Maryam Amir – When I was 11

When I was 11, I asked my parents if I could invite Allah to Allah

over for dinner. And they didn't say, Allah doesn't need to eat, or

that's blasphemy. They said, Of course you can. And I wrote menus,

and I set the table for my family of four, with a fifth place for

Allah, subhanaw taala, even though, of course Allah, of course

not. And when I was done, I said, Oh, Allah, please join us for

dinner. And I remember at 11, I wasn't like religiously connected.

So I don't know how this moment happened for me, but I remember

this immense moment of presence. I remember feeling like Allah,

subhana, wa Taala was present with me. It was a feeling I had never

experienced before, and I began to weep because my heart was so full

with emotion. And many years after that, I didn't connect with Islam.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to be Muslim, but going to the Kaaba was

the first time I felt that presence again, and when I felt

that moment of being present in the in front of Allah's Panama

taala, my heart, again, was so full. And in that moment, I

remember having so many emotions of very, very regretful of my

life. You know, I had my own fears and and sad moments of sadness and

everything, but I felt like Allah's Panama Taala was with me.

And that moment of presence, that feeling of presence that fills

your heart so much that you just weep out of the sweetness of that

connection, is what I keep thinking about when I see the

children in hutza Yesterday. Many of you probably saw two little

boys who were maybe three and four that were crushed. And I saw one

of them, his tongue is sticking out. The other one, his eyeball

had come out because of the pressure. Allah's pantalla says in

the Quran that when the angels of death that are giving Glad Tidings

come, they tell the person that they're taking not to be afraid

and not to grieve and to give them the promised glad tidings of

paradise. And I think about how on the outside what we are seeing is

absolute horror, but in that moment, are they feeling this

presence? Are they feeling this connection and this closeness that

fills their hearts so much that they don't fear and they don't

grieve? Because if Allah Spano to Allah would would bless an 11 year

old who didn't know what she was doing with this overwhelming joy,

so much so that my whole heart was full and I couldn't even contain

it, and I wept as a child because of that closeness. Then how much

more so curving of that feeling of everything is going to be okay?

Inshallah, there is something so much better than this that you are

going to be with the people that you love. How much more so? How

much more so do the children of Gaza deserve it a.