instead, more than six million Palestinian people remain refugees to this day, some in refugee camps not far from their original towns, others in established communities in Europe and the US, all forbidden from returning to their homeland for one reason: they are not Jewish.

Yosef Weitz’s wish was granted. In my name, and in the name of Jewish people throughout the world, an indigenous population was almost completely expelled. Village names have been removed from the map, houses blown up, and new forests planted. In Arabic, this is called the Nakba, or catastrophe. In Israel, this is called "independence."

Last month I went with a man from Umm al-Fahm (a Palestinian city in Israel) to his original village of Lajun, only a few miles away. Adnan’s land is now a JNF forest "belonging" to Kibbutz Megiddo.

As we walk the stone path he points to each side of the road, naming the families that used to live there: Mahamid, Mahajne, Jabrin. The land there is not naturally rocky; the stones that we walk on are a graveyard of destroyed houses. Adnan was only six years old when the Haganah’s bullets flew over his head and he and his family fled. But he remembers. He tears up as we stop at the site of his destroyed house and says, "Welcome to my home."

Adnan is an Israeli citizen, yet the land that was stolen from him has been given to a body that refuses to let him live on it. As an American Jew, I could move to Lajun/Megiddo tomorrow, gain full citizenship rights, and live on the land that Adnan’s family has tended for centuries. Adnan, who lives just a few minutes away, is forbidden from doing so.

As we approach the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel, the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, let us remember Adnan. Let us remember the inhabitants of Umm Khalid. Let us remember more than six million people whose basic human rights have been deprived for 60 years, and let us, as Jewish people with a history of oppression and a tradition of social justice, work for the right of indigenous people to return to their land. This is our only hope for true peace and security in the region.

Hannah Mermelstein is a co-founder of Birthright Unplugged and lives in Boston, Philadelphia and Ramallah. This essay was originally published by The Jewish Advocate and is republished with the author’s permission.

 

Zahar: Gazans can do ‘no less’ than rise up like Warsaw Ghetto Jews


 
Zahar: Gazans can do ‘no less’ than rise up like Warsaw Ghetto Jews
 
 
alZahar
 
"Sixty-five years ago, the courageous Jews of the Warsaw ghetto rose in defense of their people. We Gazans, living in the world’s largest open-air prison, can do no less," Zahar wrote in the newspaper."

The Gaza-based Hamas leader later decried Judaism as having "corrupted itself in the detour into Zionism, nationalism and apartheid."

 

The Jews of Iraq


THE JEWS OF IRAQ

by Naeim Giladi

http://www.inminds.co.uk/jews-of-iraq.html

Courtesy The Link, Volume 31, Issue 2, April-May 1998

jews_of_iraq3
 
"I write this article
for the same reason I wrote my book:
to tell the American people,
and especially American Jews,
that Jews from Islamic lands did not emigrate
willingly to Israel; that, to force them to leave,
Jews killed Jews; and that,
to buy time to confiscate ever more Arab lands,
Jews on numerous occasions
rejected genuine peace initiatives
from their Arab neighbors.
I write about what the first prime minister of Israel called "cruel Zionism."
I write about it because I was part of it."

 

My message to the Jews


 
 
My message to the Jews
 
 
By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem
 
 

Settler Graffiti in Hebron [10/03/2008]
Settler Graffiti in HebronI realize very well that you are not carbon copies of each other. And I also know that there are many Jews around the world who truly despise what Israel has been doing to the Palestinian people in your name.

I earnestly commend these conscientious Jews for their morality and human decency. It is these honest people who enable us to retain the hope that counting on Judaic morality is not a lost cause.

Non the less, there are huge numbers of Jews who have found themselves transformed into soldiers of darkness and advocates of evil. There are Jews who shamelessly advocate the total annihilation of the Palestinian people. Unfortunately, these psychopaths are not isolated or marginal figures. On the contrary, they are highly respected by their hundreds of thousands of followers.

It is these misguided and misguiding multitudes of Jews I am addressing in this brief article. And, in truth, my ultimate goal is not to vilify and demonize, but rather to warn and admonish them to wake up from worshiping this modern Golden Calf, otherwise known as the State of Israel.

To begin with, I would like to remind you of a Talmudic story, which I believe is familiar to many of you. The story is told that a heathen came to Shammai with the request to be accepted as a convert on condition that he was taught the whole of the Torah while he stood on one foot. The Rabbi drove him away with the yard-stick which he was holding. He then went to Hillel with the same request; and he said to him: “What is hateful to you yourself, do not do to your fellow-man. That is the whole of the Torah and the remainder is but commentary. Go, learn it.”

Yes, yes, what is hateful to yourself, don’t do to your fellow-man. What beautiful words of light and wisdom!

Now are you mentally prepared to accept this universal law, which nearly every Jew on earth would agree encapsulates Judaic (and supposedly Jewish) morality?

If you are, then you should thoroughly examine your attitudes toward Israel, a state that has more in common with the ideas of Hitler than it doses with the teachings of Moses.

Israel is deceiving you, lying to you and betraying your moral legacy, the legacy bequeathed by the Israelite prophets, and their (our) forefather Ibrahim, who taught mankind “thou shall not murder, thou shall not lie, and thou shall not steal…..and be just.”

I am sorry to speak in such a harsh tone, but, in truth, Israel and Zionism succeeded through the years in transforming you from a people who believe in justice and value morality into murderers and justifiers of murder, into thieves and justifiers of theft, and into liars who have to change the black into white and the white into black in order to cover up their shame, and then call the lies strange names such as hasbara and public relations and political correctness.

In your name, Israel, knowingly and deliberately, is slaughtering innocent people, including children.

This is not done by mistake as Israeli leaders and spokespeople would falsely claim. When “mistakes ” happen every day and every hour and every minute, they are no longer mistakes. They are policy. Besides the images are too graphic to be ignored and too obscenely brazen to be dismissed as “Arab propaganda.” They transcend reality.

In your name, Israel has been carrying out ethnic cleansing, in its ugliest forms, all under the pretext of “maintaining Israel’s Jewish identity!!” you see the pornographic oppression, coming from a people who claim to adhere to the Ten Commandments.

In your name, Israel in the summer of 2006 dropped millions of cluster bombs or bomblets all over South Lebanon. Is this the light upon the nations that you claim to be? Shame on you!

It is because of your crimes against man and God that we, the Palestinians, have effectively become “the Jews of our time,” while you have effectively become the “anti-Semites of our time.” You, the Jews, the victims of the holocaust, and the numerous pogroms and inquisitions, have turned out to be like all underdogs, when you get on the top, you become as murderous and as brutal to your victims as your former oppressors were to you when you were underneath.

The Nazis looked down on Jews and others as untermensch, and you are looking down on us as “Arabs”.!! The Nazis sought expansion at their neighbors’ expense and called it “lebensraum.” And you are doing the same, under the pretext of building “housing units for Jews.” The Nazis carried out “pacifications” in which innocent people were mercilessly killed; and you carry out “defensive operations” during which you wreak death and havoc on innocent people. At least the Nazis didn’t lie about their criminality as much as you do about yours. You are not only evil murderers and great child killers. You are also nefarious liars.

The Nazis believed in an Aryan “master race” and you, Zionists, are trying to make a “race” out of Jews. Your methods are similar and your goals are nearly identical.

You can’t deny this; we are not naive North Americans or Europeans whom you think you can bamboozle very easily. We have been through it all, from creation to destruction.

I am saying this because in the final analysis when people, any people, including Jews, behave and act as the Nazis did, they themselves become Nazis. Evil, whether done by a “master race” or a “chosen people” is evil. Evil can’t be kosher. True, there are no gas chambers in Gaza and Hebron. But you are killing us with F-16 fighters and tanks and artillery and apache helicopters. So, the outcome is the same. Besides, the writing is literally on the wall. Come to Hebron and see for yourselves.

Too harsh?

No, it is not, because if what is happening today in Palestine at the hands of holocaust children and grand children and great grandchildren is having no effects on your individual and collective conscience, it is immensely naive to think that you will experience a moral awakening when the pharaohs of Israel, people like Matan Vilnai, choose to carry out their threatened “greater holocaust” against our people.

Many of you may be forgiven for being ignorant of Israel’s reality of evil. But you are not a people of ignorance. Which means you are doing and supporting evil knowingly and consciously. If so, you are no better than your past tormentors.

Don’t be so excited about America’s unlimited and unrestricted support and backing. America is not helping you to uphold your moral principles, America is “helping” you to destroy these principles, which you are doing anyway.

Needles to say, when an evil power “helps” you corrode your moral system, this should not be a cause for joy and satisfaction. I am sure that wise men and women amongst you understand the meaning of my words.

Finally, I call on you to wake up from this toxic arrogance of power, this collective megalomania and false sense of triumph. You are actually experiencing a collective psychosis, a virtual moral meltdown. Hence, you are really in a big trouble.
And, now, a few words to Jews in Israel-Palestine. Soon you will be celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary, which is for us is a profoundly inauspicious occasion commemorating evil and genocide. Because you destroyed our homes, obliterated our towns and villages, perpetrated untold massacres, and expelled the bulk of our people, at gun point, to the four corners of the globe. And you had the audacity to call all of this evil “war of independence” and to claim that “they just fled away…”!!!

Notwithstanding , you are still as blind as you are brutal despite the passage of 60 years.

If you had invested a fraction of the means at your disposal; if you had used your energies and industriousness and creativity for peace with your neighbors, peace would have been realized a long time ago.

But you were not interested in peace then as you are not interested in peace now. Instead you were busy then and as you are busy now stealing our land and building thereon Jewish-only settlements inhabited by fanatical settlers who are taught that the only way to expedite the appearance of the “redeemer” is by shedding non-Jewish blood and doing evil.

Well, since when murder and evil can produce good?

Non the less, it is perhaps not too late to try to rectify your evil ways and morbid thinking.

Try to reach out to the Palestinians and Arabs and Muslims. Remember, this is a predominantly Muslim region, and in a few decades, there will be 700 or 800 million Muslims in your vicinity. Think about your future generations. Maybe, just maybe, America’s military and economic power will have gone with the wind by then.

More over, try to show respect to Islam, because without respecting Islam, you don’t really respect Judaism. This is instead of vilifying the religion that describes the Torah as “a book of light.”

And stop this dishonorable alliance with those pseudo-Christian maniacs who advocate and actively push for a worldwide Armageddon in which hundreds of millions of people, including 99% of Jews, would perish, all in order to induce the second advent of Jesus.

But above all, stop killing and tormenting the helpless Palestinians for you had been helpless yourselves. Stop killing their children. Stop destroying their homes. Stop confiscating their land. Stop imprisoning their sons unjustly. Stop narrowing their horizons. Stop your mass murder, mass terror and mass oppression. Stop making a hell out of our daily life. Yes, stop it, if not for justice and human decency, then for your own safety. Oppression boomerangs as we saw recently in Jerusalem.

And don’t get emboldened by American officials who tell you …Kill, kill, kill and we will stand by you! because America and its immoral politicians are thousands of miles away…but we are destined to be neighbors, or even citizens of the same state.

And remember, it is not an act of heroism to murder unprotected innocent civilians, using the state-of-the-art of America’s technology of death. History won’t be kind to you.

What heroism is there in having an F-16 fighter rain death on sleeping children and women at a refugee camp?

Shame on you.

Zionists occupiers… Heed my call


 

Hard talk

 

Zionists occupiers… Heed my call

 

Like most people, I do believe in dialogue and civilized coexistence, like most people I long to live in dignity and freedom in my homeland, like most people I yearn for peace and justice for every human, like most people I like to foster loving and trusting relationships with all decent individuals; however, our problem with the Zionist occupiers is not about hate and distrust as they like to believe, it’s not about security as they constantly declare, nor is it about dialogue or lack of it thereof!

 

Our problem with them is not confined to the many aspects of their occupation, human right abuses, checkpoints, walls, collective punishment and assassinations.

 

The origin of our problem is as profound as a the roots of a fig tree, buried deep and covered up with piles of dishonesty and deceit, yet its fruits has the pungent taste of supremacy, arrogance, racism, dehumanization, theft, and war crimes, and no amount of fig tree leaves could conceal or beautify.

 

So, to unearth the core of the problem and spell the truth-out loud and clear, I am going to direct my words towards the Zionists of all shades and affiliations.

Furthermore, I am going to be to honest and blunt here; as the catastrophic situation that they have created does not stomach glossing over any longer

 

Zionist occupiers:

I must warn you; that what I am going to say is not going to be very pleasant, it will taste as bitter as the chilling years of your occupation, as cold as the barren roots of our uprooted olive trees, and as sour as the dry lips of dying babies at your military checkpoints.

 

My words will be parched, choking and hard to swallow; it will be as rigid and impervious as the cement of your apartheid wall

 

 My words will smell of tear gas and burning flesh of infants while cuddled in their mothers’ arms after an air raid

 

My words will be burning hot like a bullet penetrating the head of a little boy as he picked a stone to throw at his oppressor

 

My words will be sizzling with blazing fire like the one ton bomb dropped from afar at a neighbourhood of sleeping women and children

 

My words will be gushing causing excruciating pain and discomfort because it stems from the depth of my wounded, distressed and agonised soul that was tormented by your people for the entirety of my existence.

 

So Zionist occupiers heed my words;

Our problem with you is not a “conflict” between two warring parties, who are similarly wrong and equally guilty as you shamelessly often describe… NO… NO… NO

 

The problem is one of aggression, oppression, colonization, theft, and occupation on your side, and one of being oppressed, exploited, and occupied on our side.

 

It’s one is of a crime of theft of a whole country and the ethnic cleansing of a whole nation by your people on the one hand and a displaced and dominated population on the other

 

It’s one of a CRIMINAL THIEF and a DISPOSSESSED VICTIM

 

To equate the two is nothing but an act of deception and a manifestation of moral bankruptcy.

 

A whole lot of your people came from ALL over the world, stole our homeland, dispossessed and expelled us, took over our homes and farms, destroyed our villages and history, occupied our country, oppressed those who stayed behind, killed and maimed who dared to demand their rights or attempted to assert their humanity, demonized and subjugated us to a racist, bigoted and ruthless set of laws that don’t apply to yourselves; then you come with chilling cold-heartedness and assert that both parties are equally guilty!!

 

Which planet are you living on?

By what principles do you abide?

What ethics do you follow?

 

Have you ever questioned the morality of your actions as multinationals who gave themselves the liberty to come to our homeland -which I am denied the right to live in- take it over by violence and bloodshed, then settle there on the ruins of the villages you’ve annihilated, dwelling in the homes of some dispossessed Palestinians, for no other justifications than the dominance of your Jewishness and the fact that we are not Jews?

 

Does that not smell of rotten racism, arrogance and supremacy to your clogged-up conscience?

 

The only crime that our people committed is that they existed on the land of their ancestors which you proclaimed as a God given-right to Jews only.

 

Your people have destroyed our culture, denied our existence as human beings, treated us for four generation with sheer cruelty, ruthlessness and contempt, and subjugated us to inconceivable savagery and humiliation, and denied us even the right to defend ourselves on our stolen Palestine under the pretext of “terrorism”

 

On top of all that your people have lied and lied, until they believed their own lies, you managed to brainwash yourselves with packs of cover-ups and masks of reality until truth became so blur and obscured, so much so that most of your people refuse even to acknowledge their own crimes of theft of a whole country and disposition of a whole nation

 

You stole the land of our ancestors and forefathers under the claim that some few thousands years back in history, some people who followed your religion have lived there, and apparently secured a contract with God affirming the eternal ownership of this land

 

How dare you give yourselves these abhorrent privileges of taking over someone’s home and homeland just because you belong to a particular faith?

 

What does an American Jew, a Russian Jew, an African Jew, a Japanese Jew, an Indian Jew or a German Jew has anything to do with the Land of Palestine?

 

If you think we are some kind of brainless retarded human beings who lack your “intelligence”, “emotions” and “morality” and who would just disregard  what happened to them sixty years ago, and who would be happy to live as your inferiors in their own homeland; you better think again

 

We are sick and tired of witnessing your crimes for decades on end

We are sick and tired of your deception, false claims and the pretence of innocence and victim-hood

We are sick and tired of your orchestrated peace processes and leading-no-where road-maps

 

What is needed at this stage is not dialogue and reconciliation, what is most urgently needed is to STOP ALL your incessant ugly racism, supremacy, aggression and assault, to put a halt to your crimes, and to take a serious look in the mirror as a whole “population” and see what monsters have you become!

 

You need to address within your immoral and utterly sick society the obscene injustices you’ve inflected upon us

 You need to deal with the hideous, corrupt, aggressive, militarized and wicked society that you have become

 

Before worrying about hate and distrust, you aught to be worrying about the crimes of your people and the injustices they have committed -and still committing- and how to facilitate for justice to run its course, and how to restore back the rights of millions that you have violated.

 

That requires an inner reflection of you as a whole people, it requires an honest and sincere look within yourselves, serious questioning of the “history” that you were taught, a bursting of the bubble that you are living in, it requires that you stop all your acts of aggression, theft of land, humiliation, murder, and destruction of our community, and above all, it requires that you step down from the high ground that you placed yourselves on, and be prepared to GIVE UP ALL the privileges that you have bestowed upon yourselves by the “virtue” of your Jewishness!

 

It also requires restoring our rights back including the right of return of all refugees, AND the compensation to ALL those who suffered from your Frankenstein creation of the racist Zionist entity.

 

Then and only then dialogue is possible

 

 

Zionists thieves

You don’t have many choices really, it’s one of two:

1) you either carry on with your crimes: lying, killing, stealing, abusing and oppressing an entire people, isolating themselves further, and sinking deeply into the abyss of immorality; then frantically searching for peace and security, which you will never be able to find as oppressors, aggressors and occupiers.

2) Or you take a good look in the mirror and see what monsters you have become, and admit the crimes they committed against innocent people who had nothing to do with the anti-Semitic crimes of Europe, but they have been made to pay the price of those crimes.

If you go for the first choice, you should blame no one but yourselves for a bleak, desolate, dire, and awful future that awaits you, a future in which you can no longer afford to keep living in constant fear and endless wars, a future where it’s only enough for you to lose ONE single war, and it will be over then.

We can afford to lose many wars; there are millions and millions of Arabs and Muslims that surround the criminal Zionist entity. And you can’t afford to lose any war, but when you do (it’s inevitable) you lose everything.

Now, if you open their heart and mind to the second option; which is acknowledging the wrongs you’ve committed against us, and recognizing that you’ve been unfair and unjust by stealing our country and denying us our natural human rights.

Then if you start by trying to address and correct those wrongs, and giving us our rights back, the right to live peacefully and move freely with dignity without humiliation and oppression, and with our humanity respected as your equals not your inferiors, and if you give all our refugees the right to return to their villages and towns; then and only then; we’ll be able to say to you: “we will forgive you”.

We will NOT say as some do; “never forget, never forgive”

We will forgive you.
but not before you right the wrongs you’ve committed

We have a culture that has hospitality and forgiveness at its heart.

you either make friends with your neighbours, and give them their due rights to get peace and security, or continue to create enemies by your incessant oppression until the inevitable falls upon you

The choice is yours

 ==============================

 

The text above is in response to this blog:

http://www.shimonzk.blogspot.com/

 

 

About Islam


What does Islam mean to you?” people ask

 

Islam is an Arabic word that shares the same root (slm) with the words “salam” and “Istislam” Where “salam” means: peace, and “Istislam” means: submission. Therefore, Islam means: achieving peace through submission to God Islam consequently is nothing but total devotion and utter surrender to the will of the Beloved.

When we love our Creator deeply, we are in a state of constant adoration, our will becomes nothing but His will and our desire will be identical to His desire. Hence, the essence of our faith is that mankind can achieve peace by knowing and bonding with the All-Loving Creator; for souls can only find tranquillity, happiness, and contentment by being in a state of constant awareness and remembrance of the Most Loving through which intimate closeness and true peace can be achieved.

Everything observable in our world is in a permanent state of submission, they cannot break the laws of our Beloved Creator; unlike us humans (maybe there are other intelligent life forms in other parts of the universe that we are not aware of).

We are blessed with the gift of freewill. When we, out of own freewill, choose to surrender to the laws of God, we experience the ever lasting joy of tranquillity, inner peace and harmony within ourselves, with our fellow humans, with the universe around us and with our Beloved.

But what are the laws of God? These laws are found deep down in the innermost of our souls, they are known to us intrinsically, we are created to know them inherently, to recognize them by our “fitrah” or inner nature. We can also discover them by observing and studying ourselves and the universe around us, which we call the visual book of signs.

At the core of these laws, and as in the case of the universe lies BALANCE, which translate in our human terminology as JUSTICE. The rest are also easy to identify, it’s in the yearning for perfection in our most intimate imprint, and it’s longing for idealism, excellence, morality, goodness and compassion from the depth of our souls. Even though we had this inner knowledge, God still did not leave us to our own devices with no guidance.

Many prophets, messengers and inspired teachers came to remind and to give glad tidings for those who embrace the truth and those who desire goodness. Every single one of them came with the utterly simple yet superbly comprehensive message: believe in God and be Good (i.e. follow the inner law) All knowledge is available to all, transparent, clear, organic, effortless, open, and natural.

There is no secrecy, no occultism, no darkness, no hidden knowledge, no privileged few, no murkiness or deception, no shadowy characters, no obscure concealed information, no hierarchy, no ones are more enlightened than others. This is the simple yet profound message of Islam (submission that leads to peace) that ALL the prophets adhered to. The differences that we observe between the followers of those good people are all man-made interpretation, which could sometimes misunderstand, overlook, and add flawed human construal to the original simple message.

We as Muslims see absolutely no difference between the essence of all the messages nor we differentiate between the messengers. They are all brothers and their message is ONE. The Arabic word for God is: Allah. This word is unique in its characteristics; it has no plural, it is not a feminine or a masculine (unlike all Arabic nouns). It reflects perfectly the Islamic perception of God, who is not personified in a human form, God the Unique, the One, and the matchless. When we refer to God with “He” or “His”, it’s not that we perceive God as a male for God has no gender; it’s simply because of linguistic requirements.

All nouns are referred to either as a male or female in Arabic, there is no neutral, the general rule is that things that come in multiples are depicted in a feminine form (such as eye, ear, hand, foot) and things that we don’t have in pairs we use the masculine to describe ( nose, mouth, chin) Hence, God being Unique, we use the masculine to refer to Him.

 

This faith we embrace is that of Love and pure goodness; it is summed up by the words “allatheena amanou waamilou essalehat”; those who believe and do good deeds. Love of the Creator and all creation is the hub of that faith; aspiring and striving to live by the highest moral attributes that belongs to the Most Perfect and exists in its Ultimate Excellence in the Most Loving Creator.

This message leads to inner and outer peace through following the fitra (innate nature) that has been implanted inside each and every one of us. This embossed intrinsic yet veiled knowledge is where all our morality stems from.

This subtle awareness is precisely what leads us to long for, love, mimic and impersonate the example of God’s perfect and beautiful attributes.

The all Merciful (Ar-Rahman)

The Most Merciful (Ar-Raheem)

The Most Gracious (Al-Hafi)

The Most Friendly Most Kind (al-Rafeeq)

The Most Compassionate (al-Shafeeq)

The All-Loving (al-Wadoud)

The All-Gentle (al-Ra’uof)

The Most Tender (al-Hannan)

The Beneficent (al-Muhsin)

The All-Subtle (Al-Lateef)

The All- Good (Al-Barr)

The Enricher (Al-Mughnî)

The Ever-Giving (Al-Wahhab)

The Benefactor (Al-Mannan)

The Magnanimous (Al-Jawâd)

The Light (An-Nur)

The Guide (Al-Hadi)

The Ever-Truthful (As-Sâdiq)

The Secure (Al-Ameen)

The Faithful (Al-Wafî)

The Guarantor (Al-Kafeel)

The Praiseworthy (Al-Hameed)

The Guardian (Al-Wakeel)

The One Who Suffices (Al-Kâfî)

The Timelessly Eternal (Al-Qadeem)

The Pre-Eternal (Al-Azalî)

The Post-Eternal (Al-Abadî)

The Abiding (Al-Bâqî)

The Everlasting (Ad-Dâ’im)

The Constant (As-Sarmadî)

The Safe-guarder (Al-Muhaymin)

The Ever-Forgiving (Al-Ghaffar)

The All-Pardoning (Al-Afuw)

The All-Forbearing (Al-Haleem)

The Most Patient (As-Sabour)

The All-Perfect (As-Subbuh)

The Utterly Pure (Al-Qudus)

The Perfect Peace (As-Salam)

The Pure (At-Tahir)

The Magnificent (Al-Adheem)

The Majestic (Al-Jaleel)

The Most Beautiful (Al-Jameel)

The Most Generous (Al-Kareem)

The First (Al-Awal)

The Last (Al-Akher)

The Outward (Az-Zahir)

The Inward (Al-Batin)

The Trust-worthy (Al-Mu’min)

The Most Faithful (Al-Wafi)

The Just (Al-Adl)

The Equitable (AL-Muqsit)

The Judge (Al-Hakam)

The Ever-Thankful (Ash-Shakour)

The Unique (Al-Waheed)

The Unequalled (Al-Fard)

The Originator with beauty (Al-Badee)

The Creator (Al-Khaliq)

The Ever-Truthful (As-Sadiq)

The Ever-Sure (Al-Mateen)

The Lord of Majesty and Generosity (Dhû’l-Jalâl wa’l-Ikrâm)

The more we live by, and the deeper we acquire of these attributes the more joy and delight our souls could experience and contain, and the more people recognize and appreciate. The more hope for our world to attain peace and justice for all.

Whether we recognize it or not, this engraved undeviating yearning for God is what leads us to pursue every good sublime principal and ideal there is. It is the real drive behind our desire for perfection and the longing towards pure goodness and excellence. And this is what’s meant by the concept that we are created in the image of God; not as mistakenly understood in the physical sense.

That is why whoever strive for, and live by these high morals are much closer to the Most Loving than they can ever imagine even if they deny it; yet those who act evil in the name of religion yet claim to be religious are much further away. No man or woman dies before their time; the duration of each life span is precisely determined by the All Knowing Creator.

Death is tragic only if we leave unprepared and unaware. Here, I would like to end with a short affirmation: Praise be to God, Most Compassionate, Most Kind. I bear witness that there is no divinity but the One God (Allah in Arabic), the Most Gracious, Most Merciful, the Creator of the universe, of the heaven and the earth and all therein, God The Unique, The All-Perfect, The Most Just, the Most Loving, The Source of Peace, who is exalted above all deficiency and imperfection, to the Almighty belongs all Perfect and Beautiful names and attributes. God of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammed and all the prophets and good teachers known and unknown, mercy and peace be upon them. I bear witness that God is Truth and God’s promise is truth, and the gathering of mankind to a day of accountability is truth.

I bear witness to the simple, intact, unaltered, and comprehensive message of Islam that has been taught by all the Prophets And finally, a simple message to my family and friends: I urge all of you to keep hope alive in your hearts, keep doing the good work that you do, never give up; for every good thing you do is worthwhile.

Be like a tree, people attack with stones, yet it gives them its fruits in return Be like a rose, generous and graceful, giving its fragrance even when cut off, and even to those who end its life. Never despair; for with the company, grace, and bliss of the Beloved, All Loving, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful there is neither misery nor despair. Have faith and trust in humanity and the Creator of humanity; as through that faith and trust you can find everlasting happiness and endless joy. Try to hold on, embrace, and get absorbed with this trust as a baby utterly trusting while held in his mother’s arms.

© Copyright 2006 PoetryforPalestine – All Rights Reserved

In Loving Memory of my beloved Khaled; “Letting go”


attack!

Letting go 

 

You were there in front of me…

And I was missing you already

I was gazing at you

Couldn’t keep my eyes off you

Going to your shirts, you hang up

At the back of the door

Smelling them

Holding your jumper in my arms

Covering my face with, and sobbing

Trying hard

Not to show you my anguish and distress

 

I didn’t want to wash your clothes

I wanted to keep your scent… around

Holding on to your glasses

Kissing them… looking through them

Longing to see your eyes… behind

 

People kept telling me

“Don’t worry

It’s a routine operation”

We’d come through it

Seventeen years before, I know

But deep… deep down

In the bottom of my soul

I knew…

I used to pray, pleading

“Please God let my feelings be wrong”

 

One week before surgery

We went to hospital for final tests

When we came back

I burst into tears

Couldn’t stop

Time was getting closer

And I couldn’t face what was to come

Losing you was more than I could bear

 

You didn’t know what was the matter

Nobody knew… but me

But I couldn’t say anything

I cried all afternoon

You followed me

Trying to comfort me

You held me in your arms

Until I fell asleep

Do you remember?

 

 

One night before the operation

You were admitted

But you didn’t know

I’d set my mind on

Staying with you tonight

 

When I packed your bag

I put the little book I wrote for you

A collection of my letters,

Cards and poems

Gathered over the years

You’d never seen the book before

 

When the surgeon came

He talked of many things

He wanted to explain details of what’s to come

And to answer our questions

“Can I stay here tonight?” I asked

He didn’t expect that

He hesitated…

“I’ll ask the sister in-charge”…

“It’s against the regulations

But we’ll let you off tonight

Don’t ever ask for another”

“I won’t… I promise” I said

 

That night, we shared our last meal together

We sat and talked

Trying to encourage each other

We both put on a brave face

We prayed together

We read some Qur’an together

 

Then, I gave you the little book

Holding hands

We read our last memories together

Everything I wanted to say to you

Was there, Habibi

In those modest words

We relived our life that night

We relived our love that night

Habibi… do you remember?

 

Hand in hand

We fell asleep

You on a hospital bed

And me on an arm chair

Next to you

 

We surrendered to what was to come

Most beautiful night

Most peaceful night

Most tranquil night

I think we were surrounded

By angels that night

 

 

We woke up next day

Prayed together

And got ready

When they came to take you

I walked alongside your hospital bed

Towards the operation room

And there at the door

And for the last time

We looked into each others’ eyes

Into each others’ souls

Smiling

Holding our breath

Our eyes mesmerized

Our bodies frozen

Until the big white door

Separated us

 

Then came the waiting

Hours of agonizing pain

It felt eternal

I wanted to know what was happening

But I dreaded the phone

The surgeon had said

“Don’t worry if we don’t ring

It’s most likely good news

Only worry if we do ring you”

 

The phone rang

My heart stopped

“The surgeon encountered some problems”

The shaky voice from the other end announced

“He needs to see you”

Collapsing… I rushed to the car

Expecting to hear what I most feared

 

“Complications… beyond our expectations

I’ve done this operation thousands of times

Never seen anything like

What I’ve seen today

I’ve tried my best

We are only humans

It’s all in the hands of God now”

 

Two days later

They rushed you again

For an emergency surgery

That day was sooo long

Longer than my life

At night we received a phone call

The surgery was successful

But you’re still critical

Day after day

Night after night

I waited… for a miracle

That you’d pull through

 

Our friend Tareq

Kept ringing me

“Dear sister

Kneel down and pray

Beg for Khaled to survive

Plead for his life

Say to God

‘For the sake of all the orphans

Khaled sponsors, looks after

And supports

Don’t let his children become orphans’ “

 

I tried to do just that

But couldn’t

I felt embarrassed

To ask for something

When I knew God wanted something else

I felt it was greedy to ask for more

People get a one month honeymoon

One year, two years, five years honeymoon,

I got 23 years, 6 months, and 9 days

How can I want more?

 

All through my life

I was constantly surrounded by love

Some people don’t experience

A fraction of the joy

That always immersed me

It was time to give back now

And I knew it…

“You will not attain virtue

Unless you’re able to give

Of what you love most”

 

I surrendered…

I can’t show misery now

How can I?

When I was given so generously

 

Grant me patience

Grant me grace

Grant me dignity

Grant me serenity

Grant me ability to let go

 

As tender as you were

Your departure was as tender and gentle

And I was given two weeks

To help me let go… of you… Habibi

DSCF0148.JPG small 

 

10-02-2006

© Copyright 2006 Nahida Izzat -PoetryforPalestine – All Rights Reserved

Feelings and words


Feelings and words

 

Trying to squeeze

Feelings into words

Is no act of justice at all

It distorts… it disfigures

It belittles… it demeans

It’s a great offence without a doubt

And to my shame and disgrace

 Indeed I am to blame

Truly “Guilty” I declare

Defend me not

I don’t deserve

 

For feelings can only be felt

11102904_10205880749310331_4865842795688205886_o 

So, when I write about my love

Don’t ever think

That I’m making sense

 No language can ever convey

The eternal

For expression falls short

By far

 

And feelings can only be felt

 

11659385_396907790497630_490276378264547807_n

When I write about my sorrow

Don’t dare believe

My words or verses

My speech is nothing

But hollow hues

How can the infinite

Ever be defined

 

Feelings can only be felt

And truly “Guilty” I declare

12565381_905834986151413_6980303396023518969_n

 

02-2006

© Copyright 2006 Nahida Izzat -PoetryforPalestine – All Rights Reserved

 

Oh I wish


1235202_757176544298231_67634285_n

Oh I wish

 

Sweetheart

How painful for me

To watch your tear

Saying good-bye to mine

 

Oh how I wish

To have been your fingernail

Not even death could split us apart

Eternal union

 

Oh how I wish

To have been an eyelash shielding your eyes

As they close

You’d be the last thing I see

 

Oh how I wish

To have been a thread in your keffen*

It would’ve been the perfect excuse

To be buried with you

 

Oh how I wish

To have been a tiny cell in your heart

So I wouldn’t have to live one moment there after

Or face the world alone… without you

 

Sweetheart

How painful for you

Watching my tear

Saying good-bye to yours

 

 

02-11-2006

 

 

  

Keffen: a white piece of fabric that a dead person is shrouded with in the Muslim culture

© Copyright 2006 Nahida Izzat -PoetryforPalestine – All Rights Reserved 

Forever Friends


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Forever Friends 

 

When I was a little girl

I had many… many friends

From all walks of life

Some of my friends were humans

Some were aliens

From far away galaxies

Some from planets

Only near by

 11078080_793197227429757_6432281951761834732_o

Some from the future

Others from the past

Some were Young, others very old

Some could fly, others could only crawl

Some were dark, others very pale

I really had many… many friends

 

10169325_864642876882557_6796873746479733223_n

Some were giants… Others very small

Some were rich… Some very poor

Some were princes

Living in castles

Others were maidens

Forest wooden cottages 

They used to call home

 

970124_558951170807926_1131562245_n

The most wonderful thing about my friends;

Happy and playful, never getting angry

Even if I said or did the wrong thing

They just knew

How much I love them

They also knew

My love is genuine

 

1014276_506727712734015_189404120_n

I used to take them out

Show them around;

Friends from the future

Fascinated with our homes

Our buildings, buses and cars

You see… every thing is different

where they come from

Still… they loved ours

So much

 

Friends from the past

Were amazed by simple stuff 

Every cup and saucer 

Tables and chairs

Radios and TVs

Dolls and teddy bears

No end to their amusement

Many hours of endless joy

We spent together

 

206051_491152024253647_622271269_n

My giant friends would carry me 

As we toured their land

On the palm of my hand

My tiny friends enjoyed the ride 

 

When my rich friends came over

I always made sure

My poor friends were there

Accidentally on purpose, they would meet

Tell each other about their lives

Their very different lives

My rich friends were kind

Often swapped places with the poor guys

Always helped making their lives better

Sharing everything they had

1959550_601800623236086_892905386_n 

My alien friends

The most intriguing

Delightful… and curious

Constantly bemused 

By everything they saw

I really mean every thing

Their whole world was different

The colours of their skies were different

Their suns, their moons, their planets

Oh… what can I tell you!

Shall I tell you about their excitement

Or about their joy

When they saw the sunrise

Swam in the sea

Spotted a mountain

When gazing at a tree

You should’ve seen their faces

As they held a rose

Or when stroked a stone

 

Oh… what can I tell you

What shall I say!

 1780013_612107352205413_4271598674560287788_o

My friends shared their lives with me

I shared mine

I am forever indebted

For the many things they taught me

 I cannot even count!

How to see  everything anew

As if first time

How to feel with those

who are not so fortunate

The most precious lesson

However

How to view the world

Through the eyes of the other

My friends are faithful

Even today

Still come sometimes

Just to say hello

 1506674_764052933677520_7655405255338591642_n

22-03-2006

© Copyright 2006 Nahida Izzat  -PoetryforPalestine – All Rights Reserved

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