This is your weekly reminder to join our Monday-Thursday fasting - in line with the Sunnah, in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, and in our attempt to remember them, not only in our mind, but also in our bodies.
Shir Hever, an Israeli-born Jew and part of the military embargo campaign of the Palestinian BDS movement, said on The Electronic Intifada:
“The idea that international law and protests and BDS actions would convince the Israeli government to say ‘we are sorry, we made a mistake, we will now stop committing a genocide’ - this is not how things work. This is never been the plan of action and this is not how pressure works. The pressure is on the world. The pressure is on the governments around the world to stop enabling the genocide and to take action.”[1]
We need to be clear: genocidaires do not stop out of shame. Israel’s genocide in Gaza is not a mistake or a sudden eruption. It is the outcome of more than seven decades of Zionist settler colonialism: a project of racial hierarchy, militarized land theft, and ethnic cleansing—armed and financed by Western imperial powers who see Palestinian death as the cost of maintaining their world order. We are not at the beginning. We are at Stage 9: Extermination, in the Ten Stages of Genocide. And it is not only Israeli society that has gone through those stages. Western elites, corporations, and allied governments have normalized them, provided cover for them, and profited from them.
Shir is right: the pressure is not on Israelis—they are the perpetrators. The pressure is on the world. But we must be honest: in the past two years, no government has acted decisively to stop the genocide. Not Indonesia. Not Turkey. Not Qatar. Certainly not the Arab regimes who openly normalize with Israel like the UAE. And let’s not even talk about Saudi Arabia. Western governments, led by the U.S. and the U.K., continue to arm, fund, and provide intelligence for Israel’s extermination of Palestinians. Muslim-majority governments remain paralyzed or complicit.
So given this, I would like to take it further:
“The pressure to stop this genocide is on us.
The pressure to step up and step in to stop this genocide is on everyone of us with conscience. On individual level. Everyone of us.
I know some of us have already done a lot for Palestine—and I deeply appreciate you for it. This is not to dismiss those efforts, but a reminder, mainly to myself, that we must continue to step up, to do more, and to hold each other strong. Let us all do our part and strengthen one another, because liberation is a collective struggle.
Stop being shocked that the U.S. keeps arming Israel, that the U.K. keeps supplying intelligence, that Muslim governments remain silent or complicit. Empire has always chosen the side of colonizers. The real question is: will we step up and step in, together?
Those videos of Israel starving babies to death, those images of Palestinian mothers holding the broken bodies of their children killed by Israeli shrapnel, those reports of Palestinian men kidnapped and sexually assaulted by Israelis in Sdr Teiman concentration camp —those are not just testimonies of suffering. They are the direct evidence of a genocidal system. And they are also summons: calls for us to rise, act, and refuse to be complicit through silence.
To act.
To read Surah Al Isra every night before going to bed, in accordance with Sunnah.[2]
To support mutual aid campaigns that deliver food and medicine to Gaza.[3]
To study and be creative in perpetuating the Baitul Maqdis culture in our everyday life, for example by joining Al Maqdisi Protocol competition.[4]
To join brave initiatives such as Malaysia’s 1000 Watermelon Flotilla to break Israel’s siege of Gaza.[5]
To volunteer at initiatives that make tangible results like the Hind Rajab Foundation.[6]
To imagine a different world after Palestine’s liberation, where the global order is no longer shaped by Western hegemony, and to begin building independent collective infrastructure—such as a gold-backed currency as an alternative to fiat money—by joining Ummah International.[7]
You may not agree with some or all of the above initiatives. They may be ineffective, impractical, not urgent, or flawed for other reasons. But that is not the point. The point is: the pressure is on each of us to do something.
Perhaps the reason why you disagree with some or any of these initiatives is that Allah is directing you toward creating something else—something you are best placed to do. So, please do it.
Please do let us know and amplify your initiatives as well - we are here to chip in and help. Liberation is a collective struggle.
What Shir said is so simple but so profound to me, because it really changes my mindset of trying to convince others, who are outside of my control, and instead realising that the pressure is on me, and what I do is completely within my control.
So stop being baffled at how Keir Starmer does not flinch when he sees babies starved to skeletons, and instead channel that energy into waking up at 3 a.m. to read Qur’an and study. If this is hard for us, if this is not something we already do, then perhaps that is part of the reason why Palestine is not yet liberated. Again, I say this first and foremost to myself.
Surely, none of this is to say that Baitul Maqdis liberation is up to us - it is from Allah. But Allah will only help us if we do something.
There is a reason why each of us is made the way we are—our education, our wealth, our connections, our privilege. Use them, because we will be held to account for them.
May our fast on Monday help us along this journey.
Sources:
[1] Electronic Intifada video:
[2] Hadith for Sunnah reading Surah Al Isra every night: https://www.abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2014/01/01/prophet-recite-quran-nawm/
[3] Mutual aid: https://t.me/+nn1E8G_C6rQ0MDJk
[4] Al Maqdisi Protocol competition: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGsYWH4CAw/hojre7xuUCWAlTRpF4kTPQ/view?utm_content=DAGsYWH4CAw&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=viewer
[5] Malaysia’s 1000 Watermelon Flotilla: https://watermelonflotilla.org
[6] The Hind Rajab Foundation: https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org
[7] Ummah International: https://www.ummah.international
Written in preparation of Sunnah fasting on Monday, 2 Rabiulawal 1447 Unified Global Hijri Calendar (UGHC) or 25 August 2025 AD.