As the darkness overruns Biladi Shaam.

In the name of Allah most gracious, most merciful.

15th night Ramadhan 1435.

I woke up having overslept for the first time for Suhur, with the alarm on my chest at 6.50 Subhanallah.  Last night to a full mosque in Surry Estate the Kiyamul Layl (Night prayers) were conducted and Salatul Ghaib (Salah for the dead in absentia) for the Palestinians and the Syrians. The mosque was filled with outrage and hurt. Young and old stood in saf with heavy heart, trying to make sense. “We cannot talk about Palestine and not talk about what is going on in Syria”, said the speaker. A fact finding group had returned to investigate what was happening in there.

In Syria, the land of knowledge, the junction point between the east and the west, over 8 mil people are displaced, 200 000 have been killed. On the borders of Turkey in a small town of 80 000 people, 100 000 refugees have been accommodated and attended to. The speaker spoke directly to a man in Syria, who gave an account of what was happening to him and to those around him, bombed, maimed and killed and raped, women young and old, debased. Anesthetic for amputations are recitals of the Fatiha and the Quls by the doctor and the injured seeking refuge in Allah from the mischief of created things and the darkness as it overruns the earth. Subhanallah!

This woman cringes and sobs low in her throat, like when Rwandan women were dishonoured and when 20 000 Bosnian women were repeatedly degraded all in the name of ethnic cleansing. Going back in history the rapes of Vietnamese and Korean women by US soldiers; German women raped by Soviet soldiers ranged up to 2 million; thousands of women were raped during Bangladesh's war of independence; the rape of the women in Cyprus; the 1937 rape of Nanking and we can go on and on. Whether in Lavender Hill, Mitchells Plain, Haiti, Liberia, Somalia and Uganda – whether in a cell or en masse, rape is rape. An abominable act, whether orthodox Christian,  Chinese or Tutsi or Korean or German or Jew.

The Malaaikah weep and the world stands and watches.

Abu and I could not sleep at all until we dozed off at about 4. I could look at the pictures posted on the web no more. I turn to the garden to seek tranquility for my Ruh because only in nature is that possible for me. In nature the female species are not despoiled and raped so to call this behavior “like animals” is an insult to the animal kingdom. I feel ashamed for the actions of other human beings, a spectator, helpless and I seek refuge in my Rabb.

My morning is filled with the high pitched tweeting of birds, but in the Middle East the sounds of an onslaught of bombs are not dissimilar. As the day continues, the men have gone to fetch manure to make compost; and I will myself to start off the day.

Plant food and honour all women and love thine neighbour!

Yasmine