Reflections on my sister in Bosnia

Subj: Reflections on my sister
From: delmen1@umbc.edu (M. Elmenshawy)


as-salaamu 'alaikum warahmat ullah:

i watched with a muted sadness as  the  satellite  broadcasted
pictures  without  words--a  news  program  justly  titled "NO
COMMENT", bringing raw camera footage of recent  news  events,
without any vocal commentary.

already  having  heard  the  news  summary  for the day, i new
immediately from the first camera frame, the  horror  which  i
was experiencing...

two  connected  pools  of muslim blood spilled on the pavement
scattered like a dropped glass of milk.   a  woman--perhaps  a
mother--covering   her  mouth  with  one  hand,  paralyzed  in
disbelief--unable to react, her hand wavering in  a  state  of
shock, her eyes unable to shed tears...

a  young man--perhaps a brother--clutches his hair frantically
yelling across the street at something  off-screen.    another
man--a  father--in  a  desperate  and  vain  but  ever hopeful
effort, rushes her body into the back seat of his  car.    but
her time had come, and the angel was waiting for her soul...

the  frantic  brother  turns  around and explosively kicks the
wall standing behind him, not knowing how  else  to  vent  his
despair...

a  white  armored  personnel carrier, painted with black block
letters "u" and "n" with helpless and  uninvolved  spectators,
sits parked on the opposite corner...

her  mother  cries  out  "why did you have to go?? you were so
young and innocent!!", while her sister, sitting in  her  dead
sister's  room  in  a  river  of  tears,  clutches  one of her
sister's dolls, combing her hair, in a  desperate  attempt  to
hold on to her sister that was now gone...

another  11-year-old  bosnian muslim girl is dead, shot in the
head by another  serb  sniper  in  sarajevo.    her  name  was
Mirella.   she  was the sister of 1 billion muslims worldwide.
she was MY sister.  i watched in utter despair  as  my  sister
was being  rushed  off  to her grave.  may Allah grant her the
status of a martyr and  make  her  grave  a  garden  from  the
gardens of Heaven...

her  coffin  was  a  simple board of wood, on top of which she
layed.  she was passed from man to man on her short journey to
her  new  home  until  the  Day of Judgment, each one eager to
contribute to the honor  of  helping  her  reach  her  resting
place, despite the almost visibly negligible weight due to her
small size and young  age.    just  before  laying  her  white
shrouded  body  into  the  earth,  her  father  uncovered  her
forhead, and as a lock of her hair appeared  from  behind  her
shroud,  gave  her  a  final loving, farewell kiss, as she was
lowered into the dirt, returning from where we all originated,
and to where we all shall return...

suddenly  my  heart  shuddered  at  the fear of being asked by
Allah--WHAT DID YOU DO FOR YOUR SISTER??   right  now,  i  can
only  bow  my head in shame, for whatever tears have been shed
or money has been thrown or efforts have  been  made,  nothing
ever seems  like  enough.    [may  Allah  reward those who are
making whatever efforts they can]

the ironic paradox, in a twisted way, is that she  is  one  of
the  lucky  ones--she was not one of the ones who suffered one
of the unspeakable, abhorable, inhuman  atrocities  we've  all
heard  time  and time again so often we are starting to become
numb.  the other part  of  the  irony--she  was  playing  with
Croatian and  Serbian  friends  at  the  time.  her father had
warned her  to  stay  close  to  the  house,  and  she  obeyed
dutifully; but as Allah has promised, once a person's time has
come, nothing will delay it nor precipitate its early arrrival
by even an hour.

gone  are  the days when the honor and respect of a muslim was
sacred--when the  sahabi,  at  the  sight  of  a  jew  in  the
market-place who was harassing a muslim woman and attempted to
lift her jilbab, rose immediately and killed the  perpetrator,
only to suffer the same in return.

there  are  so  many  one  can find to blame--serbs, for their
savagery and vile crimes which i cannot even label  as  animal
for fear of insulting animals; muslim governments, for waiting
for permission from the west to allow the  muslims  to  defend
themselves;  the  muslims  who  live under them, for accepting
them;  the  west,  for  blatant  and  unapologetic  bias   and
hypocrisy  towards  islam and the muslims; the jews (we always
have to blame them in one way or another)...

but for the time being the most important person to  blame  is
myself, for not doing enough.  may Allah grant me and the rest
of the muslims the resolve to do  more.    not  just  for  our
brothers  and  sisters  in bosnia and elsewhere... but for the
improvement of the  state  and  condition  of  islam  and  the
muslims in general.

- Maged