Martyr شَهيد | A Word Worthy of Comprehension
On first hearing the Arabic translation of the word martyr it became apparent that my Western raised mind had no idea of a deeper, older meaning. Martyrdom is often seen as negative by most people of a Western declination, the false virtuous facade of someone who is captured in victim consciousness claiming self righteousness. At best this word evokes those like Joan of Arc who gave her life for a belief in a message from God or the many slaughtered saints and believers in varied sects of Christianity. Sacrificing one’s life for a belief is one aspect of martyrdom though from my now open eyes it is much more than this.
In Arabic the word originally translated from the word shaheed to شهيد and martyr (from the Greek) had much in common: The word martyr originally meant a witness (شاهد)—to bear witness. To see.
Words change over time, this includes a purposeful reassigning of meaning—anyone who has an old dictionary realizes this truth. Also people are lazy with language preferring to sling words around in the common lexicon of the day even as they have little comprehension of what they say due to the relentless programming of the dark screen or purposeful inversions via the doctrine of education.
This finding arose from my struggle to integrate in some meaningful way the ongoing genocide in Palestine. From the first week it was more than obvious to my seeing eyes that Satan’s cult of death would not stop the slaughter of the innocents. These genocides are the way of those who hunger for power and receive pleasure from inflicting pain. I hear echos from the Trail of Tears of the indigenous people of America, I hear the haunting song of those generations before this one that were left bleeding their life’s blood into the sacred soil of the land they revered. Today this rapacious murder is brought to us live via non-stop telecasting. One struggles to comprehend and find some meaning
From the demolition of the Twin Towers, now easily verified as a CIA-Mossad inside job, when Arabs with box cutters supposedly hijacked some airliners it has been embedded in the Western psyche that Arabs are violent people without a moral compass. They are the designated enemy and thus began the war on terror along with the accelerated stripping of human’s divine rights. Of course, the now famously named military-industrial complex has been genociding and stripping humans of dignity and rights across the world for decades. The difference today is they don’t even bother to pretend other than their diabolical intent.
My immediate response to 9/11 was to blurt out; “they did it”. At that time I had zero clues as to who they were. I continued on with my life not fully comprehending the depth and breath of the impact that day. To be honest in my own self revealing, without recognizing it, Islamophobia had crept into the back of my mind, quite simply I was asleep and didn’t feel that learning about the Muslims was worthy of my time. October 7th changed everything for me.
I knew from the beginning that this event, like 9/11, was planned and co-ordinated by Israel and their fanatical Zionist Christian supporter’s insane doctrine as the excuse for all out genocide. Not for one second did I buy into the political rhetoric that this would stop until every last Gazan was murdered or removed from their land. History, real history tells this story over and over again. Of course now the Greater Israel Plan and building of the third temple are in full swing. Prophecies of doom falsely based on corrupted scripture.
While I don’t label my being with any religious denomination I was socialized under the doctrine of Christianity and it’s shadow, Judaism. We are formed by the prevailing beliefs in any society whether aware of it or not. The Muslim seemed a far away alien religion, commonly viewed as unsophisticated desert nomads in turbans. There were the tales of the Arabian Nights that occasionally caught my attention but nothing more than that. Having now listened to dozens of commentators from Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine plus my own growing memories of the ancient lands of Ur and Syria has given me nothing but respect for these people. They never speak in the booming voice of hyperbole that Western journalists do—those still too focused on the great American dream now crashing on the shores of its hypocrisy, thus all Empires die. The thoughtfulness, the calm voice, the ones that steadily educate the listener to an ancient wisdom from which current civilization sprung. Voices full of compassion, never expressing hate for those who torture for their seeing is millennium old.
What rose up from inside of me was the true meaning of the word martyr—to bear witness and a growing compassionate comprehension that the Palestinian people were indeed sacrificing themselves that humanity would be shaken awake from their complicity in generational genocide. My morning contemplations brought me to a place inside where bearing witness grew in power. Not the power of outward control but the power of the Divine that brings redemption to those who will look unafraid of what has been wrought in their name. The little ones, the humble ones were seen to be uplifted out of this mortal coil and a whole army of innocent ones took to the heavens calling those of us still bound here to be thus uplifted. This is baptism by fire, where the ego is sacrificed to a higher calling.
Yes, they are people and like people everywhere, demonstrate human capacity for both love and at times violence. It is hard to blame them anymore than blaming the drug addict who lies, steals, and is in the process sowing his own destruction. For our world has grown cold and hard, children raised in diseased terrains without care breed a disrespect for life itself which includes disrespect for one’s own life. In some manner it is easier to accept the fires of rage than the insidious loss of all hope and dignity.
As if in affirmation to what I have written above an email arrived this blessed morning which I will share part of below. My breath draws deeper knowing that consciousness is never alone. More and more people are willing to see—to be living martyrs of truth.
“It is entirely possible that the Gazans chose themselves to be sacrificed on the alter of humanity, in order to steer humanity back on course through heart-based living. As awful as it is in Gaza, humanity has an opportunity to realise Equanimous Compassion through this event. Most people have (at best) selective compassion, reserving it only for friends and family, not realising that the whole world is our family. It takes integrity and deep thinking to live by the heart’s knowledge, but most people are far too lazy and caught up in materialistic, nihilistic states of mind – separated from their heart’s wisdom and compassion – divided against their own nature and unable to realise the interdependent nature of reality. Through Gaza, people have been shocked by the images but also confronted by their narcissistic choices and lifestyles. That is the point that Gaza is driving home. People need to stop their egocentric ranting and blubbering and start to live their lives with integrity, from the heart. If humanity does not take this opportunity to grow up, then the evil cancer that is ravaging the Cradle of Civilisation (aka ‘the ring of fire’) will spread to every corner of the human collective, until there is ‘no home’ to go to.”