You're not worth my time!

Mamadou Samassa

Date:09/28/17

Miss Pohomov

I was enrolling in the French International School of Philadelphia, on the 12th of April, while flowers bloomed with unique colors of blossom purple and velvet red. The bees flew from vine to flower, grasping onto each milliliter of pollen that was flowing in every breath I took. The atmosphere was breezy, spreading a bunch of little particles of mist around me. I made my way to a seat next to an arborvitae, it’s bark an ashy grey and reddish brown, with its twisting shape providing shade. I sat at the table next to the tree, as I prepare to relax my conscience, a young boy with big fist stood up to me, looked me dead in the eye “Allahu Akbar,” he said. Without any empathy, he let a regretful smile slip right through his reddish pink cavity. My attention navigated towards him with an uncontrollable amount of fierceness and exasperation.

“Do you know what that means?”

“No, but it’s what Muslims say before they blow themselves up, killing non-Muslims,” he said.   

I looked at him with confusion. I wanted to ask him if he knew it was mentioned in the holy Quran of Allah(God) by saying, “If you kill one person it is as if you killed all of the mankind, and if you save one life it is as if you have saved all of the mankind.” The redistrict that enters people's minds saying that all Muslims represent groups like Isis, or that mosques are the hotbeds of radicalisation is completely false. Our prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) called this group the worst of the creation, even though he said they recite the Quran. These are people who believe in the Quran and recite the Quran. In the hadith the prophet said, “They call to the book of Allah(God) but they have nothing to do with the book of Allah, they call to the Islamic law, but they have nothing to do with the Islamic law.”

The prophet also said, “Those who fight them are closer to the book of Allah than they are.”

“Yo,” the boy with his Bolton knuckles yells in agony, “I’m talking to you!”

“Yes,” I reply in a gentle tone

“Why are staring at me like that?”

I  went back to my reflecting. Did he know that jihad is interpreted in many ways: waking up for the morning prayer is jihad, and fighting in the path of God is jihad. Muslims only fight when they are provoked, just like how the United States would defend themselves in any crisis. And, we must incline towards peace if any enemy does as well. Look at Syria, Palestine, Jordan, we suppose that we are the civilians and they are the suspects, they look for peace, and the  headlines are saying, “The US has yet again eliminated another leader of Isis, after Isis has just a week ago killed an American reporter.” What makes you think civilians won’t get killed when you decide to drop “The Mother of all bombs?” If I were to utter the smallest atom of Islam it would start creating differences between people from the way they live, speak, act, interact, and the way they simply understand the world.

If it’s not that all Muslims are terrorist, it starts with the destruction of the twin towers. As my deep thoughts started to weaken, all I saw were the Bolton knuckles which deliberately jacked my face up. It was so unexpected.

“What’s your problem,” I could feel every corner of my face heating up like wood burning after hours of intense calefaction.

“That’s what you deserve, you fake Muslim.”

I want to punch him so badly, my body suppressed heat, my heart is beating faster than ever before, but I ask myself, would the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon) use violence as revenge? No, he wouldn’t because he came as a mercy to all of  humanity, and I must follow in his path as well as the path of Jesus, Moses, Abraham, Zacharia, Yusuf(peace be upon them all) and many more. All prophets of the one and only Allah(God). The prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him) suffered so much during his lifetime. He lost his children, people tried killing him more than once, he was an orphan, and yet after all of these trials and many more, he had  kindness, forgiveness. He treated his enemies with more respect than his own people. So, who am I to hurt this kid? I stood up and looked at him, gave him a smile.

“Why are you smiling, did you hear what I said, fake Muslim!”

I started walking away, “Hey, I’m talking to you. Hey! You walking away because you scared.”

“You're not worth my time.”