In prison in the UAE, everyone is hoping for a pardon. The different emirate issue pardons right before the ‘Eid, and prisoners across the country are filled with the desperate hope that their names will be on the list. It is also a standard practice for the state to perform executions right after the ‘Eid, and I have seen friends of mine spending Ramadan who have been informed that they will be killed at the end of the month, frantically trying to obtain pardons from the families of their victims; sometimes being saved, sometimes not.
I cannot help but remember all of my fellow prisoners this month, many of whom are still locked away in the same cell block we shared, year-in. year-out; and I know they are dreaming of hearing their names called when the pardons are issued, so that they may return to their families.
And, of course, I cannot help but think of the prisoners throughout the Muslim world; those imprisoned unjustly, jailed for the crime of wanting freedom…We must all remember them, and pray for their immediate release. Spending Ramadan in the prison of tyrants, separated from their families and loved ones…we ask Allah to strengthen them, and pour patience into their hearts, and we have hope in their du’aas for us and this Ummah…though they are behind bars and concrete and barbed wire, there is no barrier between their du’aa and the Rabb-il-‘Alameen.