The forbidden device

„Salaam aleikum va rahmatu Llahi va barakatuh (n.n. Peace to you all, may the Mercy of Allah and All of His Blessings be with you always), my dear Muslim sisters. I really hope you enjoy the stories I write. To my great regret, most times they are tragic and sad, as life in the camp seems to be a constant fight for survival. As time goes by, one can forget a lot, some of the memories you remember appear to be more peaceful, others might even seem somewhat amusing. I managed to survive and keep my children close in this environment only with the help of Allah, who gave me strength and patience to endure everything during my time in the refugee camp. I now know for certain that Allah Almighty won’t put on our shoulders more than we can handle.
The story I want to tell you today is about an „amusing” episode from the camp. I recently remembered it all of a sudden and it kind of made me smile a bit. It is a story about mobile phones. Because you see, in a normal world, a mobile phone is not something out of the ordinary, but a common commodity even small children have access to nowadays. However, in the camp it is a prohibited device, a black market good or even a luxury one. Only a few people in the refugee camps in Syria own a mobile phone and they are all afraid to be caught by the guards. Those who have a mobile device in the camp usually hide it thoroughly, having in mind that, in case it will be found by the soldiers, they might end up beaten and in prison. We all had places where we could hide our phones, one more inventive and creative than the other. Of course, a terrible fear grips you when soldiers enter the tent and start searching. Usually, these moments occurred unexpectedly, they entered the tent all of a sudden, sometimes even on foot, in order to avoid disclosing their presence inside the camp. And most of the cases, such moments were happening during the night.
The exit from my tent was facing the main street. Even though it was tied up with a string, anyone could open it and enter into the tent. On the day this story happened, my friend and I decided to make a thorough cleaning inside the tent. Moreover, we also had to charge our phone without being seen by anyone. Unfortunately, precisely on that day, the soldiers decided to show up into the camp for an unexpected search. You see, we had to charge the phone in order to be able to keep in touch with our families, so they wouldn’t worry about us. As that was the only sunny day during that week, after several days of heavy rain when I couldn’t charge the device, we had to put ourselves at risk. But still, we had to somehow secure ourselves and take some protection measures to avoid getting caught by the guards. Most of the times, we were charging the phone near the entrance into the tent, as that part was the sunniest and the light / the sunrays could reach the solar battery. So, as we started cleaning, we gathered all the quilts, mattresses and pillows near the entrance of the tent, in order to keep the forbidden device away from the eyes of anyone that could suddenly enter. We rolled all the carpets up, cleared the entire floor, took out all that we could, so that the tent remained empty – usually, under the carpets there was a lot of dust and sand, as we were living in the dessert, where sandstorms were constantly occurring. This was one of the reasons we decided to clean up a bit our so called home. Even though the camp was spread out on a large area, whether one wanted it or not, it was impossible to hide the “surprise inspections” of the guards, and somehow, one could still learn about the soldiers entering the camp, as usually these were the moments when the children all of a sudden started to scream and cry, as they feared the soldiers. The moment we heard the children screaming, crying and saw them running, we all knew that we must hide our mobile phones as best we could. Fortunately, we heard the children’s screams on time, indicating that the soldiers had entered into the camp, so I quickly grabbed the device that was charging near the tent’s entrance in order to hide it, and replaced it with a flashlight. The car the soldiers were in initially passed by my tent, but the soldiers saw the solar battery outside and thought that there’s a chance to catch someone inside the tent charging their phone, so the car suddenly stopped. They ran out from the car and started to open the so-called door of our tent that was tied with the string, trying to get inside. I was sitting on the other side, facing the entrance, observing all that was happening, while my friend was sweeping the floor. When they finally managed to open the tent, the soldiers started to push each other, as our belongings were all gathered in a big pile, blocking the entrance. Managing to burst into the tent, they started pulling the cable and removing the thing that was charging, but, to their surprise, it was only a flashlight. Of course, they got angry. The soldiers, two women and a man, who had entered into our tent, were still trying and trying to find inside the tent anything that could be prohibited, acting quite dumb and hectic during this whole time, while turning everything in the tent upside down. All of this while I was sitting quietly, displaying a poker face, although deep inside I was all trembling with fear. As they realized that there’s nothing to search, because the tent was almost empty, they went out of their minds, started questioning us, screaming at us, trying to intimidate us and force us to make a mistake. But they found nothing, and we said nothing, so ultimately, they had no other choice but to turn around angrily and make their way to the exit, out of my tent, and leave us in peace. About five minutes after they left, and my friend and I started to laugh loudly, to amuse ourselves and make fun of the soldiers a little bit. It had been so entertaining and satisfying for us to observe the three solders hysterically trying to find something, anything into our tent, just to realize in the end that „did not exist” and “nothing prohibited was there”. In the end, it was for us a small victory to see their disappointed faces. Allah gave me strength to react fast and replace the phone with the flashlight. Once again, the Almighty had protected us from harm and looked after us, keeping us safe.
This story took me to the conclusion that no matter the situation, one must keep his calm and forever trust in the Power and Mercy of Allah, our Lord and Savior.
Asira