Rest in peace Abu Bakr, 7. Passed away on 4 December 2024 after being in a coma for 48 hours, following a fall from the second floor. This poem is in memory of him.
Theological reflections are my own and do not necessarily represent a Servants position.
You fell
Plummeting to the hard embrace
of concrete, on your tender face.
Your mother’s anguished prayer
could not save your broken head.
Your father’s determined care
did little. Now you’re dead.
You fell
And in that fall I see
the fate of all humanity.
You fell because we fell, long years ago.
Did the creator make the world ill?
A place where children die young? No!
Wars, famine, disease are not Allah’s will.
You fell
Because we left the garden
We allowed hearts to harden
Taking lives we could not give
Breaking what we could not heal
So on this groaning earth we live
A world of guns, of germs, of steel
You fell
Because you climbed the roof
Your limbs were strong but mind aloof
So into the precipice you fell.
And so might we, unless we learn.
To share. To care. To live well.
I hope we do. Else, we burn.
