What a Dawn!

"... Hardly had I begun to write this article on Christmas, for the special issue, when the earth shook with the greatest tragedy in history — the partition of Palestine. Even so I wished to go on with it, despite my preoccupation with purely national writing — statements for the Union, speeches, and protests. So I would steal a little time until I finished it. And the result has been that its first part wears the calm of peace — exactly like the life of the Lord of this message — while its last part blazes with the flame of revolt... since it was born of that revolt's inspiration.

Here I am writing while Palestine boils like a cauldron, and the waves of revolt roll in one after another from a hundred and forty-four villages of the district of Nablus, to hold tomorrow the great demonstrations after a four-day strike. And here I see the valiant Arab village woman at the head of the processions, firing shots and coming out with songs of war for the first time. Palestine is aflame... God grant her safety... Revolt is sweeping through hearts and will consume the green and the dry alike.

That is the covenant all have made together: death in honor is better than life in humiliation..."

From a letter to The Woman's Voice dated 6/12/47 — Fayza Abdul Majeed

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The reaches of the East glittered under the light of dawn, and the universe rejoiced at the birth of the prophet of peace. The shepherds raised their song, the shadows whispered to one another, and the sands chanted in praise and glorification: morn of morns, the dawn of humanity is this dawn — what a dawn!...

And at sunset, the horizon overflowing with majesty, the call went up again, loud and holy:
There — there: on the hills of Galilee, the Nazarene shall be raised up...

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... The pilgrims coming from Rome and Alexandria, who had read in the poems of the two poets of Augustus, Virgil and Horace, said: the golden age in which peace shall reign over the world has drawn near — "the ruined cities shall be rebuilt, the wildernesses shall flourish, and the new lands shall be fertile" — so when will a reformer be raised up, a messenger of peace — when...?

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The Nazarene!? Here he is — he has appeared! He lies stretched on the green grass upon the mountain, hearing the voice of God in the murmur of the brooks and the light of the stars, in the stillness of night and in the hour before dawn. How long must he stay alone upon the mount, meditating, lit by heaven's inspiration, in reverence and absorption...

***

Here he is, wandering among the mountains, the flocks of sheep near him, the wind blowing so that the olive trees bow down, humble and prostrate. The shadows lengthen, the clouds pile up on Mount Hermon; a call rises at his side and a light breaks... Rejoice, O Holy Land — the Nazarene has been raised up...

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Here he is, moving among the summits — the mountains of Samaria at his right hand and Tabor at his left, and behind him the holy lake, brimming with mysteries, listening to a sweet, distant voice that heralds love, mercy, and brotherhood!

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Here the people talk on and on — about nations, about riches, about rank... and the young Nazarene turns away from them. His heart communes with God alone! Why do these people speak so much of judgment? Do they not see God, as he sees Him, present and manifest in all things: in the mountains, the rivers, and the seas; in the sun and the moon; in man and beast; in childhood and the lilies of the mountain and the flowers of the meadow; in these cattle grazing in peace — as though they turned to Him in prayer, though they do not speak — in the loftiness of virtue and mercy and great deeds...? The signs of God speak in every miracle, fill the inmost heart with certainty, light the inner eye. Yes: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God..."

Why then are these people possessed by conceit and pride? "Does God's love for us mean His hatred of others? Are we so clean of faults that we should set ourselves above others...?"

***

And in the temple, the Nazarene seemed displeased: his own preaching pours mercy in floods into hearts, but these Jewish priests with their dry sermons, and this crowd with its endless disputing, weigh upon his soul. They do not rely upon the bounty of God — "and whoever relies upon the bounty of the Lord gains His protection." And He too is merciful and generous: "He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust..."

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So to the mountain... to the mountain he withdraws once more, despairing. There, beneath the fig tree, he sees God; visions possess him; compassion streams from his heart over all humanity, over enemies and wrongdoers, in overflowing tenderness.

"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and drive you out..."

But why should Jesus withdraw from men, when he has been sent to bring good tidings?! Sedition is aflame in the land of Galilee; it trembles with the violence of its anger: the rich suck the poor dry, the strong assault the weak, and good has been mingled with evil...! Yes — it cries out for a savior... Let him go down to his people once more, to bring the poor the good news of the kingdom of heaven:

"Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also..."

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O true apostle, who preached those immortal principles — where is the West from your pure nature?! Where is it from your sublime saying: "Whosoever shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the left also; and if any man will sue you and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also"?! It takes not merely the coat and the cloak: it seizes homelands and rights, strangles liberties, and drowns the world in a flood of blood and tears and pain...

Or are those the rites of the sublime message?! Or has true Christianity been disfigured since it passed to the West, as the Mahatma Gandhi declared at the Asian Conference...?!

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You who celebrate Christmas at tables where peoples and consciences are sold and free men enslaved: light no candles, and sing no more the hymns of peace and love; celebrate instead the death of consciences, the trampling of principles, and the victory of falsehood....

Judas Iscariot sold Christ to his enemies — for the Jews' pieces of silver — two thousand years ago, all but a little; and here you are, selling his cradle and the birthplace of his message in the twentieth century. You are not of him, and he is not of you. He was raised up in the East... and his immortal message shall remain there...

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You who drink of the blood of peoples, who dance upon the corpses of the victims, who celebrate the death of justice — yes... enough... Ring no more the bells of peace, and sing no more with Christ: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace" — for you have filled the earth with nothing but sedition and turmoil, and with oppressions before which foreheads bow, and which brand you with the stigma of history....

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... O marching processions bearing the majesty of sacrifice, O blazing hearts holding the truth of certainty, O thundering voices carrying the power of right — call humanity to witness, call God to witness: that right will find what it seeks, will raise its banner, will bring its light to fullness... in Palestine....

Nablus — Palestine