The "Fire" of Gaza Affected Us All

The Qur’an-ı Kerim states, as commanded by Allah (c.c.): “Do not sit with the wrongdoers, lest the fire also consume you; since you have no friends other than Allah, you will find no help from any quarter!” (Hûd/113)^【1】

^{Condition of Gaza Shifa Hospital, destroyed due to Israel’s 2024 attacks (}Google⁾

It is known that between October 2023 and May 2025, more than 50,000 children in Gaza were killed or injured.^【2】 Official institutions report that by the end of 2025, more than 171,000 Palestinians had been injured and approximately 11,000 people were still missing, presumed trapped under rubble due to attacks.^【3】 According to Munir al-Bursh, Director General of the Gaza Ministry of Health, of the 4,700 individuals who underwent amputations during this period, 850 were children.^【4】 These numbers continue to rise as of today. Learning of corpses thrown into pits by bulldozers, bodies left to be torn apart by dogs, remains abandoned to decay, dead bodies exhumed and crushed to destruction, and victims buried in mass graves by aid workers who traveled to the region, wounds the heart.^【5】

The storm of oppression intensified after the events of 8 October 2023, met with profound sorrow, disbelief, and regret by those who learned of past genocides only through books. Individually, people have prayed fervently and continue to pray for the oppressed victims against the barbaric oppressors. In addition, the long-standing boycott movement has been seen as a remedy, and every responsible individual has joined this action to draw a line against oppression. The list of boycotted brands has grown, now including new disappointments we recognize as our own. Conscience-driven people have fled these items as if escaping fire, and continue to do so.

^{A deceased Palestinian infant, an injured man, and another martyr wrapped in a shroud in the background (}Anadolu Agency⁾

Yet, alongside and beyond this, the existence of societies or individuals on earth who have witnessed oppression and become blind and deaf has caused another wave of astonishment among those paying attention to genocide. Throughout history, during wars and other genocides, communities have remained unmoved in their own selves, plugging their ears to the cries of suffering. But according to the noble verse in the opening paragraph, maintaining neutrality as a guise, continuing to use financial instruments without discrimination that sustain the source of oppression, consuming every sip of drink and purchasing every product while ignoring the screams of children—all of these bring the fire one step closer to this “self.” Comforts are disrupted, agendas filled with missile traffic, and treacherous eyes fixed upon the homeland’s soil.

^{Boycott of companies supporting Israel (}Anadolu Agency⁾

Every act of reading, awakening to awareness, discovering talents, recognizing potential, and applying it in the right field serves as a barrier—100 or 200-year-old walls drawn along the borders of the homeland. Every idea conceived with vigilance against the traps of oppression is a steel brick laid toward prosperity and peace. Especially during the current era of witnessing genocide, every effort aimed at avoiding thought and numbing the mind and soul leads to a metaphysical insensitivity, akin to concrete apathy.

^{A tree rooted from breath emerging from flame (generated by artificial intelligence)}

The fire of Truth, capable of extinguishing the fire of oppression, resides within the human soul in a state of material and spiritual, physical and metaphysical sensitivity and awareness. Transmitted from the individual to the family, from the family to society, to places, cities, nations, lands, and continents, it illuminates homelands with justice, compassion, and respect. The fire of oppression that burns human lives, souls, children, schools, animals, and plants is an illusion of the weak and the feeble-minded.

As individuals belonging to a civilization with a broad horizon and deep roots, our responsibility is to protect ourselves from the fire, to refrain from yielding to oppression, to kindle and recognize the fire of truth within our essence. By planting the seeds of humble hearts upon these fertile lands, ensuring that the idea of civilization, the civilized approach, and the rights of humans and animals, as well as plants, are lived in the most dignified manner possible, is our noblest duty.