Faces Full of Light

Had Allah lifted the veil for His slave and shown him how He handles his affairs for him, and how Allah is more keen for the benefit of the slave than His own self, his heart would have melted out of the love for Allah and would have been torn to pieces out of thankfulness to Allah. Therefore if the pains of this world tire you do not grieve. For it may be that Allah wishes to hear your voice by way of dua. So pour out your desires in prostration and forget about it and know, that verily Allah does not forget it.

—Ibn al Qayyim (rahimahullah)

(Source: wethemuslims)

pearlsofislam:

قُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَغُضُّوا مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِمْ وَيَحْفَظُوا فُرُوجَهُمْ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ أَزْكَىٰ لَهُمْ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا يَصْنَعُونَ ﴿٣٠﴾ وَقُل لِّلْمُؤْمِنَاتِ يَغْضُضْنَ مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِنَّ وَيَحْفَظْنَ فُرُوجَهُنَّ وَلَا يُبْدِينَ زِينَتَهُنَّ إِلَّا مَا ظَهَرَ مِنْهَا ۖ…

Hasan Al-Basree said:

“What do you think about a day in which they [all of mankind] have stood on their feet for a period of time that amounts fifty thousand years, they haven’t eaten any food, nor drank any drink, until the point that their throats have become severed out of thirst and their insides burnt upon out of hunger, and then they will be taken to the Fire and given drink from a scorching, hot spring?!

—Al-Hilyaa, 4/500 (via pearlsofislam)

(Source: nonchalante, via pearlsofislam)

islam2011:

Mansoor ibn Saabiq related that an inhabitant of Basrah tried to convince Imaam Sufyaan to get married. Imaam Sufyaan’s simple reply was this: “Then find me someone to marry.“

Having agreed that the Basree man should try to find a suitable match for him, Imaam Sufyaan traveled to Makkah;…

[TW: Rape] She was a student of Aleppo University. It was daytime and I was driving around the city with my boss. She was passing on the street. I said to my boss, ‘What do you think about this girl? Is she not beautiful?”

We grabbed her and put her into the car. We drove to an abandoned home and we both raped her. After we finished we killed her. She knew our faces and our neighbours, so she could not live.

—

A member of Bashar al-Assad’s death squad — the Shabiha (Arabic for ‘ghosts’) — describes one rape he had committed. This behavior is “normal,” he said. (via Women Under Siege Project.)

According to Dr Azzawi, who worked in Latakia and treated the Shabiha:

They were like monsters. They had huge muscles, big bellies, big beards. They were all very tall and frightening, and took steroids to pump up their bodies.

I had to talk to them like children, because the Shabiha likes people with low intelligence. But that is what makes them so terrifying – the combination of brute strength and blind allegiance to the regime.

Rape carried out by Bashar al-Assad’s forces and allies against women, men, and children (read: 11-year-old-boy raped by three of Bashar al-Assad’s security services officers, PDF) is widespread in Syria and is not just the result of abuse of power but also is used as a tool to spread fear among the revolution:

Late one night, ten ‘shabiha’ broke into the bedroom where she and her daughters were asleep.

“They tore at my nightgown trying to strip me. I started screaming. My daughter was crying,” said Hadija. “They were taking videos and photos on their phones”. The men only fled when neighbours who heard the commotion intervened.

A week later four of them returned. “I promised that my husband would hand himself him,” said Hadija. “They said; ‘Tell your husband that we have seen your breasts and we have stripped you. Next time we are going to rape you and we film it and air it everywhere’”. Terrified, she gathered her children and fled to stay with relatives on the outskirts of the city, never staying in one home for more than a few days.

“They [security forces] did the same with many others. It became known that the sister, wife, or daughter of anyone who was fighting might be raped, and many were,” said Hadija. “Now those who are wanted take their wives and daughters with them.”

A reccuring mention in victims’ testimonies is the use of mice and rats. In one instance:

He inserted a rat in her vagina. She was screaming. Afterwards we saw blood on the floor. He told her: ‘Is this good enough for you?’ They were mocking her. It was obvious she was in agony. We could see her. After that she no longer moved.

The Shabiha are better known for their massacres, one of the most notable was carried out in Houla, where 108 people were killed, including 34 women and 49 children.

The U.N. reported that “entire families were shot in their houses”, and videos emerged of children with their skulls split open. Others had been shot or knifed to death, some with their throats cut:

kernel—with-no-shell:

Only use the curse of procrastination against the accursed whisperer. Do this disobedience now while I make it seem good to you, he whispers. Smile. I’ll do it later, you say. But be careful. Twist his curse on the outside only, but remain steady on the inside. Never let him touch…

wordsofsolace:

kernel—with-no-shell:

My Lord! Increase me in fear of You. I fear a bad grade in a class, so I study. I fear being overweight, so I exercise. I fear making my parents disappointed in me, so I try to please them. I fear hunger, so I work to have money to eat.

But I don’t fear You as I…

thegirlwholivesinbooks:

We live in a world where children starve to death while billionaires take baths in bathtubs made of gold. Little girls are raped in our world. Their little dreams and fairy tales are shattered in a deafening cacophony of their own screams. The scream and yet we never seem to hear them. I see…