‘I will tell God to interfere and amend the worldly affairs, to change the incorrigible evil nature of man, to humble him’

Wadea, a six-year-old boy, was stabbed 26 times on October 14, 2023, in Chicago by a 72-year-old man because he was Muslim and a Palestinian.
He would probably begin as:
I went away unbloomed plundering the bloom of every spring that would occur and recur on earth after my going. I went away bequeathing a trail of questions that your progressive and prospering civilization would never have answers to. I went away plunging you into a profound reevaluation of your humanitarian values and principles. I went away as a victim of war snatching your peace forever. May my ghost prevail over the warmongers! May my spirit haunt you and make you restless!
I will ask God to abandon you. No, I will ask Him to hold you and re-design you, re-shape you, re-form you and re-create you as a human being advocating peace and safety, not war and peril. I will ask Him to disarm you, to make your weapons dysfunctional, to cleanse you from prejudice and rancour, to boot up forbearance in you, to make you less inhuman, less violent, less brutal and less merciless, to purge you off of every malice and war crime that killed me, that killed hundreds and thousands of children elder or younger than me, that will kill more and more children till children are born, till their parents are born, till wars last, till hatred lasts.
I will show my stabbed body to God. I will show Him these 26 cuts and holes, cuts from which blood still oozes, from which life still drops, from which cries still arise, from which the heinous Islamophobic hostility overspills. I will reiterate the words of Joseph M. Czuba, my killer, to Him, “You Muslims must die!”. I will complain to God for sending me to the world as a Muslim. I will complain to Him for creating religion for the humans who could not handle it, who could not understand it, who could not unite by it but divided that too not peacefully but post wars, post innocent killings, post decapitations, post blasts, post bullets, post dispossessions, post hunger and thirst and post suffering that is brutal and savage.
I will complain to God for creating a land whose avidity has born unforgettable crimes and wars. I will tell him why You created countries, states and union territories that are not free to live, that are not safe to stay, that are not shelter to refugees, that are not homes to the homeless, that are not without borders, without barbed wires, tall cemented or stony walls, that are not without soldiers with their guns cocked to kill. I will ask Him to end wars on earth or end humans. Both can’t be together, both cannot survive, and both cannot go along. I will tell Him to end the Palestine-Israel war if humans are to be safeguarded. I will tell Him to end the occupation of my home, to free my relatives from the siege, from the stifling circumstance caused by humans, humans that You created as ambassadors of your glory, peace, mercy, justice and love.
I will ask God to look after my mother who is alone without me, who has been stabbed dozens of times, who survived to see me surviving, to see the end of the war, to see my land free, to see me as a martyr of freedom. I will tell Him to look after my father who was not home when I was stabbed, who ran from war to be in war, who left his occupied land to see siege, who earned for me to spend on my funeral, to buy a costly shroud and coffin, to mourn my early going. I will ask God to buy me my next birthday cake, to congratulate me on my next birthday, to buy me gifts and toys, to buy me new clothes. I have not lived with humans, they are cruel, I will live with God now who is kind. Humans did not let me bloom on earth, I will flourish in Eden now, humans did not let me grow, I will develop now post-death in the flowers of paradise so that when humans die, they hanker to smell my fragrance.
I will tell God that my Palestine burns, so burns your world. I will tell Him that your land is sung by bombs and blasts, and so are your humans. I will tell Him humans kill humans, humans bomb humans and above all old kill young. I will tell Him to revisit his decision to create man, to revisit what angels said about man at his creation, and to rethink his creation. I will tell Him that your world is not liveable, your humans are not reliable- they kill brutally, and they even don’t spare innocent children and worn-out elders. I will tell Him to interfere and amend the worldly affairs, to change the incorrigible evil nature of man, to humble him, to soften his heart and purify his mind, to give him the feelings of mercy, to renew him as a human being by reprogramming him and reinstalling his attributes after much deliberation.
I will ask Him to rub ointment on my sores, to stitch them, to bandage them, to make a bed for me to lie down on, to induce my sleep by narrating a lullaby, to admit me in a new school, to buy me a colourful uniform, to teach me English alphabets, to prepare and pack my Tiffin, to drop me at the station at 10 AM and to receive me from the school by 04 PM, to help me in my homework, to iron my uniform, to teach me knotting tie.
I will ask God to send his saviour on the earth to liberate humans from wars, to restore peace, justice and mercy, to let little blooms bloom, to let animals graze in the borderless fields, to let humans live in complete brotherhood, to let them embrace one religion, to let them be one race belonging to one country-one world.
The writer can be reached at [email protected]

Fida Hussain Bhat