As an average Muslim, living outside of Palestine, I know that everything that is happening to our brothers and sisters, must be weighing really, really heavy on your chest. I know for me it has been.  As I have been dealing with a turmoil of feelings, I realized recently that the reason I am feeling this turmoil and mainly anger, is not just at the injustice that is happening, but also at the helplessness I am experiencing. .

In the past weeks, without noticing at first, I realized how my behavior with my children, our homeschooling, my work, and my mindset went backwards.

I realized that what started as an innocent, empathetic scroll on Instagram, turned into SO much rage…yet I was holding it all in.

While looking at the images of innocent Muslim brothers, sisters, and children being massacred, I felt SO much anger.

Anger at the forces who inflict all this harm on our Palestinian brothers and sisters.

Anger at the Muslim world for watching our brothers and sisters being murdered.

Anger at the world for seeing a group of people commit war crimes…yet NO ONE is doing anything!

But mostly…the anger comes from the helplessness I am feeling.

Helpless because we are not able to do anything physically. And I realized that we have limited our way of helping in this situation to only physical help.

However, we have underestimated, the power of our dua’as. We have forgotten that Allah(swt) has a time and a way for everything. And at times…we forget to TRUST that Allah’s help is near. That’s the BASIS of our Deen. Tawakkul ‘aAllah!

  • He(swt) knows when the right time is for everything.
  • He(swt) knows how to deal with the oppressors…in ways that don’t (yet) make sense to our human minds.
  • And He(swt) is testing us. As an Ummah! Are we going to fall into hopelessness or are we going to hold our heads high and do the best we can with dignity and honor?

In the mean time…

WHILE feeling helpless, we might try to “help” by being aware of what is going on…watching reels and shorts and other videos coming from Gaza, but…

Our human brains are not designed to process this many images of cruelty, death, and torture. By scrolling through images and videos on social media, what ultimately happens is your brain freezes and becomes stuck…leaving you stuck in your day with your family and children.

Also, when you see all the injustice that is happening and you keep feeding your mind these images, you feel the anger I just talked about…you feel the helplessness…and you feel rage because you can’t do anything with your helplessness. The mental state that this creates, keeps building helplessness upon anger, and more helplessness upon anger. All it will take, then, is ONE trigger from your child, or from another family member and your stored-up emotions will explode out onto them.

Do you see what this is doing? This is destroying the Ummah in Gaza, but also outside of Gaza…inside homes and communities.

Instead, LIFT yourself up so that we can be of help to our brothers and sisters in Palestine and of help to each other.

What to do…

  1. Keep the time on social media limited and limit the amount of images and videos from Palestine you feed to your mind.
  2. WHEN you watch, watch at a time when you can use your emotions to make heartfelt dua’a. If you keep watching only while you are on the go…you feel the anger and you just keep moving on, without using your emotions for something beneficial. This will be of no help to anyone. But if you can turn those emotions into dua’a, insha Allah, that will benefit you and them!

Please note…

  •  I am not suggesting we turn our backs towards our brothers and sisters in Palestine and pretend like nothing is happening.
  • But if you are only consuming the negativity and cruel, inhumane images, and not doing anything else, notice this will affect your mindset and in turn your circle.
  • This way, this is not only a war against Palestinians, but Muslims as a whole. While they are being targeted physically and mentally, we are also being targeted…maybe not physically, but definitely mentally.
  • We need to stay mentally strong so we can support them…now with our dua’as and insha Allah soon in other ways.
  • Dua’a is the believer’s most powerful weapon.

Whether it is events like this happening in the world, on a larger scale, or smaller things happening in your life that are mentally taxing, turn to Allah and TRUST that His help is near…

Stay strong and stay connected to Allah(swt), my dear sis!