Subhanallah, this is one of the most genuine and heartfelt pieces I've come across on Substack! Inna lilahi wa Inna ilayhi rajiun, may those within the Ummah who preserved the Deen until their very last breath be elevated to the highest ranks, especially under brutal, inhumane duress. Ameen.
I had to sit with this for a while… there’s something in that image that doesn’t just ask to be seen, it asks to be witnessed.
What stayed with me most wasn’t only the horror (though it’s there, unmistakably) but the quiet continuity of her remembrance. The beads still resting in her hand felt like a bridge between worlds… as if the conversation she was having with the Divine didn’t break, only changed rooms.
Across traditions, we return to this same simple act, don’t we? The turning of beads, the repetition of the Holy Names, the soft anchoring of the heart in something beyond the noise. Whether it’s called dhikr, japa, or something else entirely… it’s the same reaching. The same longing to stay connected, breath by breath.
And maybe that’s what makes this unbearable, and yet strangely luminous at the same time. Everything around her was reduced to rubble… but that thread of remembrance remained unbroken. As you said so powerfully: there is something they cannot take.
It makes me wonder… in our own quieter lives, with far less at stake, how often do we let go of that thread?
Thank you for writing this. It carries grief, yes—but also a kind of fierce, unshakeable dignity 🙏🏽☮️🙏🏽
A wwoman. Mid Prayer. Before she was murdered. If she was not seen as lesser, if her family was not seen as lesser, the so called civilised west would have declared war. Killing a woman mid prayer. How dare they?
But he who murdered the woman midway through praying is Israeli.
But she who was murdered midway through praying is a Palestinian.
And therein lies the difference between reaction and none at all.
Subhanallah, this is one of the most genuine and heartfelt pieces I've come across on Substack! Inna lilahi wa Inna ilayhi rajiun, may those within the Ummah who preserved the Deen until their very last breath be elevated to the highest ranks, especially under brutal, inhumane duress. Ameen.
I had to sit with this for a while… there’s something in that image that doesn’t just ask to be seen, it asks to be witnessed.
What stayed with me most wasn’t only the horror (though it’s there, unmistakably) but the quiet continuity of her remembrance. The beads still resting in her hand felt like a bridge between worlds… as if the conversation she was having with the Divine didn’t break, only changed rooms.
Across traditions, we return to this same simple act, don’t we? The turning of beads, the repetition of the Holy Names, the soft anchoring of the heart in something beyond the noise. Whether it’s called dhikr, japa, or something else entirely… it’s the same reaching. The same longing to stay connected, breath by breath.
And maybe that’s what makes this unbearable, and yet strangely luminous at the same time. Everything around her was reduced to rubble… but that thread of remembrance remained unbroken. As you said so powerfully: there is something they cannot take.
It makes me wonder… in our own quieter lives, with far less at stake, how often do we let go of that thread?
Thank you for writing this. It carries grief, yes—but also a kind of fierce, unshakeable dignity 🙏🏽☮️🙏🏽
Thank you for this poignant piece, translated in French here : https://zanzibar.substack.com/p/la-main-qui-temoignera
This is very powerful and compassionate….extremely moving content which everyone should read…beautifully written….
this was just amazing . thank you
A wwoman. Mid Prayer. Before she was murdered. If she was not seen as lesser, if her family was not seen as lesser, the so called civilised west would have declared war. Killing a woman mid prayer. How dare they?
But he who murdered the woman midway through praying is Israeli.
But she who was murdered midway through praying is a Palestinian.
And therein lies the difference between reaction and none at all.
Subhanallah.
Personally I would have held some ID but that's just me.