The few whom we loved…

 Mujahid al-Suraymi — Sana’a

How intense our pain is!

And how harsh our days!

Whenever the spirit sprouts a flower of hope, it is swept away by the torrential floods of calamities that have not ceased since September 27, 2024 — the day the Arab nation was left to itself; the day the “leader of the nation,” (Sayyid Hassan) was martyred — and the disasters and tragedies have continued relentlessly to this moment.

We know that we must be patient, persevere, and hold our ground; this is the path of dignity and honor, the road to victory and empowerment, even if it comes later. What has befallen us in God’s cause will not be lost; it will return to us with great effects that will empower our hands and minds, and fuel us with resolve and will to strengthen our steadiness and our ongoing, effective movement along the same path — the path of sincerity, of struggle and resistance, of freedom, awareness, and construction, the road to success and prosperity. Yet what we most fear is the absence of bearers for this light; the failure to transform all this blood and these remains into ideas that revive our dormant souls, remove weakness from our hearts, and shield us from misguidance, deviation, oppression, and corruption.

What I want to say is that all the sacrifices you have made, the pains endured, the distances traveled on the road of struggle and martyrdom, the partial victories won, and the advances and achievements realized in the field of building combat power — all require a complementary force: a force capable of converting every leap and setback, and all the blood, tears, gains, and losses that accompanied them, into ideas that bring transformation to everything around you. You will make no decision and take no step forward except based on this large moral capital that makes you insightful, alert, pious and ethical — and above all, a human being who understands why he came, comprehends the scale of what must be done, and grasps what his presence in the position of responsibility entails. All of this will not happen except through the existence of free and honorable pens — conscious and perceptive voices that always look beyond the present, stand firm on truth, and believe that the bearer of the pen is truly the heir of the prophets and messengers, carrying God’s light to humanity.

Let us be frank with ourselves: have we created such an environment? Have we laid the groundwork for the existence of such pens? Have we protected that small enlightened minority — whose numbers do not exceed the fingers of one hand — and given them the opportunity to build the pillars necessary to create a media front commensurate with the military achievements and revolutionary transformation, capable of educating and nurturing thousands to become carriers of the idea and conquerors of hearts and minds over time? Or have we fought them, marginalized them, silenced them, labeled them hypocrites and bearers of destructive agendas? Have we not instead favored the clowns, the buffoons, the mob-rousing, the narrow-minded and unenlightened, those far removed from culture and media?

All of this has happened and continues to happen; therefore, we are seized with alarm every time we hear that one of these few is ill, and we wish to guard and shelter them with the gaze of our eyes. The news of Khalil al-Omari’s stroke late last week struck my ears more deeply than the loss of one of my children — for one simple reason: Khalil and those like him are our hope for keeping the revolution pure and unsullied in the realm of thought and speech.

Yes: Khalil al-Omari is one of the few free pens who believed in his role and cause and lived faithfully to his mission.

These pens sided with the people, carried their concerns, and championed the revolution and the homeland in the face of the external enemy and internal corruption.

Our love for Khalil and his peers — few as they are — makes us ready to give our lives for them!

For the absence of any one of them means the widening of the circles occupied by lies, flatterers and buffoons, empty minds, pretenders, those who sell their pens to the highest bidder, the boot-lickers, and the ever-submissive sycophants of politicians — souls conditioned to obey and bow to every holder of rank and office.

O Lord: grant him well-being, for the sake of every tear and drop of blood shed on the soil of this sorrowful, wretched homeland.