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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/03/15/words-vs-action-a-supplication-for-gaza-and-humanity/">counterpunch.org</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Words vs. Action: A Supplication for Gaza, and Humanity</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Ramzy Baroud</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">March 15, 2024<br></div>
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<div id="gmail-attachment_316196" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-316196" src="https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/chuttersnap-tzymjuiSqCE-unsplash-1-680x452.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="299" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-316196" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Image by CHUTTERSNAP.</p></div>
<p>‘All we can do for Gaza is just offer our Du’a.” This is an
oft-repeated statement by enraged Arabs and Muslims who feel helpless
before the Israeli genocide in Gaza.</p>
<p>But is it true that only invocations and supplications are possible,
as tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are being killed
and wounded by the Israeli war machine?</p>
<p>No. There is much that can be done and, in fact, many people around the world are already doing it.</p>
<p>In the traditions of Hadith, sayings attributed to Prophet Mohammed,
the most cited reference to the need for action, collectively or
individually, is this <a href="https://www.iium.edu.my/deed/articles/alhisba.html#:~:text=%22Whoever%20of%20you%20sees%20wrong,weight%20of%20faith%20(iman)." target="_blank" rel="noopener">one</a>: “Whoever
among you sees evil, let him change it with his hand. If he cannot do
so, then with his tongue. If he cannot do so, then with his heart, which
is the weakest level of faith.”</p>
<p>Du’a is an invocation, communicated by the heart; it is a Muslim’s
conversation with God. It can be verbalized, or not. In group prayers,
especially during Friday sermons or throughout the holy month of
Ramadan, among other occasions, Du’as can be performed collectively.</p>
<p>The nature of the collective Du’a highlights the priorities of any
given Muslim group, community or even nation. Gaza, Palestine, Al-Aqsa
Mosque are among the some of the main themes, or causes, for which
Muslims beseech God’s help.</p>
<p>“Oh Allah, please free the Al-Aqsa Mosque”, “Oh, Merciful One, stand
by the children of Gaza” or “Oh All Powerful, deliver Palestinians from
injustice” are only a few of an almost endless stream of Du’a that are
uttered from Mecca to Medina to Jerusalem to Kuala Lumpur, to every
mosque and every Muslim home throughout the world.</p>
<p>Du’a is the affirmation in a relationship between man and God,
delineating that nothing would occur without God’s permission, and that a
person, no matter how poor, beleaguered and weakened, can transcend all
earthly relations to speak directly to the highest of all authorities.</p>
<p>“Your Lord has proclaimed, ‘Call upon Me, I will respond to you’,” Allah <a href="https://quran.com/en/ghafir/60" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> in Surah Ghafir, verse 60.</p>
<p>That does not necessarily mean that Du’a is a last resort. Rather, it
goes hand in hand with action. It does not supplant action, but
reinforces it. Collective Du’a is a communal declaration that all
Muslims are driven by similar priorities, those of peace, justice,
equality, mercy, kindness and all the rest.</p>
<p>The dichotomy, however, arises from the fact that many Muslims feel
unable to affect change regarding the horrific fate of Gaza, whether on a
small or a large scale, thus the widespread notion that “all we can do
is offer Du’a”.</p>
<p>I have visited South Africa several times in the past. Each time, I
learned more than I could have possibly imparted. I learned that
people’s power is far more effective, in the long run, than the opposing
powers of state violence. I also learned that no worldly law,
especially those that aim at imposing racist apartheid, can possibly
stand against our innate rejection of social inequality and other evils.
Finally, I also learned that when people rise, nothing can stand in
their way.</p>
<p>The latter maxim is as true in the case of South Africa during the
anti-apartheid struggle, as it is now in Palestine, particularly in
Gaza. Of that, famed Tunisian poet, Abu Al-Qasim al-Shabi wrote a
hundred years ago.</p>
<p>“Should the people one day truly aspire to life / then fate must
needs respond / the night must needs shine forth / and the shackles must
needs break,” he <a href="https://arablit.org/2011/01/16/two-translations-of-abu-al-qasim-al-shabis-if-the-people-wanted-life-one-day/#:~:text=Should%20the%20people%20one%20day,in%20her%20air%20and%20vanish." target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, just before he died at the very young age of 25.</p>
<p>His powerful words also included a caveat, an ominous warning of
terrible things to come: “Those who are not embraced by life’s yearning /
shall evaporate in her air and vanish.”</p>
<p>South Africa did not make the latter choice, nor did Gaza. And every
attempt at crushing these great peoples continued to fail. They
remained, persisted, healed their wounds and fought back.</p>
<p>I always believed that South Africa will play a central role in
international solidarity with Palestine. But, frankly, I had not
expected that the African nation would become so intrinsic, even
unparalleled, to holding Israel accountable for its crimes in Palestine
to this extent.</p>
<p>Pretoria’s <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192" target="_blank" rel="noopener">push</a> to
hold Israel and its war criminals to account at the International Court
of Justice (ICJ) and International Criminal Court (ICC) <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/07/world/middleeast/south-africa-icj-israel-gaza-starvation.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">continues</a> unabated.</p>
<p>It was not the sheer military, economic or political power or prowess
that made South Africa a factor in the Palestinian fight for justice.
It was the sheer will of a nation and, subsequently, a government to
translate its desire to achieve a more equitable, just and law-governed
international system into meaningful action.</p>
<p>South Africa could have simply resorted to self-pity, highlighting
its supposed insignificance in the face of more powerful US-western
governments that continue to support Israel, feeding it with all the
necessary weapons to sustain its genocide.</p>
<p>It, too, could have resorted to prayers, invocations and
supplications as the “only thing that can be done”. It did not. To the
contrary, it used its diplomatic leverage and moral authority to
articulate one of the most powerful cases in favor of Palestinian
freedom and against Israeli brutality ever argued before an
international legal institution.</p>
<p>It is understandable that many may feel helpless, especially when one
attempts to fathom the enormity of the crime underway in Gaza. Israel
might have not used weapons of mass destruction in the Strip, but it has
certainly applied all of its western-supplied weapons to inflict mass <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147272#:~:text=Gaza%3A%20Massive%20destruction,displacing%20over%201.5%20million%20persons." target="_blank" rel="noopener">destruction</a>, nonetheless.</p>
<p>But if Gaza has not given up, why should we? Even giving up is a
privilege. Gaza does not have that privilege nor should we grant it to
ourselves. Gaza is fighting for its very survival and we, too, must
fight for the same end.</p>
<p>Make a Du’a for Gaza. Let it be your first act as you undertake your
quest for a just world. And make another Du’a for Gaza, to beseech God
to reward your selfless and well-intentioned deeds. And, if you are
besieged by desperation, still make a Du’a, so that you may discover the
power to make a difference, which has always been within your grasp.</p>
</div><p>
<em>Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “</em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"><em>These Chains Will Be Broken</em></a><em>:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons”
(Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research
Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim
University (IZU). His website is </em><a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/"><em>www.ramzybaroud.net</em></a>
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