When Words Fail

Eighteen months into the genocide in Gaza, only the Qur'an suffices.

I haven’t been able to put together any more words since Hossam Shabat was killed, joining the ranks of 170 other journalists and upwards of 50,000— potentially hundreds of thousands—Palestinians killed by the US-backed far-right Israeli government in the last year and a half.

Words feel inadequate when trying to make sense of what is inherently insensible: six-year-old Hind being shot in an ambulance 355 times, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Adnan al-Bursh being raped and tortured to death, grandfather Khaled Nabhan being killed in an airstrike a year after his granddaughter Reem, pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya remaining in detention at Sde Teiman.

We use words to describe these icons, who fall one after another, but they don’t fully capture the stories and names and faces of each individual, each person who had a whole world within them and around them, each human being who has been violently ripped away from this world.

Almost exactly a year ago on March 25th, 2024, my husband entered Gaza for his first medical mission. On his departure from Rafah, without saying a word, an elderly woman handed him a mushaf. I think I understand her gesture now. When words fail, when humans fail, when the world seems to not make sense, we have only the word of God to hold onto.

The Qur’an is what has been my companion this Ramadan. It has been a relationship restored–an old friend I grew up with that I was raised to respect, but who I didn’t quite understand in those younger years when my father expected us to complete a khatam during Ramadan. But this year, that expectation has become my own: it is a companion with wisdom that is more apparent to me as an adult, and whose guidance I need more than ever.

In my work in psychiatry, I have seen the mind be capable of tremendous distortion: misinterpretations of events, false memories, and sounds and sights that are hallucinations, not reality. I have seen depression tell people that things are worse than they actually are and anxiety tell people that things will be worse than they actually will be. I have seen psychotic disorders mean believing things that aren’t real, and I have seen neurocognitive disorder mean forgetting things that are real.

And in the last year and a half, I have seen the media twist the truth and obfuscate facts. I have seen a rogue state take on the patterns of a personality disorder–of creating narratives around victimhood and denying accountability. I have seen people question the body count and reset the timeline from 1948 to October 7th, 2023 in order to rationalize a genocide.

Objective truths continue to be eroded, left to the whims of subjective and arbitrary ‘feelings’ and government-sponsored narratives. And so in these times, perhaps the only words that are sufficient are from the primary source of truth, of Allah’s word in the Qur’an.

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّ وَعْدَ ٱللَّهِ حَقٌّۭ ۖ فَلَا تَغُرَّنَّكُمُ ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَا ۖ وَلَا يَغُرَّنَّكُم بِٱللَّهِ ٱلْغَرُورُ

• O mankind! God’s promise is true, so do not let the present life deceive you. Do not let the Deceiver deceive you about God. (35:5)

In the helplessness and despair around the annihilation that looks to have no end, there is only Allah’s word:

أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَن تَدْخُلُوا۟ ٱلْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُم مَّثَلُ ٱلَّذِينَ خَلَوْا۟ مِن قَبْلِكُم ۖ مَّسَّتْهُمُ ٱلْبَأْسَآءُ وَٱلضَّرَّآءُ وَزُلْزِلُوا۟ حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَ ٱلرَّسُولُ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مَعَهُۥ مَتَىٰ نَصْرُ ٱللَّهِ ۗ أَلَآ إِنَّ نَصْرَ ٱللَّهِ قَرِيبٌۭ

• Do you suppose that you will enter the Garden without first having suffered like those before you? They were afflicted by misfortune and hardship, and they were so shaken that even [their] messenger and the believers with him cried, ‘When will God’s help arrive?’ Truly, God’s help is near. (2:214)

When I feel like there can’t possibly be any more burden for the Gazans to bear, and when I worry about how we will be held to account for our complicity, there is Allah’s word:

لَا يُكَلِّفُ ٱللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا ٱكْتَسَبَتْ ۗ رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذْنَآ إِن نَّسِينَآ أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَآ إِصْرًۭا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُۥ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِنَا ۚ رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِۦ ۖ وَٱعْفُ عَنَّا وَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا وَٱرْحَمْنَآ ۚ أَنتَ مَوْلَىٰنَا فَٱنصُرْنَا عَلَى ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلْكَـٰفِرِين

• God does not burden any soul with more than it can bear: each gains whatever good it has done, and suffers its bad- ‘Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or make mistakes. Lord, do not burden us as You burdened those before us. Lord, do not burden us with more than we have strength to bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy on us. You are our Protector, so help us against the disbelieving people.’ (2:286)

When I ask how on earth this could be happening, there is Allah’s word:

قُل لَّن يُصِيبَنَآ إِلَّا مَا كَتَبَ ٱللَّهُ لَنَا هُوَ مَوْلَىٰنَا ۚ وَعَلَى ٱللَّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُونَ

• Say, “Nothing will ever befall us except what Allah has destined for us. He is our Protector.” So in Allah let the believers put their trust. (9:51)

These last few nights of Ramadan, I trust in the truth of Allah, and I make dua that He forgive us for our inadequacy in aiding the oppressed of His Messenger’s ummah. May we have the courage to channel our grief and our faith into a sacred activism. May He enable us to honor the final words of Hossam Shabat:

“I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories—until Palestine is free.”