|
|
|
 Re: لقطات من احتفال الذكرى الثامنة عشر لإستشهاد الأستاذ محمود محمد طه (Re: Omer Abdalla)
|
Dears,
Dr. Asma Abdelhalim shared these thoughts with the Sudanese mailing list "Sout Al-Intfada". Someone forwarded this well-written account to me and I am delighted to share it with you here.
regards,
Omer
I tried to remember whether it was cold on January 18, 1985, but I could not. That was a day without features. There is no way to describe it other than it was an abnormal day. Nothing about that day looked familiar; it did not have the everydayness feeling of the monotonous days of that place called tri-city capital. Everything came to a halt, total and eerie silence. There was nothing to say. Later on I heard only one comment about the aircraft that carried the body away, “why take his body away? Are they still afraid of him?”
18 years later I experienced a different scene. The people who gathered in Iowa City were different from those who gathered inside Cooper prison. I could feel the cold and the thin dry air passing to my head through my nostrils. The university hall reserved for the occasion of celebrating the 18th anniversary of the execution of Ustadh Mahmoud came alive with people of all colors and creeds. American scholars and activists, an African American professor from Seattle who himself is a Republican brother, a former Ethiopian ambassador who worked with al Ustaz in an agricultural scheme in Ethiopia and Sudanese people from as far as UK, and from at least six different states.
مَفَاتيِحُ أَقْفَالِ الغُيُوبِ أَتَتْكَ فـىِ
خَزَائِنِ أَقْوَالِى فَهَلْ أَنْتَ سَـامِـــعُ
وَهَـا أَنَا ذَا أُخْفِى وأُظْهِرُ تَـارَةً
لِرَمْـزِ الهَــوَى مَا السِّرُّ عِنْدِىَ ذَائِعُ
وَإيَّـاكِ أَعْنى فَاسْمعِى جَارَتىِ فَمَا
يُصَرِّحُ إلاَّ جَــاهِلٌ أَو مُخَــادِعُ
سَأُنُشِى رِواَيَاتٍ إلى الْحَقِّ أُسْنِدتْ
وَأَضْرِبُ أَمْثَـالاً لِـمَا أنَـا وَاضِـعُ
On the long tables there were reprints of the republican thought books, pictures of the good days and memories that brought men and women to tears. Yet that anniversary was more powerful than to let people succumb to sadness. The podium witnessed one speaker after the other and the gathering reached its spiritual height with Yousuf al-Museli’s music enhancing the rhythm of Dhikir and inshad.
Ahmed Al-Farjouni recited a wonderful poem titled “qusat alqulub” قساة القلوب Ali Lutfi mourned his sister who died a few weeks ago and addressed the occasion talking about Ustadh Mahmoud. Once more alfarjouni came to the microphone and sang ana al-Sudan ana Umdurman. The best performances were by women who charmed the gathering with their strong inshad with Museli’s music. Who else but the Republicans would recognize and actually prefer a woman reciting sufi words and rhythm?
On another occasion Asma Mahmoud said that al-ustadh always thought about the good that comes out of the sad occasions. Makes one wonder whether his insistence on martyrdom stemmed from a deep knowledge of the good that would come out of his sacrificing his life to spare his followers. He is alive and well. He moves from the auditoriums of Ohio University to the halls of Iowa university. He sits at parliament halls and human rights meetings. His words get translated into many languages and his books are being read by those who thought they would not give him the time of the day.
On January 18, 2003 the Republicans were there for the anniversary but it was an anniversary charged with the energy and work of those who are not Republicans. We mourned and remembered we shall never forget. In the words of Margery Allingham “Mourning is not forgetting... It is an undoing. Every minute tie has to be untied and something permanent and valuable recovered and assimilated from the dust.”
Asma
| |
 
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Omer Abdalla
بكرى ابوبكر
Elmosley
sari_alail
Haydar Badawi Sadig
Yasir Elsharif
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست