Today, more than four million Lebanese are fighting a war they don’t understand. All they know is that they were never asked, and that those who led them to this fate are unable to end it with mere words like "If only I had known." If only you knew, Sayed. If only you had heeded our call; if only… maybe today we wouldn’t be counting our martyrs… perhaps you yourself would not have become a martyr, a victim of a denunciation whose origins remain unknown.
“And when the buried female infant is asked…” — this Quranic verse denounces the pre-Islamic custom of burying infant girls alive out of fear of “dishonor,” an act Islam would go on to forbid and criminalize. Back then, the infant girl was a victim—killed without consent, without fault, and denied even the right to defend herself.
Today, in the third millennium, more than two thousand souls lie buried. Children, women, men, and the elderly perished as martyrs beneath rubble—never asked, never given a choice between life and “martyrdom.” Now, a whole nation is divided among the dead, the displaced, the terrified, the grieving, the heartbroken, and the weary—all without being asked.
Today, villages are destroyed, homes are razed, buildings collapse onto their inhabitants; mosques, churches, markets, historical sites, and fortresses vanish without anyone asking, without a thought for their memory or history.
Today, more than four million Lebanese are waging a war whose causes they ignore. All they know is that on October 8, 2023, Hezbollah, led by its late leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, decided to turn Lebanon into a supporting front. And that after nine months of attempts to dissuade the party from this adventure and warnings of the consequences of continuing it, we are now paying the price, and then some…
All they know is the Bayjer massacre, the relentless ferocity of repeated Israeli attacks, and a terrifying rise in the number of martyrs. The people of the south have been forced into exile and every Hezbollah leader and sympathizer has become a target for Israel, putting their safety—and that of their families and those around them—at risk. All they know is that, on the first anniversary of the supporting front, Sayed Nasrallah could not give an address because he had been martyred, and his successor met the same fate. All they know is that the head of the Coordination and Liaison Unit in the party is missing and that the party’s leadership has been hit hard, while Iranian officials deliver speeches of “defiance,” calling us to resist and persist from the safety and comfort of their own homeland, their eyes set on the negotiating table and the gains they hope to reap.
All they know is that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had no shame in coming to us, urging us to continue, and criticizing caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s stance. All they know is that Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was so bold as to suggest himself as a negotiator on Lebanon’s behalf, prompting a sharp and decisive response from Mikati — a tone uncharacteristic of him, but one that matched the Iranian arrogance that has violated both our people and our homeland.
All they know is that their fate today is tied to the speeches of Mohammad Afif, to the “nervous” appearances of Sheikh Naim Qassem, and to the stances of Speaker Nabih Berri, which shift more than the mercurial radar of Jumblatt.
All they know is that Lebanon has become a graveyard, its regions turned into a blazing inferno, its skies choked with planes, drones, missiles, black smoke from airstrikes, fires, and brutalities…
All they know is that they were never asked, and those who dragged them into this fate cannot end the war with mere words like “if only I had known.” If only you knew, O Sayyed. If only you had heeded our call… perhaps today we wouldn’t be counting the dead, and our hospitals wouldn’t be overwhelmed with casualties. Perhaps our future wouldn’t be so uncertain, and we wouldn’t be hostage to the provocative tweets of the Israeli army spokesperson. Perhaps we wouldn’t have left our homes, and our families wouldn’t be exiled… perhaps you yourself would not have become a martyr, a victim of a denunciation whose origins remain unknown.
If only you had listened to “the buried one,” or even to the words of the Gospel of Matthew: “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.’”
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