By Salihah Aakil
In the morning some of them won’t be here. Some of them will be somewhere between consciousness and dreaming, some of them will be well on their way to a better place and some, some will be long gone. In the morning none of us will cry because they moved on and we will see them again some day,
the sky won’t turn red when the sun sets some day.
So you and I hold out hope.
In the morning some of them will have to leave, some of them have a people to protect and they’ll promise to remember us. And with our hands on our hearts we swear to remember that they honor every promise.
In the morning some of us will die here but we’ll remember that some of our people learned to fly when the angel of death lent them it’s wings.
That’s when they were truly free.
Exploring the things we could only comprehend as stars but turned out to be shining miracles. Shimmering, spinning, glowing, shining miracles, and some of us will dance the way constellations do.
In the morning some of us will rise with the sun to greet the Lord and the dawn as it comes and we won’t forget how much we love morning time.
This poem was, in part, inspired by the first ayat of Surah Falaq that says,
“Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of the dawn”
I chose to base this poem around the phrase “In the morning” because in Surah Falaq Allah tells us to seek refuge in Him as the Creator of the sun and light. The Creator of the day that He intended for us to worship Him in. In Surah Falaq Allah also tells us to seek protection from the night and the evil He created in it and yet there is still hope in Him; and what He has made for us. I tried to mimic the hope and warning that is shown in Surah Falaq in this poem, as well as depict an image of faithful people who will always believe.
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Salihah Aakil is a 15 year old, African American Muslim, Writer, Artist, and co-founder of Salvage, a non profit organization. She is a two time DC Youth Poet Laureate finalist and an outspoken advocate for social justice. She found writing at the age of ten and hasn’t stopped using it, words are her weapon, wonder, and shelter.
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