Upon midst of war
About a couple weeks ago, I saw a video in Instagram that filming how people from refugee camps do their daily activities. They are Syrian people who have been displaced for years due to a long civilian conflict in their country. What makes me interested, is finding them cheerful and enjoying their life even though they have to live in refugee camps for uncertain time. I know that sounds miserable yet happy to see them have a safe place to flee during the war at the same time. However, that’s not an ideal place for people to live in, especially for children that need more decent place to play and grow. They deserve to live like others who live in another country with no war. But unfortunately, they couldn’t choose which country they wanted to be born in, that’s beyond their control and as a muslim, I understand and believe that Allah has decreed all things in this universe. I guarantee that no people in this entire world would ask for living in such situation.
They have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety by looking for help from neighbor countries. That’s definitely were dark ages for people living amidst war, no matter where they come from. I had a chance to watch some videos where the war was going on at the time, I found it so heart-trembling like I was there seeing them to escape the country with few supplies and some don’t even have any. Honestly, I still hear several mazy stories about what issues have been occuring in their country, so I don’t want to bring it up here. But the point is still the same, they want to live like they used to live before the war or even better.
I do believe that a human tends to prefer a peaceful life, not living in the midst of chaos. But do we define the same what peaceful life we want it to be? the answer may vary which means can also lead to “No, we have different point of view for that”, does it something that encourage a group of people to create their own “peaceful life” but sacrifice other people life? Probably, I can keep questioning regarding that in my head but absolutely, I don’t have enough knowledge to answer that.
Back to the refugees, some of us might have known about what’s happening in Palestine lately. This is not the only time those massacres have happened, it’s been going on for years. A few days ago, I opened my instagram and I saw a kid looks so pale, tremble with fear and his body was covered in dust. It’s so terrible how such a small kid must experience that terrible conditions of war. I’m afraid that will give him a traumatic childhood once he’s a grown up. Long story short, right before I write this down, I just saw him smiling while playing along with other people and his new toys (so heartwarming 😊), Alhamdulillah.
Unlike other refugees from Syria, it seems they haven’t yet completely displaced to a safe shelter. Probably, it’s because they want to stand for their ground to defend their homeland and that reminds me the story of how Indonesian people did the same thing against Dutch. Again, I don’t want to talk more related to the political issues among the parties involved (that’s not my area).
Without realizing it, I shed a tear as I keep scrolling down the account to see other videos. Oh, man! really, I’m not making it up, how can you hold back your tears while your mind immediately gets so complicated? I mean, when I keep watching one video to another one, it’s dominated by children playing, children reciting Al-Qur’an, even some of them memorizing hadith and they’re only about 5-15 years old, what a lovely kids! I didn’t see any of them look sad and desperate. If I were them, that would be the reason for me to justify nothing’s wrong with being hopeless. I always compare myself to anybody else who lives their life much better than me and that kind of situation often leaves me in a miserable feeling of myself. My bad, I know that shows how ungrateful I am. But without meaning to degrade them at all, they got me changed my perspective and I took lots of lessons from them. What Allah has destined for us, it will reach us (no matter what) and what’s not destined for us, it can never be ours (no matter how hard we strive for it). Hence, being able to be grateful and mindful for what we have and what we can control are something priceless to have these days.
Lastly, I know I couldn’t have done much for them due to my limitations and weaknesses. But please keep helping them as best as we can - of course, making du’a (prayer) is something impactful for them. May Allah protect them, give them the real justice and freedom. Aameen.