It's a tad bit belated. :) Sorry!

            Maybe you’ve already heard. Maybe you haven’t, and I’m the first one to tell you. I’m sorry if I ruin your day, but I think we need to address this because I’m sick of this. I’m sick of violence, I’m sick of bombs, I’m sick of being sixteen and wondering if I even want to bring children into this world because will they be able to enjoy life without worrying what country will attack them or what psycho will get a hold of a gun next?

            Today this is about Boston. Today this is about Syria. Today this is about Palestine and Israel. Today this is about Iraq. Today this is about Libya. Today this is about Pakistan. Today is about Somalia. Today is for every innocent life that has been snatched away because of the victory that corruption has had on the human soul.

            For anyone that doesn’t know, two bombs were set off at the Boston Marathon, a city up north on the East Coast of America. 145 were injured, 17 critically wounded, and 2 killed. If the numbers have changed (which I hope they don’t), then keep in mind that I’m writing this at around 4 o’clock on April 16th.

            I remember having a science teacher in sixth grade who explained to us that the human mind can’t really comprehend numbers past ten. Sure we can imagine what twenty or a hundred might be like, but we can’t fully fathom it until it’s put out in front of us.

            So let’s think about it like this. Imagine a family, talking on the phone with a family member who was excited about going to the Boston Marathon. Imagine the smiles, the excited voices on the phone, the promise of pictures and details later. Now imagine going on about your daily life and getting the news. This isn’t the news of a bad test grade, the common terror in a teenager’s world. This is the kind of fear that leads the blood to rush to your temples, the kind where your chest burns, your entire being goes numb and all goes quiet, like the long, painful seconds before falling on the ground and skinning your knee. Those awful seconds when you know what’s coming yet you can’t comprehend it.

            Imagine tens of people feeling that way when they hear about a family member. Now multiply that by two families. That, ladies and gentlemen, is tragedy, tragedy that many of us don’t know the first thing about.

            It’s reported that severed limps littered the road, the whole place transformed into a war zone. One of the victims was an eight-year-old. Others were old people. Others were middle aged.

            That’s…to me, that’s stealing the rest of someone’s life. That’s stealing all the could-haves and what-ifs. That’s stealing chances, memories, dreams. That’s stealing a life when it’s innocent.

            President Obama said, “On days like this there are no Republicans and Democrats.” And he’s absolutely right. There are also no Muslims, no Christians, no atheists, no Jews, no Hindus. There are no lesbians, bisexuals, gays, or straight people. There are no blacks, no whites, no Indians, no Hispanics, no Asians, no Arabs, no Europeans. Every religious and cultural barrier is stripped on days like these.

            When people are wounded, the same blood, the same color of blood, stains the ground. You can’t walk around saying, “Oh that blood belongs to a Muslim. That blood belongs to a gay.” No. We all bleed the same, because on the inside, that’s what we are. We’re all the same.

            When salt tears wet the ground, you can’t walk by and say, “Those are the tears of a black man. Those are the tears of a Republican.” Pain is still pain if you’re a person, because we all deserve a life in this world that we live in, no matter how screwed up it can be sometimes.

            What I’m trying to say is that today, no matter who has wronged who in the past, no matter if the victims were Americans or whatever, we all need to take a step back and realize that humanity—not Democrats, not atheists, not lesbians—are headed in the wrong direction. It’s not just one group of people. We as humanity are headed in the wrong direction.

            No matter the color of our skin or who we may love or our political views, if we are killed for something that is not our fault, something that is because of where we are at a particular time at the deliberate hand of something or someone else, we do not deserve to die at that particular moment.

            A verse from the Quran that sends chills up my spine is, “We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul…it is as if he had slain all of mankind.” – (5:32)

            What I’m asking is to not only do we show compassion and grieve at the loss of innocent lives despite their differences from us, but to also wake up and think about how we can make a better world.

            The point isn’t to affect everybody in this world. The point is to affect somebody. And through the intricate connections we as a society have, God willing those efforts will help create a safer world. A safer world where all children can go to school without kissing their parents and wondering if that’ll be there last kiss. A world where we are assured that if an innocent person dies, the world will grieve for them because they realize that injustice can be done on everybody and anybody.

            I rarely cry, but today my eyes became wet at the sight of people with such physical damage. My throat locked when I thought of all the children who will no longer grow up with a mother or a father. I clenched my jaw when I saw people saying that two people in Boston doesn’t compare to the thousand killed in Palestine or Syria.

            Human life is human life. The number of those killed or the location of their deaths is of no relevance. Even one loss of human life at the hands of another is too much; too much, because it is as if all of mankind has been killed.

            Tonight, in my prayers, my grades or the success of my book or my ability to make it through exams will be set aside and totally forgotten. Today, I will pray for Boston, for every place out there that has suffered something so painful. Even if I may not agree with the politics of the place, I will pray for them, because when I feel pain, I don’t feel pain on the basis of who you are, but what you are going through.

            No matter who you were, no matter what religion you were or if you would have hated me for being Muslim or if we had ever met you’d have discriminated against me for the color my skin or for who I am, if you were injured or killed today, my heart sincerely goes out to you.

            My heart grieves for you if you were in Boston. My heart grieves for you if you were in Iraq. My heart grieves for you if you were in Syria. My heart grieves for you if you were in Israel or Palestine. My heart grieves for you no matter where you were, no matter who you were.

            Please keep all the victims of every atrocity in your hearts, in your minds, and in your prayers. God is capable of fixing everything, but he wants to see us to it, so why don’t we at least try?

            One love. One humanity. In all the books I’ve written, I’ve never seen beauty conveyed in only four words. Subhanallah.

All my love,

Ash ♥

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