Charles de Foucauld - part 1

Charles de Foucauld 001

“Defeat is no Dishonour”

For some unexplainable “itch”, I picked up a book on the Life of Charles de Foucauld from my Library and began re-reading the Man that has influenced me greatly in my study of Islam.

Charles the Foucauld was a graduate of the exclusive French Military School – St. Cyr.  He was commissioned in the famous and “ferocious” French Legion in the then French, particularly the Muslim Africa under the France.

I got this “itch” simply to relive the great battles between the modern army of the Colonizing Powers and the “rebels who opposed the subjugation of their lands and peoples.

In the case of Charles de Foucauld, it was the many battles between the ferocious Touareg Mujahidin and the equally ferocious French Legions.

A Touareg poem captured the “spirit” of these battles and I thought of sharing it with my many FB friends who are equally involved in the many battles between the Moro Mujahidin and the Colonizing Modern Army…

The Day of the Infidels

“At Amassara, both sides were pushed to the limit,

What with spears and the rifles of the infidels

And the unsheathed taheleh swords.

I ran u[on the enemy, I struck and was struck

Till I was covered with blood all over as with a coverlet,

Pouring all over my shoulders and arms.

The girls who make music will not hear it said

            Of me that I hide among the rocks.

It is not true that thrice I fell, and thrice I was picked up,

And that, unconscious, they tied me with cords

            On the back of a camel?

And because of that,

Defeat was no dishonour.

The infidels of old were victorious over the Prophet himself.”

(Note: The poem was written by the Tuoareg who was being carried on his camel. Amassara was the name of the Valley, which was fought over, near Tit.)

Simply change Amassara to Bud Bagsak or Bud Dajo and you have similar battles that were fought between the Moro Mujahidin and the Colonizers’ Modern and Superior Army. And as in the Valley of Amassara, so also in Bud Bagsak and Bud Dajo, defeat was no dishonor! (Jun Mercado, OMI)