This is a poem dedicated to Eesa Barot:
With Hardship Comes Ease
Ya Ummati!
May I ask for a few moments from your busy, hectic lifestyle
For you to tear away from worldly pursuits just for a while:
Have you ever wondered what it must feel like being all alone
Trapped in a tiny cell for years on end, mentally torn and worn
Hatred manifesting from fellow inmates, vulnerable to attack
Slandered constantly on the outside, neglected for being black
Our brothers endure this treatment on an all-too regular basis
Why are they no more to you than nameless criminal faces?
You would readily snatch your own blood from a lion’s jaws
Leaping to their rescue without a second thought or pause
It becomes so very easy to enter a house that’s burning down
When your family’s trapped inside who you hear scream & shout
What if compassion was non-existant with no Rahma on this earth
Having loved ones we come to learn what relationships are worth
Would you not also save someone witnessed drowning out at sea
Be he Muslim or non-Muslim, whatever race, creed or nationality
No doubt exhausting all effort in this courageous act of humanity
You would do all it takes to save this person from such calamity
Why then do you show negligence in helping your Muslim brother
Who is imprisoned simply for testifying to ALLAAH and no other
Answer his cry for he questions where the Ummah has gone
Help your brother before you too need help and find no-one..
Ya Akhi!
That Day when mankind shall stand in straightened rows
And the worldly Muslim bites his fingers in regret and woe
When questioned what steps he took for innocents detained
If only he had remembered them, if only he’d felt their pain
When the Body ached with oppression he was nowhere in sight
Yet he claims of belonging to the Ummah.. But with what right?
Sweet scent emanating from your wounds insha’allaah that Day
Bearing proof of a true believer’s steadfastness in Allaah’s Way
My beloved brother, you are not the first nor are you the last
Marking history forever like incarcerated Muslims of the past
In every language of the world is your story being narrated
Du’a made collectively for an end to this mighty fitna created
When you ask for what crime were you abandoned in this way
What answers will we give and what excuses can we make
Why is honour violated today when our numbers are so vast
Huge armies once marched forth, cities flattened in the past
Your blood and honour too is sacred like the Day of ‘Arafat
How can we remove this wahn settled in the Muslim’s heart
A day is surely near bringing relief from this vicious violence
All shall become aware of your lengthy suffering in silence
My brother, don’t ever despair for Allaah is Witnessing all
He has given you ’eemaan the greatest Blessing after all
With this in your heart and dhikr constant on your tongue
Eternal happiness awaits you…
For it is never the oppressed but oppressor in the wrong.
Written by UR (Nelson, UK)
