Photo courtesy of b.k.watkins
“Out, Out -”
The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside them in her apron
To tell them “Supper.” At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap–
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all–
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart–
He saw all spoiled. “Don’t let him cut my hand off–
The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!”
So. But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then–the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened at his heart.
Little–less–nothing!–and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
- Robert Frost
Tragedies happen and people get back to their affairs. We suffer, we survive. We get angry, we find calm. We rage, we surrender. We get back to our affairs. Our lives go on.
But what happens when extraordinary circumstances cause lives to be completely different? What happens when mothers rise to protect everything they hold dear and sacred? What happens when the docile turn fierce?
At the beginning of the battle of Uhud, Nusaybah bint Ka’ab was bringing water and tending the wounded, as the other women were doing. When the battle was going in the favour of the Muslims, the archers disobeyed the command of the Prophet (SAW), and this turned the victory into defeat, as the Qur’an describes it: “Behold! You were climbing up the high ground, without even casting a side glance at anyone, and the Messenger in your rear was calling you back…” 3:153
At this point, Nusaybah went forward, with her sword unsheathed and her bow in her hand, to join the small group who were standing firm with the Prophet (SAW), acting as a human shield to protect him from the onslaught of arrows. Every time danger approached the Prophet (SAW) she hastened to protect him. The Messenger of Allah (SAW) noticed this, and later said, “Wherever I turned, to the left or the right, I saw her fighting for me.”
The Prophet (SAW) called to her son, “Your mother! Your mother! See to her wounds, may Allah (SWT) bless you and your household! Your mother has fought better than so-and-so.”
When his mother heard what the Prophet (SAW) said, she said, “Pray to Allah (SWT) that we may accompany you in Paradise.” He said, “O Allah (SWT), make them my companions in Paradise.”
She said, “I do not care what befalls me in this world.”
It is narrated that Nusaybah went on to fight as a warrior in other battles, including Al-Yamamah, where not only did she incur multiple wounds, but she also lost her hand.
