Living In Hope In Times Of Fear And Hate

When Saleh was young, a sheikh told him that Allah does not accept non-Muslims and, if he were to get in to physical contact with them, he must clean his body before he was allowed to enter the mosque.

He was brought up in a country that was being torn apart by hate and fear. Many of his brethren tried to leave the country. But for those who stayed they either continuously lived in fear or became terrorists who would rather be feared. And for those who took to arms, they never looked back. Saleh lived where there was no hope, where everybody’s days were numbered.

Terrorists did not fight other terrorists. They instead killed women and children of their enemies. Their only hope for peace was to kill all their enemies.

And so it was to be: every day was no different from the past. The manner in which the victims were killed was the same. The only difference was new human beings were maimed, tortured then killed.

Saleh knew poverty and fear all too well. He lived them. He believed himself to be a good Muslim, like any other terrorists. But he, himself being poor and needy, chose to help those in need. It didn’t matter what their religion was. He believed that the only way to serve and love Allah, was to serve anyone and everyone. This was what he believed Allah would have wanted him to do.

Saleh knew that some have used religion to justify their hate and killings. For that, atheists and intellectuals have nothing nice to say about religion, even if they may be aware of a few good people like Saleh.

However unlike the atheists and intellectuals who lived far away from his country, Saleh knew what it was to be poor and to live in constant fear.

He had no time for reflection on the effects of religion.

Neither did he have the time to sit and lie down in the cool shadow of a tree and to think about whether he should act.

But one thing he was very clear about: he didn’t want to live in fear anymore, and he had been given the opportunity to make things a bit better for people like his mother and relatives and friends, many of whom had lost their lives.

So, unlike the atheists and the intellectuals and the people who picked up their rifles, he chose to act with actual kindness. It was what he believed Allah would want him to do.

It was what any real person would have done.