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KALAMUNA SIRI 4: BEBERAPA ISU AGAMA BERKAITAN WABAK COVID-19

KALAMUNA SIRI 4: BEBERAPA ISU AGAMA BERKAITAN WABAK COVID-19

4 April 2020

Saya terbaca jawapan yang diberikan oleh ulama al-Azhar yang diketuai oleh Syeikh al-Azhar sendiri, Syeikh al-‘Allamah Prof. Dr. Ahmad Tayyib berkenaan dengan hukum semasa dalam menghadapi isu Covid-19.
Kibar Ulama’ al-Azhar telah mengemukakan beberapa hukum, antaranya:
Mengajak orang ramai untuk berhimpun bagi berdoa dan beristighfar sekalipun wujudnya kemudaratan yang pasti berlaku adalah merupakan satu tindakan yang bercanggah dan melampau ke atas Syariat Allah. Sebaran yang penuh kekeliruan ini adalah perkara yang keji dan dicela mengikut Syariat Islam.

Memonopoli barang keperluan (al-ihtikar)[1] pada zaman wabak seperti ini hukumnya haram, bahkan pengharamannya lebih daripada keadaan biasa.
Semua pihak hendaklah menyahut dan mematuhi sebarang saranan langkah kuarantin dan pencegahan.
Semua orang hendaklah beriltizam dengan sesungguh-sungguhnya dan tidak berhimpun beramai-ramai sekalipun untuk solat Jumaat dan jemaah.
Harus mempercepatkan zakat[2] dan mengeluarkannya sekalipun belum sampai waktu yang wajib kerana kemaslahatan.

Perkembangan zaman, tempat, masa dan keadaan, membawa kepada pelbagai hukum yang bersesuaian yang diputuskan oleh para ulama. Inilah keanjalan dalam fiqh yang membawa manfaat dan maslahah kepada ummah. Semoga beberapa hukum ini menjadi pedoman kepada kita dalam menjalani kehidupan ketika wabak dan pada saat yang sama kita tetap melakukan ibadat di rumah kita. Kami akhiri dengan doa:
اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ البَرَصِ، وَالْجُنُونِ، وَالْجُذَامِ، وَمِنْ سَيِّئِ الْأَسْقَامِ
Maksudnya: “Ya Allah, aku berlindung dengan-Mu daripada penyakit sopak, gila, kusta dan penyakit-penyakit yang buruk.”
Riwayat Abu Daud (1554), Ahmad (13027), al-Nasa’ie (5493) dan Abu Ya’la (2897)

YB Senator Datuk Dr. Zulkifli bin Mohamad al-Bakri
Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri (Hal Ehwal Agama)
4 April 2020
Nota Hujung:

[1] Ihtikar ini sering diterjemah sebagai monopoli dan hukumnya adalah haram. Rasulullah SAW bersabda:
لَا يَحْتَكِرُ إِلَّا خَاطِئٌ
Maksudnya: “Tidak boleh melakukan ihtikar. Jika tidak, dia termasuk orang yang berdosa.”
Riwayat Muslim (1605)
[2] Jumhur ulama’ berpandangan bahawa harus untuk menyegerakan pembayaran zakat sebelum sampai haul, terutamanya jika wujud kemaslahatan apabila melakukan demikian seperti keperluan yang mendesak dan memerlukan daripada golongan asnaf. Mereka bersandarkan kepada hadith dimana Rasulullah SAW memberikan rukhsah kepada bapa saudaranya, Saidina ‘Abbas untuk menyegerakan pembayaran zakat sebelum sampainya haul. Hadith tersebut adalah seperti berikut:
فعَنْ عَلِيٍّ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ، أَنَّ الْعَبَّاسَ سَأَلَ النبي صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ في تعجيلِ صَدَقَته قبل أنْ تَحُلَّ، فرَخَّصَ في ذلك
Maksudnya: Daripada Saidina Ali RA, bahawa Saidina ‘Abbas bertanya kepada Nabi SAW untuk menyegerakan pembayaran zakatnya sebelum tiba haul, maka Rasulullah SAW telah memberikan rukshah terhadap perkara tersebut.
Riwayat Abu Daud (1624)
Ini juga seperti yang dinyatakan di dalam kitab fiqh, seperti yang disebut dalam kitab Nihayatul al-Muhjat Syarh al-Minhaj:
يجوز تعجيلها في المال الحولي قبل تمام الحول فيما انعقد حوله ووجد النصاب فيه؛ لأنه صلى الله عليه وسلم أرخص في التعجيل للعباس
Maksudnya: Harus hukumnya untuk menyegerakan zakat pada harta yang diwajibkan zakat sebelum sempurnanya haul apa yang sampai pada haulnya dan wujud nisab padanya. Ini kerana Rasulullah SAW telah memberikan rukhsah untuk menyegerakan pembayaran zakat ini kepada Saidina ‘Abbas RA. (Rujuk Nihayatul Muhtaj Syarh al-Minhaj, 3/141)

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COVID-19: Himpunan ketika wabak menyalahi syariat – Majlis Ulama Al-Azhar

Selasa, 7 April 2020 – 12:02AM

MAJLIS Ulama diketuai Imam Besar Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb.
COVID-19: Himpunan ketika wabak menyalahi syariat – Majlis Ulama Al-Azhar

KUALA LUMPUR: Majlis Ulama Kanan Al-Azhar bersetuju bahawa berhimpun ketika penularan wabak menyalahi syariat agama, sekali pun bertujuan ibadah.

Perkara itu dinyatakan dalam siri kedua fatwa-fatwa berkaitan penularan wabak COVID-19 yang dipaparkan dalam satu kenyataan berbahasa Arab di laman Facebook Majlis berkenaan.

Menurut kenyataan itu, memandangkan wabak ini boleh menular menerusi sentuhan fizikal, Majlis Ulama sepakat bahawa sebarang perhimpunan dan ajakan ke arahnya, termasuk berdoa beramai-ramai adalah satu kesalahan dari segi syarak.

“Sebaiknya ia dilakukan di rumah masing-masing”, kata kenyataan itu.

Majlis Ulama yang diketuai Imam Besar Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, itu turut meluluskan lima fatwa lain berhubung penularan wabak COVID-19, antaranya larangan menyebar spekulasi dan mempromosikan khabar angin yang tidak ditentukan kesahihannya.

“Ia perbuatan yang dikutuk dalam Islam kerana boleh menyebabkan mudarat kepada orang lain dan menimbulkan ketakutan”, katanya.

Kenyataan itu juga menyatakan orang ramai (dalam hal ini umat Islam), wajib mematuhi arahan pemerintah termasuk penutupan masjid bagi menjaga kemaslahatan umum ketika pandemik.

Majlis itu turut menegaskan larangan memonopoli barangan dan mengeksploitasi keperluan rakyat semasa pandemik dan bencana, sehingga menyebabkan kenaikan harga melampau.

Selain itu, Majlis berkenaan juga memutuskan wajib mematuhi arahan khusus kuarantin dan perintah-perintah lain yang dikeluarkan oleh pihak berautoriti bagi membendung penularan wabak.

Dalam hal ini, termasuklah larangan menyembunyikan maklumat berkaitan penyakit yang hanya akan menjejaskan keselamatan petugas kesihatan.

Fatwa terakhir dalam siri kedua ini menyatakan agihan dan pembayaran zakat boleh disegerakan sebelum waktu kelazimannya dalam usaha menangani penularan wabak COVID-19 dan kesannya terhadap asnaf.

Terdahulu dalam siri pertama yang dikeluarkan pada 15 Mac, Majlis Ulama Kanan al-Azhar meluluskan fatwa harus menangguhkan solat Jumaat, termasuklah solat berjemaah di masjid, jika perlu, susulan penularan wabak COVID-19 .

Sehingga tengah hari kelmarin, media melaporkan wabak COVID-19 sudah menular ke lebih 200 negara dan wilayah, yang menyaksikan jumlah kes disahkan positif melebihi sejuta. – BERNAMA

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Pakej PRIHATIN Tambahan: Kerajaan umum tambahan RM10 bilion untuk PKS, perusahaan mikro

Pakej PRIHATIN Tambahan: Kerajaan umum tambahan RM10 bilion untuk PKS, perusahaan mikro
Firdaus Azil, Astro Awani | April 06, 2020 16:35 MYT

Pembentangan Pakej Rangsangan Ekonomi Prihatin Rakyat (PRIHATIN Tambahan) berkata, pakej itu dirangka bagi memastikan dua pertiga daripada jumlah pekerja di negara ini terus mendapat pekerjaan. – Gambar fail
PUTRAJAYA: Kerajaan hari ini mengumumkan tambahan dana RM10 bilion, khusus untuk membantu meringankan beban kewangan Perusahaan Kecil dan Sederhana (PKS), serta perusahaan mikro.

Perdana Menteri Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin berkata langkah tambahan Pakej Rangsangan Ekonomi Prihatin Rakyat (PRIHATIN Tambahan) itu dirangka bagi memastikan dua pertiga daripada jumlah pekerja di negara ini terus mendapat pekerjaan.

“Saya sedar bahawa PKS merupakan tunjang utama ekonomi negara. Sektor ini menyumbang lebih dua pertiga daripada jumlah pekerjaan di negara ini dan hampir 40 peratus kepada ekonomi.

“Oleh itu, adalah penting kita pastikan sektor PKS dapat terus cekal dan mampan dalam menghadapi tekanan dan cabaran ekonomi yang melanda kita semua pada waktu ini,” katanya lagi.

Perdana Menteri berkata, kerajaan akan menambah peruntukan bagi program subsidi upah yang diumumkan pada 27 Mac yang lalu, daripada RM5.9 bilion kepada RM13.8 bilion, iaitu tambahan sebanyak RM7.9 bilion.

Di bawah inisiatif tambahan ini, Muhyiddin berkata, semua syarikat dengan pekerja tempatan yang bergaji RM4,000 dan ke bawah akan menerima bantuan subsidi upah seperti berikut: –

“Bagi syarikat yang mempunyai pekerja lebih daripada 200 orang, subsidi upah sebanyak RM600 bagi setiap pekerja dikekalkan. Namun, bilangan maksimum pekerja yang layak untuk menerima subsidi akan ditingkatkan daripada 100 orang kepada 200 orang pekerja.

“Bagi syarikat yang mempunyai bilangan pekerja 76 hingga hingga 200 orang, syarikat akan menerima subsidi upah sebanyak RM800 bagi setiap pekerja.

“Akhir sekali, bagi syarikat yang mempunyai bilangan pekerja sehingga 75 orang, syarikat akan menerima subsidi upah sebanyak RM1,200 bagi setiap pekerja. Melalui penambahbaikan ini, syarikat-syarikat akan menerima lebih banyak manfaat dan bantuan,” katanya lagi.

Muhyiddin berkata, bantuan itu adalah untuk selama 3 bulan, dan dikhususkan kepada majikan yang telah berdaftar dengan SSM atau pihak berkuasa tempatan, sebelum 1 Januari 2020 dan mendaftar dengan PERKESO.

“Bagi majikan yang memilih untuk menerima bantuan ini, mereka disyaratkan untuk mengekalkan pekerja mereka sekurangkurangnya untuk tempoh 6 bulan, iaitu dalam tempoh 3 bulan semasa menerima subsidi upah dan 3 bulan selepas itu,” katanya lagi.

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PJ mosque draws praise for helping non-Muslim residents affected by MCO

PJ mosque draws praise for helping non-Muslim residents affected by MCO

Sean Augustin 5 hrs ago

© Provided by Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: A mosque in Petaling Jaya has been distributing food to surrounding residents including non-Muslims, winning praise from the public even as Malaysians put up with a barrage of racially charged narratives on social media related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
For several days a week, the Al-Islamiah Mosque in Kampung Lindungan, a working class area in Petaling Jaya just a few minutes’ drive from the glittering lights of the Sunway Pyramid mall, has been handing out items such as rice, eggs, biscuits, cooking oil and chicken to surrounding residents.

The items are donations from the public as well as NGOs.
One photograph shared on Facebook showed a group of non-Muslim women lining up in the mosque compound, drawing praise for the mosque management from social media users.
“You are an example to all, especially Muslims,” said one.

Mosque spokesman Muhammad Hafis Asib said the initiative was meant to help those from the B40 category who comprise the majority in the area, many of whom lost their income under the movement control order (MCO).
Hafis said non-Muslims make up about 40% of the residents there.
“We welcome them. We don’t want to let them down. In Islam, anyone who needs help should be given help,” he told FMT.

“We are grateful we are able to do something in such times.”
Hafis also appealed for more funds to purchase essential goods, saying the mosque has limited funding.
Those who wish to donate may transfer funds to the mosque’s Bank Islam account at 1204 7010 0164 05.

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Turkish drones – a ‘game changer’ in Idlib

Turkish drones – a ‘game changer’ in Idlib

Ahead of Erdogan-Putin summit, Syrian opposition forces take strategic Idlib positions backed by Turkish drone power
3 Mar 2020

Over the past five days, Syrian opposition forces have gained ground in northwest Syria with the help of Turkish air support.
Since December, Syrian government forces backed by Russia and Iran have advanced on the northwest province of Idlib, the last stronghold of the Turkish-backed opposition. But after last week, Turkey deployed dozens of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones), as well as heavy artillery in the area, and opposition factions managed to take back some territory.

Turkey-backed fighters recapture key town in Syria’s Idlib
Syria’s Idlib sees ghost towns as hundreds of thousands flee
Erdogan threatens ‘imminent’ Turkish operation in Syria
Opposition commanders told Al Jazeera their forces took control over a number of villages in the area of Jabal al-Zawiya in southern Idlib province, stopping the advance of government forces towards the M4 highway, linking Latakia to Aleppo.
According to Yousef Hamoud, spokesperson of the opposition Syrian National Army, the fighters arrived on Monday on the outskirts of the city of Kafranbel, which was taken by government forces on February 25.
In the east, after the opposition took back the town of Saraqeb and the government lost control over the strategic M5 highway linking Damascus to Aleppo.

Hamoud said government forces with new reinforcements of Iran-backed militias and Russian regular forces and mercenaries have launched a counter-offensive and managed to enter Saraqeb’s eastern neighbourhoods.
The Russian defence ministry said in a statement posted on its Facebook page that it has deployed Russian military police units to the city.
Another opposition commander told Al Jazeera clashes in Saraqeb continue, but rebels were holding their ground with the support of Turkish drones.
On Sunday, Turkey announced it was launching operation Spring Shield targeting Syrian government forces in northwest Syria, but opposition commanders told Al Jazeera the actual offensive started as early as Thursday and intensified after the killing of 34 Turkish soldiers in southern Idlib.
On Saturday, a deadline given by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad to withdraw from areas it had taken over in northwest Syria since December expired.

A game-changer’
Although Turkey has supported the Syrian opposition in its fight against the Syrian government, this is the first time it has deployed UAVs in the battle against Damascus. That along with air raids by fighter jets flying along the Syrian-Turkish border and heavy artillery has changed significantly the dynamics on the ground.
“Turkish drones flying over Syrian airspace is a tactical game-changer,” said Can Kasapoglu, director of Security and Defence Studies Program at Istanbul-based think-tank EDAM.

“There are some high grounds and some choke points that can change the overall military balance [such as] Saraqeb, Neirab, Atarib. Turkish drone power can make a tactical difference in these flashpoints of the Syrian [war],” he explained.

Erdogan, Putin discuss Syria as Turkey demands truce in Idlib
According to Kasapoglu, Turkey had previously used armed drones in Syria during its 2018 operation Olive Branch against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
But this is the first time the Turkish army has used its Turkish-made ANKA-S and Bayraktar-TB2 on such a scale and with such intensity, he said. In his estimate, dozens of UAVs have been deployed.
The drones have not only hit positions and convoys of the Syrian government forces and its allies along the front line, but they have also penetrated deep into Damascus-controlled areas and reportedly targeted military airports near the cities of Aleppo and Hama.
According to Kasapolgu, they also managed to destroy a number of anti-aircraft systems the Syrian government deployed.

On Monday, the Turkish news agency Anadolu quoted the Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar as saying that Turkish forces destroyed two Syrian Su-24 fighter jets, two drones, 135 tanks, and five air defence systems and “neutralised” more than 2,500 fighters loyal to the Syrian government. The term neutralised is used for the killing, wounding, or capturing of pro-al-Assad forces.
Turkish drones have also successfully targeted high-ranking officers in both Syrian government forces and allied militias.

Sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that on Saturday at least 10 high-ranking commanders of the Syrian government’s forces and its ally, Hezbollah, were killed by a Turkish drone while meeting near the town of Zerba in southern Aleppo province.
In a separate incident, in the Talhia area near the town of Taftinaz, at least nine Hezbollah fighters were killed along with dozens of others from militias supported by Iran, as well as a number of Syrian soldiers and officers, Lebanese media reported.
Turkey has confirmed the downing of one of its drones. The Syrian news agency SANA reported at least three have been shot down.

Erdogan-Putin summit
Although the Turkish drone power has enabled the Syrian opposition to launch a counter-offensive against the Syrian government and stop its advance, it may not be enough to change significantly the status quo on the ground in northwest Syria.
“Assad lost the psychological advantage after the deployment of the Turkish drones and artillery. The regime forces cannot fight under such fire, which temporarily paralysed them,” said Kirill Semenov, a Moscow-based Middle East analyst. “But it’s unlikely that the opposition will be able to re-capture the positions it lost.”
He expressed doubt about the numbers of casualties and destroyed military assets released by the Turkish ministry and said al-Assad’s losses are “big but not critical”.

Is the European Union facing a new refugee crisis?
One of the factors that seems to have enabled the Turkish drone-led offensive has been Russia’s decreased military activity in the northwest. A Syrian opposition commander confirmed to Al Jazeera that Russian air raids have been relatively few over the past few days.
Last week, pro-Iranian media has accused Moscow of effectively abandoning Syrian government forces and Iranian militias on the Saraqeb front line.
According to Semenov, Russia and Turkey have an agreement, according to which the Turkish army can use drones over the de-escalation zone in Idlib, which is why Russian forces have avoided taking action against them. It is also possible that Russia wanted to avoid a major escalation with Turkey at this point, he added.
The Turkish government has also been explicit in its public rhetoric, saying it will target only Syrian regime forces and avoid a confrontation with Russia.

Kasapolgu pointed out the Turkish army has focused its artillery and drone power on the front in eastern Idlib, where Syrian government forces and Iranian militias have been fighting; at the same time, the offensive has been less intensive in the south where the Russian-backed Fifth Division has been deployed. The deployment of Russian military police to Saraqeb, however, could force the Turkish army to hold back on its fire.
These developments come as Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in Moscow on March 5 to discuss the situation in Syria. In recent weeks, there have been multiple meetings between Turkish and Russian delegations and phone calls between members of the two governments.

According to Marwan Kabalan, the director of policy analysis at the Arab Centre for Research and Policy in Doha, Qatar, with its latest escalation in Syria, Turkey wants to pressure Russia into a new deal on northwest Syria before the March 5 meeting.
“The Turks are going to the summit with a much stronger position on the ground than they had a few days ago,” he said. “My understanding is that the Russians and the Turks will reach a new deal.”
In his view, Ankara is afraid of the Syrian government taking over the M4 and M5 highways and leaving a small strip of land for the three million displaced Syrians devoid of economic prospects and infrastructure, effectively turning it into “another Gaza” that would have to be financially supported by the Turkish government.

For this reason, Erdogan will likely pressure Putin to agree to a new de-escalation zone and a joint administration of the M4 and M5 highways, Kabalan said. If such agreement is reached, the Turkish offensive will likely subside after March 5, he added.
Follow Mariya Petkova on Twitter: @mkpetkova

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33 tentera Turki terbunuh di Idlib, Syria

33 tentera Turki terbunuh di Idlib, Syria

ISTANBUL: Serangan udara tentera Syria di wilayah Idlib semalam mengakibatkan 33 tentera Turki terbunuh.

Gabenor wilayah Hatay di tenggara Turki, Rahmi Dogan, berkata kadar kematian meningkat mendadak berbanding yang diumumkan sebelum ini.

“Tentera yang cedera dirawat di Hatay, kerugian besar dialami sejak ketegangan selain kira-kira 42 tentera Turki dilaporkan terkorban di Idlib.

“Konflik semakin tegang apabila Turki menggesa regim Syria untuk berundur dari Idlib sementara Russia menuduh Turki membantu pengganas di Syria,” katanya.

Majlis Keselamatan Pertubuhan Bangsa-bangsa Bersatu (UNSC) semalam melaporkan Moscow sedia melakukan gencatan senjata, berikutan kebimbangan selepas menyaksikan perang Idlib berlarutan sejak sembilan tahun lalu.

Agensi berita rasmi SANA memaklumkan, ada pertempuran sengit antara tentera dan kumpulan pengganas di Saraqeb.

Kira-kira 950,0000 penduduk terpaksa menyelamatkan diri akibat serangan tentera kerajaan itu, sekali gus meningkatkan kebimbangan mengenai krisis pelarian.

Ketika ini, Turki menjadi tempat berlindung 3.6 juta pelarian Syria sehingga membebankan negara itu menyediakan kemudahan untuk mereka dan difahamkan lebih 500,000 pelarian tidur dalam kesejukan melampau di utara Syria.

Pengarah Eksekutif Majlis Keselamatan Tabung Kanak-Kanak PBB Bersatu (UNICEF), Henrietta Fore, merayu semua pihak supaya bersetuju mengadakan gencatan senjata.

“Berjuta kanak-kanak Syria menangis kelaparan dan kesejukan, cedera, ketakutan dan terpisah dari keluarga. Kita mesti membantu mereka dan keluarga, pilihlah keamanan sejagat,” katanya.

Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Penyelamat Antarabangsa PBB, David Miliband, berkata adalah penting bagi anggota UNSC yang bersidang hari ini untuk meluluskan resolusi mengadakan gencatan senjata.

Rabu lalu, sembilan daripada 15 anggota UNSC menggesa Setiausaha Agung PBB, Antonio Guterres, untuk meningkatkan usaha mengembalikan keamanan di Idlib.

Kuasa veto Rusia, lazimnya disokong China, sering merencatkan usaha PBB membawa keamanan di Syria. – AGENSI

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A doctor in Idlib: ‘It cannot get more evil than this’

A doctor in Idlib: ‘It cannot get more evil than this’
A Syrian doctor working on the front lines details the personal and human toll of the country’s nine-year war.
by Zakaria Zakaria
13 Feb 2020

The Syrian town of Maaret al-Numan lies on a key highway connecting the capital, Damascus, to Aleppo. A former anti-government protest hotspot, it has suffered months of bombardment by Syrian government forces who eventually captured the strategic location late last month. In 2011, Maaret al-Numan was one of the first towns in Idlib province – the opposition’s last standing stronghold – to rise up against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule. It was captured by rebels fighting against al-Assad’s forces in 2012.

Now, as the Syrian army advances in its battle on Idlib, civilians are the worst affected. Recounting the years of war, one doctor in Maaret al-Numan shares his story.
My name is Dr Tarraf. I was born in Al-Mash’had, one of the urban slums of Aleppo, on February 1, 1982 – the day the terrifying Hama Massacre began. Over 27 days, Syrian soldiers razed the city, killing 20,000 people, to put down a rebellion against the rule of President Hafez al-Assad, the father of current President Bashar al-Assad.
My family is originally from a small village in Idlib province called Haas, about 10 kilometres (six miles) west of Maaret al-Numan. We moved back there in 1995 because our small apartment was not large enough for our growing family.
I was the second child in a large household of six boys and two girls. One of my brothers, Mustafa, has managed to move to Germany to start a new life. I call him the only survivor of the family.
Of the remaining five boys, two have been lost to Syria’s war, two have had their lives and studies put on hold because of the fighting and detentions, and I no longer make plans for the future.

Dr Tarraf in surgery at Maaret al-Numan hospital [Photo courtesy of Dr Tarraf]
My work as a doctor has become unbearably exhausting – both physically and mentally – since the regime launched its Idlib operation last spring. At the time, I worked at two hospitals, Kafr Nabl surgery hospital and Maaret al-Numan central hospital. These facilities were the closest to the regime’s front line, and came under intense bombing for a long period of time. There was a constant stream of casualties coming to the hospital. The medics literally did not get a chance to rest.
The choice
I remember one of the worst days, August 28, 2019, when the main vegetable market in Maaret al-Numan was targeted by an air raid from a Syrian army jet. We had six operating rooms in the hospital, and only eight doctors. Soon after the air raid, injured people began streaming in, along with dead bodies. Within five minutes all the operating rooms were full. I was the last surgeon to get there.
I walked in to find two patients, both needing immediate help. As a doctor, I had to choose which one to treat and which to transfer to another hospital some 30 minutes away – something we do when there are limited resources and many cases to attend to. The first patient was a man in his thirties who was in hemorrhagic shock. The other was a three-year-old-boy who was bleeding from shrapnel in his chest; he was also in shock.

Syrian government air raids have destroyed many civilian structures, including Dr Tarraf’s home, pictured here [Photo courtesy of Dr Tarraf]
It was a terrifying moment in which I had to make a choice; one which would help one patient but might lead to another dying on the way to the referral hospital. I had no other choice but to choose, so I chose the child.
It was a difficult choice. But I thought about my two-year-old son. I saw that child as if he were my own, and so I chose to help him. I started treating him, I opened his abdomen, tried to stitch blood vessels. But after 15 minutes we, unfortunately, could not save him, and the anesthesiologist declared him dead. I went out of the operating room to find that the man was still there, still waiting for an ambulance, as they were in high demand.
I got back to work, trying to save him as well. I started a blood transfusion in the waiting room; I opened his abdomen and made thoracentesis. But unfortunately, the man also died after 30 minutes of trying to help him.
I had just left the operating room, frustrated and exhausted, when a local man asked me about the patient. I told him he had died. He then asked me about the child, and I told him he was dead, too. He then told me: “You know, doctor. The two were a man and his son.”
It was one of the worst, most traumatising, moments of my life. I will never forget it because I failed to save both the man and his son.
Saying goodbye
At the hospital, there were so many critical cases in urgent need of help. So I would always be under pressure and suffer from insomnia.
More than a month before that August day was another horrifying moment. It was after sunset on July 10 when Maaret al-Numan hospital came under attack. The facility was badly affected and the electricity generator was damaged.
I was the doctor on duty and, along with other colleagues, decided we needed to evacuate the hospital and all the patients. But the most worrying part was when we had to evacuate the newborn incubators. The hospital had six of them. All those babies needed to remain there; but we knew the regime might target the hospital again, so they had to be moved. We continued with the evacuation, but some of the babies died along the way.
Some of the patients, about 10 percent, refused to be evacuated. It was a very difficult moment. But as medics we decided to stay with them, accepting the potential risk of being hit a second time by the air raids. Two hours later, regime helicopters dropped barrel bombs on the town of Maaret al-Numan. The hospital received dozens of injuries. We managed to save most of them because we stayed.

Dr Tarraf with his children [Photo courtesy of Dr Tarraf]
After the regime’s latest campaign in Idlib, I sent my family to the Turkey-Syria border where it is safer, while I remained working in hospitals in Idlib.
But for months before, every time I went to the hospital, I would say goodbye to my family as if I would never see them again. There was always the thought that I would go to the hospital and never come back.
It was mentally exhausting, because we had to work under constant bombing. Whenever I heard jets in the sky, I would think the hospital would be the next target. That put those of us in the medical field under enormous psychological pressure. And it made my family and loved ones worry constantly. They contact me every once in a while to make sure I am not hurt. Especially my parents, who have already lost two sons, Yusuf and Huzaifa.
Losing brothers
When we were young, our family did not have much. But my parents tried their best to provide a decent life for my siblings and I.
Although all eight of us were very good at school, life began to get harder when my brothers and I started college. My father’s salary was hardly enough to cover basic family needs. My eldest brother, Yusuf, went to medical school in 1999 and I did the same in 2000. My father started to borrow money, and those debts began to accumulate. With more college bills as the years continued, my family remained in debt until my brother and I graduated from college and started to work overtime shifts in hospitals in addition to our specialisation internships.
In 2011 the Syrian revolution started. Yusuf was by then a doctor at the Tishreen Military Hospital, near Damascus. He was a resident doctor specialising in general surgery and I was in my last year of a urology specialisation at the Al-Muwasat Hospital in Damascus. Our brother Huzaifa was in his last year at medical school.

Dr Tarraf with his father and brothers [Photo courtesy of Dr Tarraf]
Soon after, Yusuf left Damascus and moved to Idlib. Then he left his government job and started to help people in our hometown, where people were being shot during protests and later killed by regime bombardment. I remained in Damascus until I finished my thesis and got my degree.
Then, Huzaifa was arrested in late 2012 at the university campus in Damascus. I did my best to get him out and paid huge amounts of money to get him released. I reached out to an intermediary involved in these types of transactions. However, when he found out Huzaifa was a doctor he said he could not help.
“It is easier to secure the release of a [opposition] militant or a protester from prison than doctors,” he told me.
We found out two months later that Huzaifa had been tortured and killed in custody.
I moved back to Haas, our village, and the revolution had by then become militarised. Yusuf and I remained firm in our commitment to revolutionary principles by helping people in the field hospitals. Another one of our brothers, Qutaiba, was arrested during his last year of civil engineering college but later released, after which he decided to go back to the village and never dared to return to university.
Our youngest brother, Ubayda, finished high school and got into computer engineering college, but he did not dare to continue after his first year because he was afraid of being arrested. So we all remained in the village. All besides Mustafa, who went to college, where he started to study communication engineering, and then managed to move to Germany to continue his studies.
The village was bombed
In 2016, Haas was bombed. The regime targeted a complex of schools on October 26 in what later came to be called “the Massacre of Pens”, since the regime deliberately targeted the schools complex and all the roads nearby. Most of the victims were children in elementary school.

The family home in Haas was destroyed in an air raid [Photo courtesy of Dr Tarraf]
Many medics were killed, too. My brother Yusuf was in the village and rushed to the place that had been targeted because he wanted to help those in need of medical assistance. The regime planes targeted the same place deliberately and he was among the victims.
Regime forces always do that. They would target a location with air raids and when people come to help any survivors, they would target the place again several minutes later. And a third time as well.
Our house had been targeted repeatedly throughout the entire revolution, but with the help of my brothers we had always managed to fix it. The last time it was targeted it was destroyed completely, as was my house.
Now, I have no plans for the future. We live day by day, here. I cannot even think of tomorrow. Just today another battle started a few hours ago, with non-stop air raids and artillery shelling, injuries constantly coming to the hospital in the city of Idlib, where I now work.
My worst fear is for the future of Syria. Syria is turning into the worst possible thing a state can be: A failed state plus a dictatorship, combined under occupation. It cannot get any more evil than that.
This account, as told to journalist Zakaria Zakaria, has been edited for clarity and brevity.