We're holding you

Seemi Ghazi is a lecturer in Classical Arabic at the University of British Columbia, with a special interest in Islamic Literature, Culture and Spirituality. It has been said in this Covid time that we are all in the same storm, but we’re not all in the same boat. I really want to take a moment to hold and acknowledge the boat that each one of us is in.If you lost someone dear to you, we’re holding you.If someone you love is struggling with illness or fear, or if you are struggling, we’re holding you.If you’re facing financial precarity, or you are surrounded by those who are facing material precarity, we’re holding you.If there’s no security in your home, if there’s conflict, and you are there without the protections and support you need, we’re holding you.Perhaps you’re finding that the anxiety and stress of our roller coaster life - that treadmill with no release - has abated, and you’re able to turn inward and to heal. Perhaps you’re struggling with the complexity of this moment, struggling to accept the respite. I want to say embrace it. Breathe in to it. Celebrate it. Receive renewal and strength. We’re holding you in that. We need your strength. None of us know what’s coming around the bend.We’re living in a new slowness. The earth is breathing. The birds are singing more vibrantly. At the same time there’s the spectre and the reality of illness, of death, of uncertainly and of lack.I just want us to hold this all together.I have read that the entire weight of this virus throughout the world amounts to less than a single gram, and yet that one gram, a strand of RNA, has transformed everything. If this is the case, then how is it not possible for the weight of our breath, our glance, our prayerful intention, our creative collaboration and our love, to transform and restore what has been damaged, the ecosystems that have been damaged, the balance that has been damaged. There’s a critical verse in the Quran in Surah Rahman that invokes the divine as the womb, and it says, ‘do not destroy the balance.’ The Quran is an intensely biophilic text – it embraces the grasses and the trees; the cattle, the gnat, the spider, the ant; the earth, sun, moon and stars- everything is interwoven.And this feminine name Rahman/Raheem appears again and again and again. The womb of unconditional creative Compassion/the responsive mothering Care. Sometimes it seems that patriarchy is such a force, capitalism is such a force. This dividing, plundering, selling, buying, this imbalancing is so powerful in the world, but one gram of virus has transformed it all. Our collaborative efforts in the spiritual and material realms are also vital and potent. The Qur’an says ‘whoever does a mote’s weight of good will witness it, and whoever does a mote’s weight of evil will witness it.’ Who brings that critical gram? Where is the filament of restorative code? We all have to try and make that difference. To read all '30 reflections for our times', please follow the Facebook page '30 days 30 deeds', Instagram @salmahasanali, or subscribe to the newsletter at www.salmahasanali.com.