蜜芽传媒

Despite calls for de-escalation and stability, Israel and Iran continue to engage in heavy strikes, with more destruction and lives lost on each side. When nations go to war, it is often after years of suspicion, ideological clashes and decades of shadow warfare, all of which leave its citizens wary, wounded, and hardened. In this dangerous time when there are so many wars and conflicts around the world, who can you rely on as a friend and who can you really trust?

In wartime it's easy for truth to become muffled as propaganda echoes and thrives. Battles are dangerously portrayed as a fight between good and evil, especially on social media where polarization, emotion and extreme language are everywhere. In this world you鈥檙e always on the right or wrong side of history, whereas truth in almost all aspects of life is complex, messy and nuanced.

War tests a country鈥檚 own citizens as well as its enemies and allies. In his short story, The Child goes to the Camp, the Palestinian writer and activist Ghassan Kanafani tells the story of a young boy who lives in poverty with his large family in a refugee camp. The story repeats the sentiment that in a time of hostilities the only virtue that matters is to keep yourself alive. In one of his daily tasks to search for food, the young boy finds some money. He holds onto the money for himself even though his family needs it. For a while it's his secret and power because for him when there is hostility everywhere, you can鈥檛 trust anyone.

War can distort trust and breed suspicion and betrayal. Who鈥檚 on your side today might turn tomorrow 鈥� alliances, enmities and friendships can all blur. But in war, as in ordinary life, even when people find their world falling apart, trust albeit fragile, can still flicker through the cracks. Unlike the boy in the story, unless we cultivate a level of trust and reciprocity between people and nations there is no hope. I think this is why the concept of trust in God is so repeated in Islamic thought. It's precisely because it's hard that the qur鈥檃nic verse `place your trust in God鈥� isn鈥檛 just an emotion rather a divine command which ultimately binds us together. It can recenter and comfort as well as remind us why holding onto our humanity even in the darkest of times, is always the greater good. And perhaps this is what Maya Angelou meant when she reflected on what sustains and gives meaning to human relationships: 鈥楬ave enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.鈥�

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