Muhammad Ad-durah…

Muhammad Ad-durah…

(A true story…)

"Mama, where are my pair of shoes?"

Eight-years old Muhammad came & asked his mother with the socks in his hand. Ayesha raised her head from her needle work & said, "In the cupboard beside the door… come let me help you wear your socks."

"No, thanks mama. I can do it myself."

Ayesha smiled & observed him trying to wear his pair of socks with mighty efforts. At the end, she helped him pull them up his ankle. 

Muhammad smiled at his victory & said, "Baba will take me to the market place. Now the soldiers are all gone… I will now be able to buy candies & biscuits." & he continued with enthusiasm, "I will buy for you too."

Ayesha hugged him passionately & kissed him.

"Of course you won't forget your mama."

Her husband, Abu Muhammad came from his room & was buttoning his shirt. She turned to him & said with anxiety, "are you sure their will be no more incursion today?"

"Why are you so worried Ayesha? It's in the news & you know curfew stops at nine daily. So what's the matter?"

"I don’t know… I just don’t have a good feeling about you two going out today."

"That's exactly what you said yesterday & before that. You are being oversensitive… Muhammad hasn’t been out for more than three days."

"But…"

He patted her cheek, "don’t worry every thing will be fine inshallah… he cant stay in the house all his life just because you are worried about him."

Muhammad heard their conversation & joined it, "Mama! I am not a boy… I am a man & I can take care of myself."

His parents smiled at him, he continued, "I am very brave too… see, if an Israeli soldier came near me, I will hit him with a stone on his head & he will fall to the ground." & he demonstrated that, by lying on the ground with his tongue hanging from his mouth.

His parents laughed; he got up & ran to where his shoes lay & started wearing them.

"baba, come on… lets go."

His father smiled to his wife & said, "Don’t worry, everything will be fine… do you want me to bring anything with me."

"No thanks… we have enough"

***

Muhammad bought his favorite candies & biscuits & played a little with his friends while his father & the other men talked about the daily problems because of the continuous Israeli envasion. The people of the village are facing continuous poverty, fear & hunger. They, therefore take care of each other & cooperate to be able to live better & with much ease.

***

Ayesha in the house felt worried because it has been half an hour since her husband & their son were out. She wore her scarf & opened the window to look at the street beneath. After waiting for another five minutes. She could see Muhammad & his father walking down the street. Only then, she sighed with relief & smiled at Muhammad who happened to look up & see her.

She waved at him & he waved back leaping & holding up the plastic bag containing things he had bought. She laughed but gazing at them walking across the street, she suddenly heard a very familiar but not at all welcome sound.

Her heart stopped suddenly. She looked towards the source & saw the military tank making its way to the street. Like a crazy woman, she started shouting at her husband & son to hide away before they get shot. The soldiers started firing. Muhammad dropped the plastic bag & horrified, he clenched his father's arm who picked him up & sought refuge behind a metallic waste bin. Covering Muhammad with all his body, he shouted at the soldiers to stop firing because they were civilians. But firing never stopped.

He held Muhammad tightly against himself to protect him from the bullet shots which grew more intense.

But a bullet hit Muhammad at the head; "NO!!" he shouted & tried desperately to do anything which would stop the bleeding or stop his son dieing.

But Muhammad was shaking violently. Slowly he relaxed & his breathing stopped.

Abu-Muhammad heard the shrieks of his wife & the neighbors but that's not what he was thinking about. The soldiers haven’t given him the chance to do that or to move after they shot him directly on his spine & he lay paralyzed beside his murdered son.

After firing several random bullets at the houses & the street, the soldiers left the place laughing & cursing.

Ayesha & the neighbors ran down the street to her husband & son. She was like a crazy woman ready to do anything to stop what was happening. She couldn’t allow anyone to say that her son was dead. She patted her husband's cheeks & shouted at him to get up but tears ran down his cheeks confirming to her that he couldn’t, she moaned with pain & looked at her son who lay still. Carrying him, she started running in the street one of the neighbors came to her & stopped her, "we will take them to the hospital."

He called the other boys to carry the man to the car. Ayesha insisted to go with them. All the way, she was pleading with the driver to drive faster… she would turn to her husband & ask him to try to move his hand or his legs but he wouldn’t respond. She would beat him on his arm & thigh & ask him if he felt anything but he would shake his head. Hopeless, she would turn to hear son who lay in her lap with a wound in his head still bleeding, kissing him every where on his face & neck & pressing him to her chest. She would look through the window with an expressionless face.

They reached the hospital & headed to the emergency ward. The doctors asked her to wait outside & calm down but she wouldn’t listen. She shouted in their faces & nervously & stubbornly, she stood next to her son's bed. They all gave in & after the doctor had examined both of them, he came to her. She heard him saying that her son was no more alive & tried to console her that he was a martyr & martyrs are in Paradise. But she wouldn’t believe him. Her son will be back & he is still living but seeing that look on the doctor's face that confirmed his words pained her beyond limits. For the first time, tears blurred her vision. She looked at her son & husband & started realizing what she desperately tried to deny.

"He is no more alive"

Hot tears ran down her cheeks & she threw herself at her son sobbing & moaning. People around her tried to console her & calm her down but she wouldn’t let go of her son.

After a long time, with great difficulty, they took him from her & rapped him in the white coffin. Beside him his father sat still, on the walking chair while tears flew down his cheeks.

Two years after the terrible incident, Ayesha gave birth to a baby boy. She named him 'Muhammad Ad-Durrah' after her murdered son.

She now feels very alive & wants to live to give birth to more children who would avenge her lost son & her husband who lay paralyzed on his walking chair.