“When they sat by it” Surah al-Buruj in light of Bystanding The place of ‘witnessing’ is a salient motif in Sūrah al-Burūj. At four points within the sūrah Allah draws our attention to forms of shahāda – ‘to witness’. He (subḥānahu wa ta’āla) swears by the shāhid ‘witness’ and mash-hūd ‘what is witnessed’. The criminals responsible for burning alive those who affirmed faith are shuhūd ‘witnesses’ and over all affairs, Allah is the shahīd ‘witness’. We are drawn in the sūrah to deliberate on how transgressions against others are inescapable in both a human and divine frame. Humans remember, memorialise,…
Tell that to the ravens plucking out eyes on the blood-packed sand To fathers cradling the last of their hopes in torn bodies To young girls swelling with the unwanted gifts of swift strong soldiers To mothers and wives pulling on veils of grief as they wash their dead Inform the children who wander dazed with thirst, alone among ruins ‘Clean War' by Patricia Wellingham-Jones The representation of the war in Iraq was reduced to the level of a video game, largely due to a combination of rigid media management by the military, the fact that much of the action…
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