POST EARTHQUAKE - kb

'Some of you have been asking for how you can help. I felt kind of useless when I couldn't really answer what was the most efficient way to people wanting to help. But here's an organization that was also very impressive during the tsunami disaster, working the the Red Cross and creating different synergies to be effective and fast. The link's below. Of course, feel free to share the link and my email. I plan to call them tomorrow and ask if there are ways to physically volunteer. If any of you are interested in that, please let me and I'll keep you posted if there are any other ways to volunteer.

For those of you that don't know, most of our immediate-extended family and friends are fine, Alhamdulilah.

Again, thank you and JazakAllah for your concerns and prayers.

I was especially moved by the way an Iranian friend I just made broached the subject. We've been communicating like old friends and she's helping me with an article I'm doing. She just put in a sentence that comes from a wholly different perspective. "Accept my condolneses on the death of so many ppl in the earthquake yesterday, may allah give patience to their families. I hope you and your family are all fine."

I guess to me, that's what I really needed to hear. Acknowledged. Not only because I have lost as a Pakistani or as a resident of this region that lost so much in six minutes, but because humanity has lost so much. And it is so close to home. But also because I felt selfish in just stopping in responses to you all at, yes, my family is, Alhamdulilah, fine. Because so many people don't have families anymore.

My grandmother says yesterday was just a blur to her, between watching the images on TV, trying to contact family in Islamabad and struggling to make sense of it all.

One image in particular moved me. A boy's torso was sticking outside the rubble of a building but the lower portion of his body was still stuck inside. An older man was just standing there hugging the part of him that was free (thank God the boy was at ground level). The portion of his body upon which the building had collapsed before he could get out was now dressed in blood-stained clothes.

Perhaps the images on TV just reminded me that this really will prove to be atonement for some collective sins humanity must have committed, whether proactively or because we didn't react as conscientious women and men should. Like the New Orleans disaster made me feel.

So yes, it was bad. And thankfully all those whom I know in the region are okay, but thousands aren't.

And the aftermath does not seem any rosier.

My office manager, Mehr, called to ask if my sister in Islamabad was ok - which she was Alhamdulilah. But Mehr sounded distressed. Why? Her driver's family lived in one of the villages that had been wiped out. But most of them were fine, except his aunt who had a fractured arm and leg from before couldn't escape and house crumbled upon her.

That was the good news.

Now, they are stranded in extreme weather without any shelter. No help, little hope. Heavy rains, harsh winds, hailstorms followed the earthquake. Strong tremors and thunderstorms are expected for another 48 hours. It's like the earth is just throwing it all back at us. They were in Mansehra, one of the most devastated regions inside of Pakistan, areas of Kashmir however are among the worst hit of yesterday's earthquake.

I don't know if his family was in one of those areas that is now only accessible by air. Bridges and roads have collapsed. The flow of River Jhelum, one of Pakistan's five main rivers is no more. Just stopped. It's been dammed up by part of a mountain that broke off and fell into the river. Hey wait isn't that one of the analogies the Quran gives for the end of the world, that the mountains will crumble into dust. Alhamdulilah, they're not crumbling as though they were made of cotton wool yet.

So what can we learn from this? I don’t know. Ironically, Durriyah, my sister pointed out that this was happening in Ramadhan, the month that brings us blessings. Very difficult to reconcile. We must have wronged ourselves and the Earth beyond imagination if we're having to collectively purge our acts during the blessed month.

Well... I don't know what else to say. I have to get back to my MashaAllah normal life, ie clean my office, finish an article, get dressed for Aftar...

Hope you’re all doing well InshaAllah'