Beshara Magazine
This poem is dedicated to Rotem Moria, a young Israeli killed on the 7th of October, 2004, when a massive terrorist bomb attack devastated the Hilton Taba Hotel in Sinai.
His mother, Narda Dalgleish, had started the poem some months earlier, as a response to 9/11. She finished it after her son’s death.
Oh Ahmad
There is nothing I can do or say
to prevent your intention
to blow yourself up
with those you hate.
But I would like you to know anyway
that at the end of your last prayer
when you turn your head to the
right
and say
asalâmu 'alâykum wa râhmat u-llah wa-barakâtuhu
you have greeted me too
as I am there, right beside you
with the whole of Mankind
because your Lord is my breath
Then, when you turn
your head to the
left
and repeat for the last time
asalâmu 'alâykum wa râhmat u-llah wa-barakâtuhu
I am there too, with the whole universe
because everywhere you turn
there is His face
and your Lord is my breath
Even when
your hands and forehead touch the ground
and you say to your Lord with a deep sense of fulfilment
Hu
we are all there
right beneath you
with our foreheads and hands and knees and toes
touching yours from the ground.
So, just before you press the button
with your call Akbar
know that we are always between you and your Lord
because
He is our breath
asalâmu...Peace be upon you (plural) and God's Mercy and Blessings.
Hu – He, the Absolute Ipseity, in Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic.
Akbar – A Divine Name, the superlatively Greater.
For more poems by Narda Dalgleish and information regarding her book, which can be bought online, see: www.orazpublication.com