My wife gathered the children the other night to watch a video that she had come across of Amy Goodman from Democracy Now interviewing Dr Hammam Alloh, a nephrologist at al-Shifaa Hospital in Gaza on 31st October.
She asked: ‘The Israeli military has dropped thousands of pamphlets warning people where you are in northern Gaza to leave. Why don’t you go south with your family?’
‘And if I go who treats my patients? We are not animals. We have the right to receive proper health care. I can’t just leave.’
‘The World Health Organisation talked about this issue of telling doctors to leave their patients choosing their own lives over their patients. Can you talk about that choice, since so many patients can’t leave, for example, babies in incubators?’ she pressed.
‘You think I went to medical school and for my postgraduate for a total of 14 years so that I think only of my life and not my patients. I’m asking you, ma’am? Do you think this is the reason I went to med school to think only about my life? This is not the reason I became a doctor.’
Dr Alloh remained true to his words and was killed in Gaza shortly afterwards with other members of his family. May Allah accept them all as shuhadaa.
‘This is what it means to be a hero,’ my wife said. ‘We are told about heroes all the time. Superman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Iron Man etc. But we don’t need such make-believe heroes. We see real heroes in front of us in Palestine. People who hold on to what they believe in, who don’t lose hope, who work and die for something greater than themselves and who sacrifice for others. It isn’t about money. It isn’t about career. It isn’t about some personal benefit.
No wonder people across the world are finding inspiration in them. Even non-Muslims are looking at these people and asking what gives them such strength? It is through such heroes that Allah opens their hearts to the truth so that they find guidance and Islam.
مِّنَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ رِجَالٌ صَدَقُوا۟ مَا عَـٰهَدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ عَلَيْهِ ۖ فَمِنْهُم مَّن قَضَىٰ نَحْبَهُۥ وَمِنْهُم مَّن يَنتَظِرُ ۖ وَمَا بَدَّلُوا۟ تَبْدِيلًا
Among the believers are men who have proven true to what they pledged to Allah. Some have fulfilled their pledge (with their lives), while others are waiting (their turn). They have never changed (their commitment) in the least. (al Ahzab 23)
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