"They are all dear to me. They are all Iraqis" (from LA Times 8/24)

[pinto]

He Shows Mercy to the Dead

Najim Abid prepares Iraqis' bodies for burial. 'They are all dear to me,' he says of those he gently washes and wraps with hands raw from overuse.

By Jeffrey Fleishman and Suhail Ahmad, Times Staff Writers
August 24, 2006


BAGHDAD — They arrive in borrowed wooden coffins. He lifts them to his marble slab, cuts away their clothes, stuffs their wounds with cotton. He lathers and then rinses them with a hose that runs like a tiny river, carrying away blood and shrapnel and grit. He sprinkles them with rosewater, wraps them in white linen. He sends them to the grave.

Najim Abid works in solitude, in a place where the deeds of men intersect with the grace of God. Islamic custom requires the dead be cleansed before burial. Abid's hands are white and raw; he has washed too many bodies, yet the coffins don't stop. They never seem to stop.

"I've washed clergy, doctors, policemen, soldiers, laborers and painters," says Abid, 44, a slight man with the whisper of a mustache. "I've washed Sunni and Shiite. This sectarian violence touches everyone. Once came a child of 12 killed in a mortar attack. They are all dear to me. They are all Iraqis."

<more>

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fg-washer24aug24,1,1699607.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

[AliceWonderland]

1. Thank you for posting.

No words.

[rosesaylavee]

2. .

:cry:

[Surya Gayatri]

3. Reading this, I had the feeling

of interloping on a mystical & spiritual process. In a dark & hellish time,

Abid continues to manifest the best of humanity. May Allah watch over and

bless his efforts. Thank you for posting this. SG

[patrice]

4. Jesus IS still here and we ARE still killing him.

[OneBlueSky]

5. Amen . . . n/t

.