Yasir Qadhi – Spending 2 Weeks in Gaza as A Doctor
AI: Summary ©
The conversation covers the challenges of communicating with people who want to stop Iran's war and the need for everyone to contribute. The speakers emphasize the importance of helping others, finding one's niche, and working on one's life to find one's niche. They also mention the need to spread the message and offer advice on finding a job. The conversation ends with a discussion of working on one's life and thanking people for their support.
AI: Summary ©
300 years ago, I mentioned that one of our own brethren here in our community would be departing for Reza right after the football. And we made dua for our brother. That if Allah subhanho wa Taala wills that he may not come back then may Allah accept His death is that every Shaheed And if Allah wills to come back to me he come back Salim and Hanuman completely safe and sound. Well, Allah subhanaw taala accepted one of those to us and hamdulillah and we have with us the legend himself.
We have with us, the brother who went mashallah, Dr. Nima, and we are and all of you know, Dr. Neeraj. He's one of our main mashallah active members of our community here for Marshall that almost every single Salah and when he left, he had requested not to publicize his name. So I did not do that. But when he returned, I begged him this was my request that please, we need to hear from you. What happened in Gaza. And so reluctantly, grudgingly. So this is my responsibility. I asked his forgiveness for this, he did not want to come in the public eye. But I said that we need to hear directly he has been in the cluster two weeks, and we want to hear his own experiences. And so I
twisted his arm in a halal manner, and told him that he needs to prepare a PowerPoint as well. Warning, there will be some images that are quite graphic. So before that happens, doctor is going to give the disclaimer again, but be aware, and especially children or sisters, if you have children or whatnot. This is what he himself saw with his own phone, took video and whatnot. And we have to spread this to the world. This is our platform, Epic's platform to publicize what our own doctor saw. So he asked me should I have the images? I said, Yes, we must. I'm not going to censor the truth of what's happening in Gaza. Now I understand some people might not like to see this fine, you
lower your No, don't look at it when the time comes. But on epics platform, we need to spread this and we need to bring to highlight and inshallah his insincerity is between him and Allah. But we need to highlight what he has done for us to benefit from So enough of me speaking, I'm going to grill Dr neighbor in a much more easier manner than what he was grilled back in the USA. This is a hello drilling of real Hamdulillah. So first and foremost, Dr. Nima, how did this happen? How did you end up here in epic? How did you end up being chosen by the UN's board to to come and be a doctor in the war territory of Huzzah. Bismillah I will be labeled as your tiny
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim? Um, there is a good question. You know, obviously, you know, we make plans, Allah makes other plans. So there was actually a group that had gone to Gaza in August before the war had broken out. And so I knew a couple of these brothers. So once this happened, they're like, Hey, we have this group that we're planning on going to
home that you have a skill set that Allah has given you as an orthopedic surgeon, and that's needed there in Gaza. So you know, sign up and inshallah we'll go together and things of that sort. So I said, No, inshallah. Yeah, again, you know, this is a test from Allah. So Inshallah, you know, if I can help them out, Inshallah, I'll go ahead and help them out. So this group that was there, they were waiting, waiting, waiting. And they said, you know, it's not safe. It's not good. We're not going to send people right now. We're going to wait. And so it just happened that one of my friends goes with another group met global. And he said, Hey, you know, I'm going January 23. And I'm like,
you know, everyone is saying, it's not safe, you know, how is med global going, if no one else is going? And he said, I've done multiple tours with them multiple medical missions. If there's any kind of question about safety, they won't let us go, you know, they're going to make sure that we're we're the World Health Organization, the UN as much safety as we can get the will do. So I said, Inshallah, sure. Let me sign up with them. And so then it was supposed to be mid February and March. And so I signed up. And then
the doctor who was supposed to go January, he was Philistine. And so because of that, they wouldn't allow him to go. So I got a call from a global saying, Hey, you really credentialed? And we know you're supposed to go later on, but can you move it up to January 26?
So I said, yeah, no, Inshallah, we'll you know, let me discuss it with the family because obviously, it was thinking, February, March, there'll be a ceasefire, and Charlotte will be safe, it will be good. So so let me discuss with a family. So then I call my friend was supposed to be there, January 23. I'm like, Hey, you're gonna be the 23rd I'm gonna be the 26th It'll be good. And he's like, Yeah, I'm not going. He said, What do you mean, you're not going and he said, you know, they're looking for surgeons, they really don't want you know, internal medicine doctors right now. So, so I'm not gonna go. So it's okay to you know, again, if it's meant to be it's meant to be. So I talked
to the family, I talked to the wife, I said, you know, this, the situation is going on and right now, you know, again, you know, this is a test from Allah. You know, I was
joke with you right about like, you know, Allah test the ones that he loves. And I'm like, you know, Hamdulillah, we've been given so much, you know, for so long, you know, we really haven't been tested. You know, we've discussed this many times, right? And so, so I go to the fame, I said, Hey, you know, this is, you know, an opportunity that I have, as an orthopedic surgeon, you know, there is an act of war going on, but insha Allah is going to be saved, they say, we're going to be taken care of. And so the family, you know, so we just kind of discussed it. And so again, you know, we will we believe that, you know, whenever your time is to go is the time to go and so, so I said, you
know, what's places better to go in Gaza or in Plano, Texas, so of course,
you have to go right, so, so, so um, there was no question there. So the family that greed, no, insha, Allah, you know, a little more protect you, you're going for a good cause. And so, so then, yeah, so that's kind of how I went. And so then Hamdulillah, there was a group of six of us, there was a ICU doctor, another plastic surgeon, anesthesia doctor, and then two nurses that went with Matt global. And very briefly, how did you get into the select the route that you do? Yeah, so again, so we went through Egypt. So we flew into Cairo, and stayed there the night before, and then left about just about Fajr. Time, six o'clock in the morning. And then there was a convoy about six
NGOs, about 30 people total, like 14 Vans. So taking all those stuff going through all of the years, I think they said there was like six or eight checkpoints that you have to go through. And so it took about 14 hours to get into itself. So we left at like 6am, and got there at about 8pm. And one of the main things when you saw my little presentation here, so one of the main things that was really shocking, and, you know, unnerving to me, was that, you know, this is a route to Cairo. And so here, you can see here that there are a bunch of trucks. So as we're going along, literally, there are hundreds and hundreds of trucks that have aid who have been stopped, who are not allowed
to enter. So as a you know, this day and age where people are suffering, and people need all this help, and we can't get it in. So So you know, the the issue is that you have all these trucks and everything, but they won't that I mean, so the only way that you can take supplies in is if you take them in yourself. So Hamdulillah, you know, all the medical supplies that I had taken with me, money, things of that sort, that was the only thing that they would let enter. And even when I left, I talked to the Met global people. And I said, you know, there's a hospital that wants to donate a bunch of stuff, how do I get it to you? And if it unfortunately, even if you ship it over here, we
put on a truck, it's not going to be able to enter Subhan Allah, so Israel is preventing these trucks. Food is right at the border. Yeah, the Philistines, our brothers and sisters, because they can see the trucks across the border. How inhumane is this? SubhanAllah. So you got in Allah, Allah, you had the UN permission to go in. So now we get to one of the big questions. What did you see? So again, I mean, we went, we got there at nighttime, like I said, it was about 8pm. So it was after McGraw was dark. And as we go, I didn't quite realize it. But as we go,
I'm sorry. I'm sure I get the next picture. So so as we go, I didn't realize it in the dark. But everywhere there are tents. And so the next morning, we wake up, start going and you see tents all over the place. Literally, it's a tent city. I mean, there are houses alone, the the group that we had went with, there was a house, the house didn't have any heat, it didn't have any hot water, but hamdulillah it had water, it was a place for us to stay. And all these other people are in tents, like so there's 1.4 million displaced people. They're all in tents, all over whenever they can find a spot, they just find a spot and place a tent. You know, if you look at it, I mean, they have porta
potties, one for each 100 plus people. So, and again, like I said, these people and when we were there, we were inside a house, it was 25 degrees outside. So inside the house, it was cold. And I was thinking these people outside, they have just a blanket, they have this tent em to survive the night. So, I mean, again, when we went I mean, the only thing I will say is sugar, Allah, you know, everything that He has given us Subhanallah we can't thank him enough for all that He has given us. So we went on the route to see this. So I said, Okay, you know, it makes sense. It's outside. Then we get to the hospital, literally in the hospital. So these people any place that they can find a
spot there they're getting so these aren't patients who are in here. These are refugees. These are people who are just here in the hospital as you go through here. There are people who made tents in the hospital. These are tents that are in the hospital, that people are staying in the hospital 100 of the hospital, the only major hospital that are still open, they allow these people to stay and make tents and live there, you know, as best as you can. But I mean, this is unbelievable in this day and age how this these kinds of atrocities can happen. It's It's unbelievable. So these people that are our brothers and sisters in the tents. These are people that have been displaced from
within
Because itself from one portion of us to another correct. So they are already refugees from the first or second DACA. They've already been there for decades. And now within this large prison concentration camp causes up, they're going from one area to another. And this is now how they end up with this with this tent city, correct. SubhanAllah. So, is there a safe space? Because the world hearing at least that's the propaganda from the apartheid regime that we're telling they go to the safe space? Where can they go? Can the residence leave for another zone? Or is there a safe space there? Yeah. I mean, so unfortunately, there's not and again, I mean, looking at I mean, the dozen
people are amazing, Mashallah. I mean, again, I have not seen such these people go through hardships. But again, if you look at this picture of these kids, you know, they welcomed us with open arms, they're smiling. They're like, Hello, how are you? Are you the two lines that all the kids know, but again, I'm gonna, they're all smiling. They're all welcoming us to come. And they're on the right here. I'm not sure if this is the line for the bread or the line for the water. But again, as we're driving, we see these people lined up, you know, in a nice calm fashion, like, what are the you know, what is this line for? And they said, it's either bread or water. And again, I
mean, if you think about anything that we like, I don't know, I'm Pakistani, so I can say this. But if you have, you know, for Bakasana, there was this going on, people will be fighting and looting and rioting hammer, these people have suburb, they say Alhamdulillah, whatever they're given, they take and again,
I mean, these people, like I said, I mean, I can't do enough the walls for them again. It's just amazing. I mean, whenever you see them in the hospital, that hamdulillah husband and when Mr. Lucky Hill, I mean, whatever is happening, it's Allah, you know, it's Allah's plan. So when you asked about a safe zone, I'm there absolutely is no safe zone. So, you know, here, you can see this, this here, this is the border of Egypt. So it really is an open ended an open air prison, literally, I mean, there is a fence with barbed wire on top of it. Behind it, there's a concrete wall, then there's a space, I'm not sure how far but you know, that's 100 feet, and then there's another
concrete wall. So these people have no place to go. And the issue is, again, this is the most assaulted angle, like I said, they're right up against the Egypt border. So there is no safe zone. And again, when we entered the first night, we had bombs, and we were in the quote, safe zone. I mean, as we just entered, you know Rafa, there were bombs going off. And then when you asked about, you know, the World Health Organization, these guys protecting us are watching out for us. Whenever we went from one place to another, we had to get a green light for them saying, okay, IDF says that you're safe to go. So we had a green night. And as we are going about a block away, a bomb went off
from you are one block away about one block, right? Yeah, I mean, this is our car. And you can see the smoke coming out from the bomb. This is supposed to be the safe zone. This is a safe zone. This is where we were supposed to be safe, because they gave us the green light to go to the hospital now. So again, they don't care who was what and where. I mean, they're bombing no matter what. And so. So we end up going to the hospital, and the ambulance and cars, maybe two, three minutes behind this come. And of course, then we enter into the ER to help these people out.
Unfortunately, like I said, when I was working there, I thought I'd be working day and night. You know, I thought that there'd be injuries that I'll be taking care of all day all night. Unfortunately, these bombs that they're doing, they are out to kill anyone did you know we went into the ER to help these people in the room that we were in there were six people that they that were there. All six of them passed away I Shaheed So again, these bombs are targeted ammo, and they don't want anyone to survive. And so there is no safe zone, there's not nothing of that sort. I was in the hospital. And this was the only major hospital that was left. And again, as we went, you know, we
talked about, you know, this is the only major hospital, this is going to be their next target. And so one day while we were there, it was about eight o'clock at night and we're doing surgery and two bombs went off, must have been close to the hospital as a whole hospital shook the whole, the whole wire rattled. Again, you know, we weren't sure if this was, you know, it was going to happen, but I'm thinking we kept on doing our work. And that was it. So nothing more. But again, there is no safe zone, there's no safe anything there. How do you work when bombs are falling around you?
I mean, it's interesting. They are so often and so, you know, so frequent that you just, I mean, if it's not close to you, you kind of good to know, but even even like, the dozens that were there the first night that we were there, because then Obama didn't do Yeah, it's far it's okay. You know, it's normal. So not unless something like that, like, you know, you're at some place that shakes and rattles. You know, it's just part of everyday life, unfortunately. So Subhanallah you work in hospitals, you know, across America, you're one of the leading orthopedic, you know, surgeons here. What are the conditions of the hospital in the US and tell us some of the stuff that you did and saw
as a medical doctor? Yeah, well, two things again, so again, so again, this is, like I said, just some other areas. Again, this is a house that has been absolutely destroyed. This is the car that has been destroyed. So again, and I guess
The bombs are there to destroy everything. And even the houses that are up and running. A lot of them are non functional, and people are scared to stay in them. So even the houses that are there, even though most of our tents, a lot of people can't even stay on this.
The next slide is the one that does have graphic things. Because like you said, you know, what did we actually see when we were there. So again, I will warn people, I mean, it is very gruesome, but unfortunately, this is the life that they live, this is what happens to them. So if you have any kind of queasiness or anything, that's what I'd recommend you not look at it.
So this first patient, you know, again, he was in a car and he got they got hit by a rocket by a bomb, and he ends up losing his, you know, his left leg. And the whole right leg is just shards. I mean, the muscle is all taken away and things of that sort. This middle picture is of someone who, I'm not sure if it was a bomb that went up or a bullet. But again, obviously, his whole eye has been taken away, he has shrapnel throughout. And I'm not sure if this one took it this was taken from the ICU lady.
And the one on the bottom is someone who a child who was in the ICU and again, has a bullet through the head. So unfortunately, I mean, this is this is the reality of the lessons. And fortunately, there was also
you know, they say they're not targeting anyone, anything of that sort. So there was the second the last day, we went there. And there was a five year old and a seven year old child who came into the ER who had a single bullet through the head. And so the parents come in hoping that we can save them. But unfortunately, you know, nothing can be done. But again, I mean, this is the reality. There's no indiscriminate I mean, these were I mean, the story that the parents told us was that they the Israelis had supposedly pulled out from plan unis, so they thought maybe they can go back to their home, maybe they can go back to whatever was left up there. So as they were going back,
there were snipers were waiting for them, and ended up killing the two children. Snipers have some of the most precise equipment in the world. They're trained to shoot from hundreds of feet, you're telling me a five year old had a bullet in in his head. This is a level of depravity and inhumanity that one doesn't have words to express. This means they are literally intentionally targeting a five, six year old child, correct. I mean, again, like I said, this was from the parents. So but again, like I said, to see the child in front of you, there was a single mother had no question about that. So so on both of those children, unfortunately, and again, the father was like, This is
my only daughter, you know, please help her. So how do you maintain your composure? They're coming to you thinking Subhanallah I mean, it's so you are an orthopedic surgeon, what did you do? Like, you know, give us some examples of maybe a success story, maybe some, some, so there's an excellent, shallow.
Okay, so, again, unfortunately, I said, this is the only hospital that's still functional. Again, if you ever seen an or, I mean, this is pretty primitive, the stuff that they have there, and sterility wise, there isn't much sterility, we're using gallons as our sheets. You know, even as we entered the first day, you know, even though they try to clean I mean, you can still smell you know, decayed tissue and things like that. So even though it's clean, I mean, the smell is still there, the hospital smells, basically yeah, so again, I mean, this is like so this gentleman on top, I mean, he ended up breaking both legs, his arm so we ended up going ahead and you know, placing External
Fixators and, you know, to holding the position to allow it to heal. This person on the bottom has had multiple deployments and wounds, I mean, you guys may know them that look but that actually looks like good tissue inside there. So humbler I mean, the plastic surgeon was thinking about going ahead and doing a flap and letting that heal up there. The one on the on the other side here is this person had come in, they had bone that was lost and so after the cleanup, then we ended up shortening it to allow it to fuse and heal up to allow this person to walk in sha Allah so So you brought in much of your own equipment, correct? I mean, you left it there yeah, yes. Yeah. So you
know I had equipment again multiple had equipments and humbled. I mean, this was the one major hospital that was still there. So again, there was still a lot of equipment but even then, like some some gentleman had a broken hip and we're trying to put a pin in they didn't have the right size pin so then we had a board that and changed to something else. So they do have some supplies but again, the supplies are lacking and the only problem is that they're not letting anything in. So anything that comes in is whatever all the different groups bring in. So currently, this regime is saying to the people that they need to move into Rafa Were you there when this announcement happened? Did you
experience any of that mass migration taking place? So again, the last day that we were there I mean was when they started to come attack Rafa and I think, yeah, so I don't know if you can hear this. Let me pull up the volume. Okay. So again, I mean, as you look at this picture, it's beautiful. I mean, this is Gaza. First thing in the morning, probably about seven o'clock in the morning, Marcia looks beautiful. The scenery is there.
We think it looks beautiful. But this is the day that we're going to be.
So again, one thing is you'll hear drones all morning all night long, again, to anticipate to kind of scare the people because the drones, drop bombs, and they have guns out.
So yeah, so that mean, that was what we heard, I mean, the day that we were leaving. So that's what we heard the day that we were leaving. So again, I mean, this is when they started moving into Rafa. And this is where literally like 15 minutes from the border. So these people have no place to go. And obviously, like when we came back, that's when they said they're going to start attacking more Panelo. So I'm seeing here, a bunch of refugees living in tents and sheets, and you hear drones and aircraft and military weapons and bombs. I mean, how clear is this? This is a genocide taking place without there is no fighting back. There are no weapons over here at all. There's no There's no
fight it is simply massacre. One side is bombing and killing and shredding and targeted assassination. And the other side is just taking it like this meaning they have no option to do Subhanallah tell us about the spirit of the people of Gaza, you interacted with them, you interacted with hundreds of them, tell us how did you find them? What did they ask you? Did they ask you a story? How did you get in like, tell us about their own interact, your your interaction with them. It was so humbling. I mean, there was actually one of the surgeons who was the main surgeon at a European Eliza hospital that we were at. And he is actually a British national. So he has a British
passport. And he trained in Britain. And he is a plastic surgeon, and he actually knew he wanted to come back and help his people. And so he actually spent time with the orthopedic surgeons in, in Britain, so he could learn how to deal with trauma and things of that sort. So he came back a year ago, so before the World War started, and he's like, you know, I'm here to help my people again, and so he was the last one out of sofa. So again, you know, the Shifa Hospital was with the main hospital that had been attacked by by Israel, and they shut it down. And he's like, I'm not gonna let my people go. And so of course, he was taken, he was put in, you know, in a dark room for a few
days. And Humla I mean, the spirit of this man is that, you know, they came in, they said, you know, aren't you scared? And he's like, What do I have to be scared of, this is my land, you guys are on our on my land. And then when he was, you know, in a dark room for four days, they're like, you're not security that I had a good nap, I managed. I mean, this is the quality of these people. And again, you know, they're the reason like when you said, when we when we started this is that you twisted my arm a little bit. But more importantly, the people that said, you need to go back and tell our story, because no one is listening. So you know, that was, obviously your little nudge. But
again, I mean, I felt for them that they said again, the way and again, we try to tell them, the world is with you, you know, majority of the world is with you, they're much more jority want this to end. And again, Inshallah, we're going to do our best to tell your story. And like I said, I mean, there are some who are like, when we get the opportunity, we're going to leave, but a majority of them say this is our land, they can't get this out. Subhanallah you know, we could go on and on. But time has to come to an end. Let's I want to ask you a very difficult question. And one that really is the most practical as well. After you have been if you come back now, what can we do? What
What can the rest of us do to help out the people of
Iran? So that is a very difficult question. I mean, obviously, the first and foremost is the wall. I mean, again, you know, Allah knows what's best, Allah knows why this is happening. So we can just continue to do dua to do this. But as you entered us, the first sign that you see is eye level, Gaza, that's at the airport as or as you the cross check there. And these are the kids, like I said, I mean, there are, like you said, when you ask them how they are Hamdulillah, they are amazing. I mean, you're they have their hearts and things. They they love us. So. So the question is, what can we do? It's a challenge. If you know someone who's going, obviously, like I said, that is the easy
way to get things across. And again, I know someone who's going and someone else who may be going so giving them money, giving them supplies, those are the things that you know, obviously, literally, every day one or two doctors goes in, right. So I mean, again, obviously, we have to keep on asking for a ceasefire. And again, you know, from my standpoint, like one of the other brothers who was the plasma cutter that went with me, he met with the senators in Virginia today and again, you know, insha Allah, I'm looking to do that. So if anyone has any contacts, in politicians or anything of that sort that I can talk to, that we can talk to, I mean, there's definitely one thing that we want
to do we have to spread this message as much as we can. And like I said, I mean, this is part of that. I mean, obviously, mostly you have a large following. So inshallah people will see this and realize what's going on. And Inshallah, you know,
I don't have the answer. And if someone does have the answer, someone can help. Like I said, someone had reached out to me and they said, you know, because I said, I don't, I don't write well, and I'm not an adult like to
talk in front of people either. But he said, You know, I can, you know, sit down with you and we can write your story and we can tell the story, you know, and try to get it out to as many people as we can. So this is then a plea to all of you, and all of you online as well. Dr. Nimmer, an American citizen, orthopedic surgeon, our community Epic community, he's been in Gaza, two weeks, he's come back, if you can get him in touch with journalists that want to interview him, if you can get him in touch with politicians that you can speak to directly one on one. This is our plea to everybody who's watching, we're all trying to do our bit here. We're all trying to do whatever we can. And I
want to conclude by stating what I want to
say one last thing is, like I said, you know, when we talk about it, I mean 100 Lilla, this is Allah has given me the skill set that I could take, everyone here has something that they can do, be it writing to your politicians, giving him money, doing whatever you can you need to find whatever your niche is to help these people Inshallah, there is a lot that's going to be needed to to rebuild Palestine. So again, I mean, if you guys are engineers, or anything like that, again, whatever you can do, like people said to me, oh, you know, you went a humble I had the opportunity. Some people told me don't go because not safe, and other people said, We're envious of you because we would love
to have gone ourselves. So again, you got to try to be like the second group, figure out what you can do for Gaza, whatever you can do, like I said, I mean, if this isn't obviously the if the medical field is not your thing, there are other things that you can do try to find out what you can do to help these people in Charlotte. So Dr. Jim, I want to say what I said in the hotbar three weeks ago, but now everybody knows this about us. I have to tone down the praise, but Wallahi on behalf of all of us here at Epic we are so so proud that you belong to our community. MashAllah Tabata Cola, we are so proud that somebody from our ranks went there gave up a lot. And I want to
also thank you know, the Mrs. your better half I want to thank Bobby as well, that mashallah she sacrificed she had no idea whether her husband would come back or not. And also the children as well. Mashallah, Dora, I'm seeing you. Yes, yes. And hamdulillah you're no longer children. I know. You're young men and young women, Mashallah. The whole family was behind, I visited them the night before. And mashallah Bobby and the children were all in support of their father. And the children were saying, we're proud that our Father is going, you know, father needs to hear that. And every one of them sacrificed the uncertainty of the future. And as I said, in the whole the three weeks
ago, this is the type of living Jihad that every one of us needs to do. The sacrifice of giving up the comfort. And again, this is this was an unpaid gig for the record. He didn't get anything except what he got is better than any salary could have gotten him. The rewards that he got out of going to that land, and of saving the lives and look at the smiles. Wallahi How can you as soon as you enter you see these kids, and you hear the bombs? You hear the drones? And look at the smiles that they gave Dr. Newman? Where does that image and optimism come from? But Subhanallah Dr. Moreau, we're so happy and proud that you went and we're happy you came back. And now in Sharla, every one of us
every one of us, we try to do what we can. I don't know what we can do. I don't know. But Dr. Nineveh didn't know three weeks ago phone call comes 24 hours yesterday. Oh, and he said yes. And here he did. So you have a class you put you to work on and Allah and an opportunity will come and when that opportunity comes, then do whatever you can, and slowly but surely, all of us collectively, we're going to have a be a part of the tidal wave Zakum Allah who care for all of you in a shot if anybody has a specific question, you can come and astrocaryum one on one. Zak Kamala Harris and I'm wearing rahmatullah wa barakato.
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