Sabr for the path of Allah SWT

Every Muslim dreams of living in an Islamic country, where everyone abides the Sharia. I had the opportunity to live in such a place. One day, my husband came to me and told me that the Caliphate had been founded, and we, as true Muslims, must answer the calling and perform Hijrah. I did not have time to think about it. After all, what was there to ponder upon? And thus began my new path in Islam.

We gathered our belongings and we left on our journey to the new Caliphate. I did not seem to be an easy journey. To be quite honest, I would have never imagined before leaving just how difficult, dangerous and troublesome it would prove to be. To reach our destination, we have gone through many trials. But when we arrived, we could breathe with ease and relief. Little did we know that it was only the beginning of the trials we would have to endure for the sake of Allah.

At first, everything seemed to be very utopic. Peace, quiet, calm, new people and a new country. Ever since I was a child, I dreamt of traveling a lot. And in the short period of time when I was in Syria, I traveled throughout the entire country, from north to south. Alas, most of these journeys came out of necessity, as our idyllic fairytale took another turn. I saw then another face of the world. I found out the meaning of war!

In a very short period of time, we had to move a lot. Today in a place, and tomorrow in a new and completely different one. There was continuous bombing and, many a times, the bombs fell in the near vicinity, shattering the windows of our temporary homes. The feeling of fear began to grow within us. We were saved only by our Faith in the Mercy of Allah and our desire to continue to be his Loyal Believers. When we felt we can no longer endure the terror of the bombings, we resorted to what seemed to be our last way out. We surrendered to the local military.

After we took that desperate step, a new era of trials in the name of Allah began for me and my family. They took us to „the city of tents”. At first, this made-up „city” was not large, as it consisted of only one sector, with approximately 50 tents. In this so-called „city” there were no more men, they had been taken to prison by the soldiers. Only women and children were left to survive. Shortly after our arrival, the „city” began to grow rapidly, not with each passing day, but with each passing hour. The number of tents grew and grew. More women and children kept being brought to the camp by the soldiers. The conditions were simply awful, considering that it was winter time, and we were all being cramped up into these enormous tents with no heating. It was terribly cold and I feared for my life, and for the life of my children, not knowing what lied ahead for us. All that I had left in those dreadful moments was my Faith in Allah and his Infinite Mercy.

Allow me to give you a humble lesson in geography, from my own personal experiences during my time in Syria. Syria is a country mostly occupied by dessert. There, even during the winter you can casually walk around wearing a T-shirt during the day, but during the night, it gets so cold that you can see your breath. In spring and autumn, you have heavy rain, and it gets awfully windy, and during summertime there are powerful dust storms, and the dust raises so thick that you can no longer see further that one meter in front of your eyes. All this is not necessarily a problem if you live in a proper house, with thick walls, windows and a roof, but we were forced to live in large, improvised tents (in time, the soldiers moved us to smaller tents, one tent per family, but I will talk about that a little bit later on).

When they put is in these tents it was February. It was very cold, and the rain season had begun. The water poured into the tents, the „roofs” were leaking, and our mattresses were constantly getting wet. In all the years that I was in that camp, I did not live, but merely survived. Every „sister” did the best she could. During this time of great difficulty, our Faith was being tested, and Allah taught us the true meaning of Sisterhood, amid all the horrors that were taking place around us.

After a month of constant struggle, Allah sent us relief – the soldiers gave each woman her own tent. From that moment one, each „sisters” set out to make herself „a little home” from what Allah had graciously provided. We all started decorating our new „home” and tried to enjoy to the fullest the relief sent to us by Allah All Mighty. It was like a short break before the trials that still lied ahead. As spring was starting, the rains were getting heavier, and the wind began to blow with such intensity that you risked being swept up in the air and carried away if you were not careful enough. You see, the camp was out in the dessert, out in the open, with no trees and buildings around as far as you can see. It was just the dessert and us, a strange oasis of sorts.

It was probably a few days until each and every one of us, sisters, set up her own tent. The first heavy rain and the first powerful wind came not long after that. For me, this was the beginning of many sleepless nights, full of fear and despair. It is still hard for me to put into words all of the feelings and emotions I experienced during those endless nights – how awful it feels when it rains inside your tent, when the wind is blowing everything inside, when the tent breaks and waters coming pouring inside. But during all my time in the camp, Allah has taught me one more very important lesson: if from man-made bombs you can run and hide, from the Power and Strength / Force of Allah there is no running away and no hiding, only Faith to keep you safe. All natural phenomena represent the Will and Power of Allah, and they can be quite scary if your Faith in the Mercy of Allah is not strong enough.

With each day that I spent in camp, my Faith was being tested, with one trial after another, just like the scenes in a movie. For a woman, I felt Allah tried my worthiness, putting me under the strains of intense physical labor. For example, I constantly had to carry water for drinking and for washing, the well was far away and the recipients were heavy. Most often than not, the water did not suffice for everyone. During wintertime, it was difficult to do the washing, as the water was ice cold. Also, there was no electricity, so we had to use solar charged flashlights. At night, in our tents, we used LED lights connected to small batteries. We were many sisters in the camp. Over 1.000 women and children. They had ended up there from all over the world, with different cultures, habits, traditions, behaviors and personalities. But we were all united through our common misfortunes and, most importantly, our Faith in Allah.

During my time in the camp, I confess I was afraid of many things: the winds, the rains, the dust storms, the soldiers that never missed an opportunity to make our lives even harder, but, most probably, my biggest fear were the fires. When one of the tents caught fire, it became obvious that the fire would spread to the neighboring ones quite rapidly. It was an awful sight. All the sisters gathered and started to help, trying to prevent the fire spreading, but the soldiers tried to prevent us from stopping the fire, and forbade the water trucks and the fire engines to enter camp territory. I remember those times in camp like a bad dream, a nightmare that you try to wake up from and simply cannot.

It was only my Faith that Allah was testing me, that He will make it so that everything will end happily sooner or later, that Allah will offer me a solution to escape the situation I was in and that He will allow us to gain our long awaited freedom that kept me going and kept me sane during my time in the camp. While he was testing our Faith, Allah graciously waited, received and answered our prayers. And Allah knew that we, as True Believers, will dive even further into the teachings of Islam. And that we will come closer to one another, all of us sisters, united by Faith.