Susan Abulhawa > Quotes

“أيا كان شعورك , اكبتيه في داخلك”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“We come from the land, give our love and labor to her, and she nurtures us in return. When we die, we return to the land. In a way, she owns us. Palestine owns us and we belong to her”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“أنتِ, يا عزيزتي .. لستِ زهرة;فالزهرة شيء يزهر يوماُ ويذبل في اليوم التالي.أنتِ النبض في قلبي”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“For if life had taught her anything, it was that healing and peace can begin only with acknowledgment of wrongs committed.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“كيف يمكن ألا يستطيع الإنسان أن يسير إلى ملكه الخاص؟ أن يزور قبر زوجته؟ أن يأكل ثمار أربعين جيلاً من كدح أسلافه من دون أن يعاقب بالموت رمياً بالرصاص؟ على نحو ما، لم يكن هذا السؤال الفجّ القاسي قد نفذ سابقاً إلي وعي اللاجئين الذين شوشتهم أبدية الانتظار، معلقين آمالهم على قرارات دولية نظرية”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“We're all born with the greatest treasures we'll ever have in life. One of those treasures is your mind, another is your heart.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“The land and everything on it can be taken away, but no one can take away your knowledge or the degrees you earn”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“لا تسمح لهم أبدًا بأن يعلموا أنهم قادرون على إيذائك !”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“No one had ever kissed me with such love, and it occurred to me that happiness can reach such depths that it becomes something akin to grief.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Against the Loveless World

“I know she is crying. Her tears fall on the wrong side, into the bottomless well inside her.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“Amal,I believe that most Americans do not love as we do. It is not for any inherent deficiency or superiority in them. They live in the safe, shallow, parts that rarely push human emotions into the depths where we dwell.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“Toughness found fertile soil in the hearts of Palestinians, and the grains of resistance embedded themselves in their skin. Endurance evolved as a hallmark of refugee society. But the price they paid was the subduing of tender vulnerability. They learned to celebrate martyrdom. Only martyrdom offered freedom. Only in death were they at last invulnerable to Israel. Martyrdom became the ultimate defiance of Israeli occupation. "Never let them know they hurt you" was their creed”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“Israeli occupation exposes us very young to the extremes of our emotions, until we cannot feel except in the extreme.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“the reverse side of love is unbearable loss.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“لا أحد يتكلم، وكأن الكلام مجرَّد الكلام سيؤكَّد الحقيقة المُرَّة، وكأن الصمت يحمل احتمال أن يكون كل ذلك مجرَّد كابوس.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“Thank you,’ I answered, unsure of the proper American response to her gracious enthusiasm. In the Arab world, gratitude is a language unto itself. “May Allah bless the hands that give me this gift”; “Beauty is in the eyes that find me pretty”; “May Allah never deny your prayer”; and so on, an infinite string of prayerful appreciation. Coming from such a culture, I have always found a mere “thank you” an insufficient expression that makes my voice sound miserly and ungrateful.” (169).”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“Love cannot reconcile with deception”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“Always" is a good word to believe in.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“The roots of our grief coil so deeply into loss that death has come
to live with us like a family member who makes you happy by avoiding
you, but who is still one of the family. Our anger is a rage that
Westerners cannot understand. Our sadness can make the stones
weep. And the way we love is no exception”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“Do you know, Mother, that Haj Salem was buried alive in his home? Does he tell you stories in heaven now? I wish I had had a chance to meet him. To see his toothless grin and touch his leathery skin. To beg him, as you did in your youth, for a story from our Palestine. He was over one hundred years old, Mother. To have lived so long, only to be crushed to death by a bulldozer. Is this what it means to be Palestinian?”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“For I'll keep my humanity, though I did not keep my promises.
... and Love shall not be wrested from my veins.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“I think in saying 'loved each other,' Baldwin doesn't just mean the living. To survive by loving each other means to love our ancestors too. To know their pain, struggles, and joys. It means to love our collective memory, who we are, where we come from..”
― Susan Abulhawa, Against the Loveless World

“I colonized the colonizer’s space of authority. I made myself free in chains and held that courtroom captive to my freedom.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Against the Loveless World

“إن لحظة واحدة لَيُمكنُها أن تسحق دماغاً وتُغير مجرى الحياة، مسار التاريخ.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“I feel sad for him. Sad for the boy bound to the killer. I am sad for the youth betrayed by their leaders for symbols and flags and war and power.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“جاء الموت ليشابه الحياة
والحياة لتشبه الموت”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“It is the kind of love you can know only if you have felt the intense
hunger that makes your body eat itself at night. The kind you know
only after life shields you from falling bombs or bullets passing through
your body. It is the love that dives naked toward infinity’s reach. I think
it is where God lives.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“We were
existing somewhere between life and death, with neither accepting us
fully.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“An instant can crush a brain and change the course of life, the course of history.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“We’re all born with the greatest treasures we’ll ever have in life. One of those treasures is your mind, another is your heart. And the indispensable tools of those treasures are time and health. How you use the gifts of Allah to help yourself and humanity is ultimately how you honor Him.”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin