GAZA, (PIC)
Labbayk, we are oppressed… Labbayk, we are distressed… Labbayk, we are weary… With these words, the tongue of the people of Gaza chants at the beginning of the Hajj season, from which the residents of the Gaza Strip are deprived due to the Israeli war of genocide and the closure of the crossings.
Nine months ago, Israel launched a devastating war and a campaign of genocide that the whole world witnessed live, resulting in more than 120,000 martyrs and wounded, and massive destruction that reduced most of the buildings of the Strip to rubble.
The journey of a lifetime
Um Tariq Abu Al-Ata (62 years old) and her husband were supposed to perform the Hajj pilgrimage this year, but the genocidal war was an obstacle and a hindrance between them and the Sacred House of Allah.
Um Tariq speaks with tears in her eyes, “I have always dreamed of visiting the Sacred House of Allah, and I was counting the days until this moment, but the criminal war was an obstacle and deprived us of the journey of a lifetime.”
She continues in an interview with the Palestinian Information Center that the occupation deprived her not only of visiting the Sacred House of Allah, but also of her eldest son Tariq, who died with his wife and six children on the first of last March.
The bitterness of abandonment
In burning words written by Mahmoud Al-Sabou’, he reflected a deep wound within him, saying, “The caravans of pilgrims went to the Sacred House of Allah, but the pilgrims of Gaza have performed Hajj to their Lord early in the white shrouds of martyrdom.”
He adds through his Facebook account, “The Muslims will perform Hajj to the House of Allah, seeking forgiveness, and the souls of the martyrs have performed Hajj to the Lord of the House, complaining of the bitterness of abandonment.”
For the first time in years, the guests of Allah the Merciful will stand on the pure Arafat plain, without the pilgrims of the Gaza Strip.
Mahmoud Al-Ghazawi expresses his pain, saying, “The Palestinians are flocking to the Noble Makkah for the first time without the pilgrims of Gaza.”
The deprivation of the Gazans from Hajj reopens the wounds of Omar Abu Al-Abid, who recalls the journey of the Gazans last year for Hajj, and their deprivation of it this year due to the aggression.
But Omar comforts himself in a post, saying, “It is true that our hearts are broken, and our souls are thirsty, and nothing can comfort them except seeing the Noble Kaaba, and prostrating before it in a long prostration, which removes the burdens of worries from our burdened backs, but our solace is that what we are in of patience and affliction, which is one of the greatest acts of worship.”
He hopes that Allah will bestow the reward of Hajj and Umrah on the people of Gaza.
The sacrifices
This year, the deprivation is not limited to the obligation of Hajj for the people of the Gaza Strip, but the Israeli occupation forces prevent the entry of sacrificial animals into the besieged Gaza Strip, thus depriving them of performing the ritual of slaughter on the blessed Eid al-Adha.
Um Anas sends a message through Facebook to the pilgrims, “Convey my greetings to the honorable Kaaba and go to the grave of our Prophet Muhammad, may the best prayers and peace be upon him, and tell him that Gaza of Hashemites is being destroyed, and Sudan is being destroyed, and Arabism has died, and the rulers have done injustice. Tell him that Gaza is steadfast and that the people of Palestine are on the covenant, and their blood is flowing in the streets in support of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
She continues, “Tell the Prophet about the cries of our sisters in Gaza and the hunger of our children and their killings.”
In a similar appeal, Muhammad Abdullah also addresses the pilgrims, saying, “The pilgrims of Gaza are deprived of the Hajj season this year, so do not deprive them, O pilgrims of the world, from praying that Allah may support them, strengthen their feet, and lift this gloom from them.”
Similarly, Naeem Abu Zaid asks the pilgrims of the Sacred House of Allah to “convey the greetings of the people of Gaza to the Kaaba, for they are absent only because they are being slaughtered.”
The people of Gaza are deprived, unlike the rest of the Muslims in the world, from going to Makkah to perform the fifth pillar of Islam and stand on the pure plain of Arafat, while their blood is shed day and night, and massacres unprecedented in contemporary history are carried out against them.
