Part of Selected Miscellany · Lesson 10 of 31

Father... a message on the night of the execution

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Transcript

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0:00 Oppression is the transgression of limits and the violation of the rights of others.
0:05 The most heinous form of it is oppressing one who has no helper but Allah.
0:10 Umar Ibn Abd al-Aziz said:
0:13 Beware of oppressing one who has no one to defend them against you except Allah.
0:18 Indeed, oppression in this world will be darkness for those who commit it.
0:22 The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said:
0:25 Beware of oppression.
0:27 For oppression will be darkness on the Day of Resurrection.
0:32 O you!
0:33 The pleasures of the oppressors have vanished due to their oppression, while the shame remains.
0:38 They have moved to the abode of punishment, and others have inherited their homes.
0:43 They are left alone with the torment in the depths of those stones.
0:48 There is no rescuer and no companion.
0:50 No friend and no neighbor.
0:54 The poet Hashim al-Rifa'i wrote this poem.
0:58 From the perspective of an oppressed man.
1:00 He sent it to his father on the night of his execution.
1:05 My father, what can my fingers write?
1:10 While the rope and the executioner await me.
1:14 My father, what can my fingers write?
1:22 While the rope and the executioner await me.
1:30 This letter is to you from a cell.
1:37 Cold, with walls of stone.
1:45 Only one night remains for me to live.
1:52 And I feel that its darkness is my shroud.
1:59 It will pass, my father, I have no doubt.
2:06 And after it, my body will be carried away.
2:13 The night around me is a deathly silence.
2:22 And memories churn within my soul.
2:29 My pain overwhelms me, so I seek comfort.
2:36 In a few verses of the Qur'an.
2:43 My soul within me is transparent.
2:50 Humility has crept into it and shaken my being.
2:57 I have lived believing in Allah.
3:01 And only recently did I taste the sweetness of faith.
3:10 The silence is broken by the clinking of chains.
3:20 Which the fingers of the jailer have toyed with.
3:26 From a slit in the door, he watches his prey.
3:33 And returns in safety to his rounds.
3:40 I do not feel any hatred toward him.
3:47 What crime did I commit that his malice should touch me?
3:53 The tear of the prisoner there in his shackles.
3:59 And the blood of the martyr here will meet.
4:06 And the succession of drops will descend after it.
4:12 A torrent followed by the outpouring of a flood.
4:19 My father, if the morning rises upon the world.
4:29 And the light of the sun illuminates every place.
4:35 And the birds welcome the morning among the branches.
4:42 A new day, bright with colors.
4:48 And you hear the sounds of optimism flowing.
4:55 From the mouth of the milk seller.
5:02 And a knock comes, as is customary at our door.
5:08 It will be the jailer knocking at the prison door.
5:14 And after a moment, I will be swaying.
5:23 In the rope, suspended from the gallows.
5:29 I do not want you to live broken.
5:35 In the crowd of pains and sorrows.
5:41 For your son, shackled in his chains.
5:48 Has been led toward death, though innocent.
5:54 So remember the stories of the morning days.
6:01 That you told me about the love of the homeland.
6:07 And if you hear my mother’s wailing in the darkness.
6:21 Weeping for a youth lost in its prime.
6:28 And she hides the heartaches in her depths.
6:34 Pain she conceals from the neighbors.
6:41 Then ask her to forgive me, for I.
6:46 Seek nothing from her but forgiveness.
6:53 The ringing of her voice still echoes in my ears.
6:59 And her words spoken with mercy and tenderness.
7:05 "My son, I have become frail."
7:13 "I have no strength left for sorrows."
7:20 "So gladden my heart by searching for."
7:26 "A righteous wife, and leave your disobedience."
7:32 She had a cherished wish.
7:39 Oh, how beautiful her hopes and aspirations were.
7:46 And now I do not know in what state.
7:52 You will spend the night, or in what heart.
7:58 This is what I have written to you, my father.
8:04 Some of what is running through a suffering mind.
8:10 Until we meet under the shade of a justice.
8:17 Where judgments and the scales are sacred.
8:23 Until we meet under the shade of a justice.