The ‘pampalak’i’ they ignored

Growing up in Kano, in the 70s and 80s, meant having access to a great deal of religious preaching. There was the one at ‘makarantar allo’, the traditional Islamic school, and later the one at Islamiyya school, its modernised version.

Then there was the preaching on the radio and TV, mainly on Fridays and a few other days in-between.

We had so much access to preaching that between that, and the strict discipline in most homes, we had no need for anything like the hisbah board to keep us on track, morally.

The preaching those days consisted of religious doctrines, practical Islamic rites and life after death. A common feature in the stories of the last day is the expected ‘gudun pampalaki’, that all humans are expected to undertake, while racing from their graves to the place of reckoning, or the judgement ground. This will happen after we’ve been awoken by the second sound of the divine Trumpet.

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We Muslims believe that the last Trumpet will be blown by Angel Azrafil and that will end all life on earth. Then after a period of time, another Trumpet will be blown to raise us all up and we’ll sprint our way, in fear, towards the field of judgement.

Today, news channels flippantly refer to marathon race as ‘gudun pampalaki’ but the original pampalaki race is expected to be in the next world, and so scary that our hearts will virtually be in our throats while we participate.

I was forced to remember this anticipated race, when I saw the residents of Rafah racing away in total fear and confusion after they were attacked by Israeli bombs last Thursday.

The sight of young and old men running for their lives was particularly moving. But what melted my heart the most was the picture of a young boy pushing his baby brother in a makeshift cart, shedding tears and racing to save their lives.

It was indeed heart-rending, very painful to watch.

Yet the high-speed race they engaged in, fueled totally by fear and the need to save their lives was so reminiscent of the scene our scholars painted so vividly of that anticipated race in the Hereafter.

By now, most Palestinians both living and dead have told themselves they have seen the end of the world, in one form or the other, from October to date.

As if the `pampalaki’ race attack in Rafa wasn’t bad enough, more Palestinians were targeted and shot as they queued for food, at a food collection centre at Dawar Al Nablusi in Southern Gaza the same day.

Here a total of 112 people were massacred in cold blood. Their only sin was queuing up for food.

But Israel was so remorseless and undeterred, that a few days later, last Sunday, it shelled another group of displaced Palestinians who were gathered to collect aid from a truck at Deir Al Balah, in central Gaza.

What’s painful about all this is how the world continues to look on. How is it possible that a tiny, lawless, apartheid enclave like Israel can defy the world and get away with it?

Doesn’t this just prove what Ariel Sharon once said about Americans in relation to Israel? “We own the banks and the theatres, without us they are a stupid people”, the old, dead rogue was reported as having said.

And maybe he was right, how else can one explain not just America’s complacence in the face of Israel’s inhuman atrocities but her active support for it.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I read that the US was dropping aid into Gaza from the sky. Of what use is such aid to Palestinians when America gives everything, from weapons to money to protection against international laws to their murderers, bloodthirsty Israel?

But like I’ve always said since this renewed ethnic cleansing in Gaza, the ones most to blame for Israel’s intransigence and Netanyahu’s belligerence are the wealthy Arab nations of the Gulf. They are very much in a position to end this war of aggression, in a day, if they wished to.

They have the number, the wealth and the weapons with which to attack and stop Israel. What they lack, monumentally, is the willpower to do what is right.

Diplomatic moves and high-level consultations will not work with a madman like Netanyahu or his equally deranged war cabinet.

If only those spoilt, luxury-loving and white-men-worshipping Arab leaders will come to their senses and cooperate, they will chase Israel out of Gaza and the West Bank as well as have Benjamin Netanyahu arrested and tried for war crimes.

But since they are too scared to even cut diplomatic ties with Israel, it is now left to South Africa, the real giant of Africa, to seek redress at the unwilling court, for their distant brothers.

It is thanks to Latin American countries like Bolivia and others, that Israel is being shunned like a leper in some circles because they have recalled their ambassadors from Tel Aviv and chased away the Israelis from their capitals.

While Netanyahu will go down in history as the butcher of babies, some straight from their mother’s wombs to their early graves, these Arab leaders will be remembered as people complicit in his crimes. This is because they looked the other way while he did his dastardly deeds and they preferred to beg and pamper him, rather than to attack him and defend their kin.

As for the United States, which would rather support Israel at all costs, and is not prepared to liberate itself after 75 years of subservience to a foreign country, it won’t be long before it will reap the fruit of its love and devotion.

It won’t remain a superpower for long, all the indices are there. And when it finally collapses and cannot call the shots anywhere in the world, we will see what Israel will rely on to continue its occupation of Palestine.

Though it’s painful to sit and watch, while the so-called international community and the Arab world pretend helplessness in the face of Israel’s atrocities, we know that they won’t last much longer either.

The push for a ceasefire isn’t coming from the Arab front only. Even Israel is paying the price for this genocide through massive economic boycotts and the activities of Yemen’s Houthis, in the high seas.

They will have to retreat and lick their wounds soon. They will not win this war and like many other Zionist criminals before him, Netanyahu will die without seeing the end of Palestinians.

His hunger for their land and his thirst for the oil beneath Gazan soil will never be satisfied before he leaves this world in ignominy.

Victory isn’t meant for Israel, victory will be with Palestine, however long it takes to arrive.