They Made Us Envy (the Camel)
Mohamed Abdel-Majid
In the biography of our master Umar ibn al-Khattab, there is an endless radiance, even though more than 1400 years have passed since that fragrant biography. The biography of Al-Farooq is considered literature in justice or justice in literature, or in reality, it is the pinnacle of both.
Narrators tell us that Al-Farooq Umar, may God be pleased with him, was once the leader of the faithful. He inserted his hand into the wound of a limping camel to treat it, saying, I am afraid to be questioned about this. In the same context, he said, If my grandfather died because of a stumbling camel near the Euphrates, I would fear that Umar would be held accountable.
Regarding his justice, it is said that if a mule were found in Iraq carrying a load, Al-Farooq would carry the mule and its load. What about the corpses that were displayed sprawled in Nyala for some civilians seeking refuge on the bridge due to clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces? What about the killing of twenty civilians in the Kalakla area? And six others in Omdurman.
The ongoing military war seems to be almost a war against civilians.
(39) in Nyala.
(20) in Kalakla.
(6) in Omdurman.
They were killed within close hours, most of them women and children.
One day, our master Umar carried the belongings of a woman from his flock and found her hungry at dusk. When one of his followers offered to carry the womans load for him, the Commander of the Faithful said, No, but you carry it on my shoulders. Who will carry my burdens when the Hour comes?
A mule, gentlemen, that Al-Farooq fears the stumble of in Iraq while he is in the city! And there is no nation that testifies that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and its people die like sheep!
Is there not among you a hand to console those afflicted as the second caliph of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, did when he inserted his hand into the wound of a limping camel to treat it?
A mule stumbles, but there is no people exposed to bullets, shelling, hunger, disease, and indifference. There is a camel that heals, and a woman whose load is carried by the Commander of the Faithful away from the corniche, the Nile Street, and the virtual social media platforms! Who will bear the burden of the Sudanese people?
They have decided, and we are in this war, to raise fuel prices, even though citizens have lost their cars (through looting)!!
They have decided, and we are in this war, and the entire population is seeking migration and escape for fear of shelling and bullets, to impose a fee of up to 150,000 pounds for passport issuance. They opened the borders with Egypt, Chad, and Eritrea, as if they ruled that the citizen should stay at home until death by a stray bullet or aerial bombardment. This is a jurisprudence on how to capitalize on the crisis. In some states, the passport fee reached 171,000. I dont know why there is a difference between the states, and I dont know the reason for going over 170,000 pounds. It could have been 170,000 or 175,000 pounds instead of these fractions used by the Ministry of Finance, unlike Gabriel Ibrahim, who was not forced to have a fraction!!!
The Sudanese citizen has marked his departure from this world with a bullet, nothing more.
In the era of Al-Farooq Umar, the life of a camel was more dignified than the lives of people who have been subjected to wars, tasting humiliation and misery, moving across borders in search of refuge after their own lands rejected them. Do shelters become more merciful than homes?
The Commander of the Faithful used to insert his hand into the wound of a limping camel to treat it, while you increase the fees for obtaining travel documents! You reach into the pockets of citizens who mean nothing to you, instead of treating their wounds, while they struggle to obtain doses for cancer patients and kidney failure sufferers, who die in deprivation and need, abandoned and alone in the shelters that provide no protection from cold, heat, or rain, and above all, their dignity is erased.
If only they had stopped there, but after looting and plundering, civilians are subjected to aerial bombardments. They die while seeking refuge under bridges as in Nyala or while staying in their homes as in Omdurman, Kalakla, and Jineen.
If they were camels in the time of Al-Farooq Umar in a different state from Khartoum, their fate would be better than it is now!
A woman entered the fire in a kitten that she did not feed or release to eat from the earths vegetation (she neither protected her nor provided her with a passport). How would your situation be then? When hearts reach throats, and 40 million Sudanese, some of them confined to their homes and others in shelters, find nothing but the smoke of Sudan in the news, offering nothing but smoke.
Sudan, the land of goodness, blessings, the righteous, and the kind-hearted, has become a land engulfed in thick smoke. It has rained stones!
The country that used to export cotton and Arabic gum is now exporting tongues of smoke to the skies.
And those who left and those who stayed had their properties seized, their wealth looted, and their dignity violated. They lost their cars and their lives. Some were killed, and others are waiting. The condition of those who left and departed is not better than those who decided to stay to die in one go instead of waiting in shelters.
A woman entered the fire in a kitten! She neither fed it nor left it to eat from the earths vegetation. And you, for five months, have not paid salaries to employees and workers, and you have increased passport and fuel fees. You havent paid them, nor have you allowed them to migrate!
We are talking about a nation, not a kitten.
You will ask about more than 4 million people displaced from Khartoum due to the war. They left their homes and abandoned their properties, only for them to be plundered and looted. Those who remained faced death, danger, hunger, and terror.
You will ask about thousands of displaced people who fled from Darfur states after being bombed, only to face conditions as refugees worse than those they escaped from. These people preferred to shed tears rather than shed blood, but they failed. Tears flowed, and the flow of blood did not stop.
You will ask about a staggering number of missing persons, exceeding 1500 according to official statistics (as of more than a month ago). These missing persons are human beings, not camels.
You will ask about hundreds of civilian casualties.
The popular saying, Death and the destruction of homes, is a literal reality in Sudan.
Sons of my homeland, some of them sleep on the ground in cities under a rainy sky and high temperatures. Others have moved north, spending their life savings and losing the fruits of years to provide shelter for their children, protecting them from homelessness, loss, and bullets.
Millions of cancer and kidney failure patients have failed to obtain treatment doses and dialysis drugs. Kidney failure victims die from failure to access dialysis treatments. They lost their lives after we failed to provide them with medication, and their kidney failure was kinder to them than our failure with them!
This country is suffering from complete failure.
More than 5 million refugees, including over 2 million children, have been displaced by the war that is entering its sixth month. They have found themselves under bombardment, gunfire, and imminent death. Being displaced is not easier for them than dying from the wars bullets. We are losing, and we continue to lose with every additional minute of this war.
Al-Burhan once said in one of his speeches that the continuation of the war would lead to the disintegration of Sudan. What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for Sudan to disintegrate?
The leaders of the Rapid Support Forces and Hamidtis advisors, from their capitals that foreign powers have shaken, claimed that the Rapid Support Forces did not commit violations. I dont know what their definition of violations is. Are the homes and cars of citizens permissible for them? Is rape and death permissible? Is looting and plundering not a concern in their doctrine? Is the recruitment of child soldiers without guilt?
Bombing neighborhoods and killing civilians from the air is also considered a violation. Those who fled their homes lost their possessions and revolutions, and those who decided to stay in their homes lost their lives.
As for those who analyze the situation from inside the studios of Arab or European satellite channels and assert that the war is over and their side has won, they embody the phrase empty talk with no substance. Some of them carry the title of military expert, some are media experts, and others are strategic experts. All of them have proven that they lack any expertise. They claimed to have decisively won the battle within 48 hours, and now the war is on the verge of entering its sixth month! These experts, analysts, sycophants, and remnants are committing violations no less significant than the Rapid Support Forces violations.
Those experts who deceived the people and contributed to igniting the war while speaking about control and mobilization from the capitals of Arab and European countries are not much different from those who kill, rob, and plunder. Liars can do anything. All of them do it in the name of the homeland!!!
This homeland cannot be built on lies and will not be built by opportunists. The homeland pays the price for those opportunists who are accountable for their actions, shifting from one stance to another, from one capital to another, from one satellite channel to another, depending on their personal interests and bank balances.
The real ailment of the nation lies in those who have no principles or positions. Those who stand by principles are not to be feared, even if they are wrong. Nations are built by the honorable, not by those who raise their voices from abroad.
To the experts and everyone, so as not to be deceived by false hopes, we say that it is difficult to decisively settle this war militarily. This war will continue until Sudans population becomes only 7 individuals, and not a single more, if you are waiting for a military victory. The price of such a victory would be incredibly high, and it would entail the demise of the people, the Nile, and the homeland. What good is a victory when all of Sudans population ends up in graves?
We will continue in a state of confusion and ongoing clashes, with victories here and there, and the return of rising smoke and the tongues of analysts and lengthy advisors who incite the citizens from abroad.
A stable nation with a unified people and a single national army would not go down this path.
O God, protect the homeland, its people, and hasten the solution that is in the best interest of Sudan and its people.
In his book The Sudan: The Horrors of War, the Aspirations for Peace, the Story of Two Countries, Dr. Mansour Khalid mentions a story that makes us fear that the end of this people and this nation may come before the end of the war. He writes:
We read a satirical message from a Sudanese citizen (Hamed Mohammed Faqeer), published in Al-Hayat newspaper on February 1, 2000, in which he said that he used to raise his hand every morning and pray to his Lord, saying: God willing, we wake up without a government. Allah did not answer that prayer, so the supplicant turned and said: God willing, the government wakes up without us. Apart from the sarcasm in these words, there is also something that stains both the rulers and the opposition equally.
Perhaps a morning will come when the government, having moved from Khartoum to Port Sudan, speaks of complete control over Khartoum, but the people, like the Sudanese citizen in his message to Al-Hayat newspaper, say: God willing, the government wakes up without us.
Although the picture is bleak, God willing, Sudan will see relief, and the Sudanese people will prevail. When hardship increases, relief draws nearer, and when difficulties become severe, ease arrives. The darkness of the night is only a sign of the impending dawn.
So wait with Gods permission and anticipate the imminent relief.
