The Arabic word for ‘Human’ is إنسان، or “Insaan”. It is also the same word in Persian, Urdu, and other languages.1
Linguists argue about the Arabic word root that Insaan is derived from:
Some say it comes from the root verb “أنِسَ” which means “to solace with” or “feel comfortable with”
Others argue that it is from the root verb “نسِيَ” which means “to forget”.
This is Arabic for you, where a root word can lead you to different places when you start constructing words. I believe it’s called the “Gerund” in English linguistics, with the main distinction that generally every Arabic word can be returned to a 3 letters, past-tense, verb.
Anyways….2
I was talking with a friend of mine years ago about losing our fathers, and he pointed to something really profound. He said:
What a blessing it is to forget, otherwise, we won’t be able to live with the sorrows of losing our fathers.
This opened a massive door for me, as someone who has an irrational fear of forgetting things, people, or incidents, and a weirdly dysfunctional memory.3
But what he said struck a chord. I won’t be able to imagine how one would be able to live if they were not able to forget their sorrows. How would that mind look like? or how would that emotional and psychological state be?
I say this, and I am watching a storyteller in Gaza, taking children away from all their sorrows, even for a few minutes throughout their unimaginable days.
And I think of the Oud player, singing for and with the children, in makeshift circles of activities aimed at as the musician says: “distract them from the sound of fighter jets”.
And I wonder, what is this reality that we both share?
Have We Moved On?
It feels like people have slowly detached themselves from the calling for ceasefire, or stopping the crimes against children. I definitely see it less in my social media. Yes, there are the shadow-bans, and the suppression as
mentions in his letter. This is not new, and is not unusual or surprising in any way. But I’ve been thinking about how people are responding to the lengthening of the oppression attacks to a degree that it creates a sense of ‘normalization’ within our collective psyche.One of my friends was talking to me about how the “fatigue” from watching all the harrowing things on social media has involuntarily led him to cut down social media consumption unwillingly. The jadedness of the situation not only led to detachment, but as a form of “protecting oneself” he found himself watching the news less and less. He felt guilty about it, because he was feeling like he abandoned what he truly believes in, and how that there’s this notion that: “I am not doing enough anyways, the least I can do is bear witness.” But I believe our defense mechanisms kick in to protect us in some way.
I catch myself enjoying something in my daily life, and instantly pull myself from it to the reality of the people in Gaza. Or the unimaginable reality to be more precise, because we are horrified of a minute or two we watch on a tiny screen and our tears fall, but I genuinely believe that the people who are surviving there now have no time to ‘catch themselves’, or pay attention to their tears.
We can talk about the resilience of people facing all this for years, and facing this ongoing slaughter for the past 75 days, and romanticize the idea of their ‘resilience’ and ‘strength of spirit’. I was struck with the video of the mother who was telling a photographer: “stop broadcasting our misery to people on the internet. We don’t want anyone’s help.”
Don’t Shut Down.
I think it is clear to me (and hopefully to everyone) how absurd this annihilation of peoples lives is. How futile and aimless this ongoing killing and destruction on the hands of the zionist occupation.
It took them more than 76 days, and they were not able to retrieve a single hostage by force, but instead there are 20,000 lives lost, 50,000 injured, 2 million people displaced and starved, and still: No single target achieved by the nihilistic occupation brutality. People still resist, they die, but they don’t surrender. Which begs the question: is there a goal? this inhuman behavior of inflicting death being the absolute target can not be understood to someone with an iota of humanity in their hearts. There’s nothing being won here, only destruction of buildings, and loss of life.
Talking to that friend, I was saying: ‘the ability to catch yourself and your feelings of guilt towards ignoring what’s happening for a few moments during your day, is you trying to recalibrate yourself towards a humanistic moralistic compass.’ I have nothing to share with the people of Gaza or Palestine and most probably would’ve never even said hello to any one of them on the street if it wasn’t that I aligned myself with their humanity, their rights, and their struggle. Having that alignment to a people outside your circle of influence, or even outside your life circle, is a sign of a heart that is aligned with its humanity.
“The more brutal the colonizers become, the nearer their end.”
Abdulwahab Elmessiri.
And the historical precedents are there. If we flip the pages of history, we see the most brutal pages of any occupation is when it is out of tricks and strategies to navigate its failures.. French colonialism in Algeria, Spanish colonialism in South America, and all these periods point us towards one direction.. This zionist machine of death is failing, and we’re watching it..
I was remembering these words, reading the story when French colonialist army marched into Algeria, pillaging and killing everyone on their way, they told an old man that they’re here because “they want peace for everyone in Algeria”..
The old man responded: “Why did they bring all the gunpowder then?!”
While I’m writing this I messaged a friend whose family live in Al-Khalil (or Hebron). I asked her how her family was, and she said: “They’re used to it now, the occupation forces come in and come out from their streets.”
It’s very hard to imagine, but if the people under this cloud of destruction are able to find their moment, find yours..
Chin up, Catch your breath, Keep your Heart Alive, and March On..
Till the next one..
Other things:
It took me 4 months to finish one book. That book was ‘The Anarchy’ by William Dalrymple. I’ll probably find some time to write about it.. I’ll also try to find time to reflect on and pay respect to the first non-Muslim funeral I attended in my life.. I’ll also try to get back to sharing some of what I’m reading..
Currently going through: “The World from a Western Perspective.” by Elmessiri. Nothing new there, but in my attempt to finish his complete works, I’m nearing the end with this one. It’s also important to realign the intellectual models that shape my worldview, remember their bases and foundations. Maybe I’m also attempting to make sense of this madness, by going back to understanding the Western Intellect and Psyche..
Many other languages. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/إنسان
Arabic is so ridiculously rich that the lion has more than 300 different names. I think there was a comparative study that estimated that Arabic has more than 20 million words, while English was hovering around 2-3 million words. Imagine all this extra vocabulary to cuss people.
If you’ve been reading these letters, you know I have this weird fascination with writing and memory. I wrote about it couple of months back. https://abdulrahman.substack.com/p/on-the-need-to-write
“Having that alignment to a people outside your circle of influence, or even outside your life circle, is a sign of a heart that is aligned with its humanity.” Yes.
Also: “Imagine all this extra vocabulary to cuss people” might be the dark humor someone needs right now!