“It is the day after Lailatul Qad’r, Ramadan, 1431/2010. The news media today produced two photographs, almost side by side. One, of four little children, perhaps between the ages of one and two, lying on their back, covered by flies, in a refugee tent in violence-wracked, flood-ravaged Pakistan, seemingly abandoned by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
The other photo, claiming to be that of three million evidently better-off Muslims, bent on garnering 1000-months-worth of instant reward, on this Lailatul Qad’r 1431/2010 night, in what the caption called “Holy Mosques.”
I couldn’t decide which of the two pictures was more poignant to me or which one racked and seared my soul more. For the better part of the day, I have been trying to shut my eyes tight and make those images go away. But I don’t seem to be able to.
And if you ask me, that is the real Hallowed Ground – where those four little children lay infested with flies and fighting off death. And that is where God is that night – with those four little children, fighting off death, with their bodies prey to invasion and occupation by a million flies.” (Dr. Pasha)
