Tuesday 16/1/2024

The Palestinian puts everyone around him into a state of awe, himself included.
Usually we witness weddings in the Gaza Strip in a customary fashion. During calm states, the bride and groom are celebrated in the midst of their families in a state of joy. But the joy that I heard of was like a clown’s make-up. The bride awaits her wedding day with utmost patience, and dreams of how that day will be. She plans it with her girlfriends, with her family, and anyone she loves.

There are those who decide to have their wedding in the bottle’s neck, just like what the newly-weds did at the school. The bride wore black, it would likely have been gentler on her heart to wear something less sharp than black, but people’s emotions overcome them without notice. The groom was also wearing black. However the joy that was filling faces, the sounds of laughter and songs, moments that turned the school’s playground into a wedding hall, were all but moments.

Our house in Al-Shujayieh* holds this same dream. In my sister’s room, next to the closet, a travel suitcase that she was packing for her wedding in Egypt. We are all supposed to be in Egypt celebrating my sister Manar’s wedding.

Mahmoud, Manar’s fiance, does not know what to do in the shadow of the violent aggression on Gaza. He does not know how to stop it. There is nothing in his hands but offering them in prayer to God.

How are you?
A simple question! Which naturally should also have a simple answer.

How are you?
Alhamdulillah (Thanks be to God).

A Muslim gives thanks to God in all circumstances. We give thanks to God in these difficult times that we are passing through and all that has happened to us, because despite what has happened, God has been merciful towards us. How can we feel otherwise when God blessed us with life? We thank God alone for blessings and hardships. We believe in the mercy of God, despite what the occupation has done to our children. We believe in the greatness of God, despite what we see every day before our very eyes. A child with one limb jumping on the ground searching for her other limb, which she cannot find, because the aggression devoured it.

“How are you?” is a simple question, and its response is simpler, “Alhamdulillah.”
But you can imagine for yourself how I am.

January 16
*the North of Gaza