“The core definition of authoritarianism is that the executive overwhelms the other branches of government and all checks on power and the situation of the president, or head of state, are removed”
Prof Ruth Ben-Ghiat
The US has supported and still supports many authoritarian regimes around the globe, and it seems to be heading to having one itself.
The poem is old, the voice is modern, but the meanings are timeless.
Ibnu ‘l-Farid, a sufi from eight hundred years ago, pens down a poem out of love, and gives life to Rashah Najih, in the recently destroyed city of Halab (Aleppo).
You may be carrying weapons and plant destruction around you, but you are nothing but a ‘living’ dead.
But those with a living heart, even when buried, give life to those heart in waiting.
So
“let the dead bury the dead”
And join the living, those with hearts that hear
“Only those who hear will respond. But the dead – Allah will resurrect them; then to Him they will be returned.”
Quran 6:36
I have yet to find a non-literal English translation of the poem that would reflect faithfully its soul. Please forgive me.
Salihun 