ALAA

THE NETHERLANDS

(STORY IN ENGLISH)

‘If you can help a child to smile,
God is in love with you as well.’
RUMI

“When I think about Rumi, I can’t feel that he is dead or from another generation. He is my life-changing best friend. He is a person of big hope that we, humans, can be better than angels when we feel a real, pure love. When I look at the faces of kids, I remember this from him: “If you can help a kid to have a smile, our God is in love with you also.” After I heard this, I see my God in every refugee kid.

Sometime love might hurt. It means, it’s traveling in your feelings to know who you are. You learn more about yourself, your ego, tolerance, forgiveness, every feeling that has a meaning to you. Not so many people talk about the spark. They talk about the fire, the love and its good energy. But with Shams I learned loving the spark and darkness of love.

For me, Rumi is the same person with Shams because they were one when they felt love. Shams is the spark that ignites the fire; not any fire that destroys everything but fire of love that makes everything alive.

Love is like the moon, we have to learn how we can accept and love its dark side. Shams for me is the unknown warrior, the unknown lover; the first spark of love in the past thousand years.”