Photo credit: http://3.bp.blogspot.com
Mar
Rehab El Buri, a former ABC News staffer who helped shape the network's coverage of the Middle East, died on March 6th at the age of 25 following a courageous battle with cancer.
According to a tribute by the ABC News Investigative Team, Rehab “was committed to reporting on the plight of those who could not speak out on their own. Her work was defined by giving a voice to the voiceless, steadfastly working behind the scenes to tell their stories.”
The ABC News team notes that: “Rehab was instrumental in developing a 20/20 report that investigated how some high-ranking international diplomats in the U.S. abused and exploited domestic workers from their home countries. The most challenging aspect of this report was finding workers from poor and underprivileged backgrounds who were willing to speak out against their powerful employers.
“Rehab was able to contact a young Indonesian woman named Siti Aisah who worked for the then-ambassador to the United Nations from Qatar. Rehab gained Aisah's trust, meeting her on weekends and gaining permission to shoot footage of Aisah on her own with a small video camera. When Aisah finally spoke on-camera to ABC News, she told a powerful and heart-wrenching account of being treated harshly by the extremely wealthy and privileged family of the ambassador.”
Outside of her career, Rehab was an active community leader who continually put others before herself. A few months ago, despite her own illness, she raised over $20,000 through a bake sale for a friend who needed an operation. And when she learned from the imam at Memorial Sloan-Kettering hospital, where she was being treated, that a program to buy Eid gifts for pediatric patients needed funds, she snapped into action.
"Rehab, completely exhausted, with tubes coming out of her chest and IVs running into every possible vein, looked up at (the imam) and promised she would get him the money," her husband, Zaied Abbassi, said. "Less than three weeks later, she handed him a check for $1500." The money ensured the program would be funded for not only one year, but two.
“I don't know why I thought I could push the thought of death out of my mind for at least a good 30 or 40 years. Allah (SWT) could claim any of us at any time. I am in the same boat as everyone else -- I have no idea when my time is, but I should try to live everyday as if it is my last.” ”“ Rehab El Buri, journalist and community activist
We ask Allah to shower His mercy on Rehab, and enter her into the company of our beloved Messenger Muhammad, may peace and blessings be upon him and his family. Below are some of Rehab's own reflections on her battle with cancer, taken from her blog:
I know I ended my last post pretty abruptly. At the time I was writing it, going through the play by play was difficult.
It took me about three days to accept my death. On the first day, as you read, my mind was in chaos. On the second day, I was numb. And on the third day, my husband and mother began talking sense to me, and I finally came to some important realizations:
1. We are all going to die. The people who took the news of my disease calmly and those who panicked- they are going to die one day too. Death is one of the few realities we can be certain of in this life, and yet we somehow slip into thinking that we are exempt.
2. We live this life for the next. I was living my life as a Muslim...praying and fasting, but I had somehow allowed my real goal in life to be swallowed by buying salad plates for my next dinner party, and trying to get free shipping on my next J Crew order, and finding pillows that popped against my cream sofa. In between being a consumer and entertaining myself to death, I let what really matters in my life slip away from me. If I was truly living my life for the Hereafter, I should not be so fearful of the future I had created for myself. The Quran says, "And this life of the world is nothing but a sport and a play; and as for the next abode, that most surely is the life- did they but know!" [29:64]
3. I am in the same boat as everyone else. None of us are given any guarantees in life. Our health, our wealth, and our families are trusts give to us by Allah- and they are His to take when He, in his infinite wisdom, deems fit. We all claim to believe this, but in practice we often falter. I don't know why I thought I could push the thought of death out of my mind for at least a good 30 or 40 years. Allah (SWT) could claim any of us at any time. I am in the same boat as everyone else -- I have no idea when my time is, but I should try to live everyday as if it is my last.
4. Each day is a gift. Receiving this wakeup call is such a blessing in that each day Allah grants me is an opportunity to do some more good and try to make up for some of the mistakes I made in the past. For some reason, the mornings are usually a little rough for me. I think it's just waking up from my dreams and realizing that I still have to live with this disease. But every morning I try to tell myself, "Alhamdulilah, I feel good today, what good can I do today?"
These realizations, and the support of my mother, husband, his mother, my sisters, his sisters, my father, his father, my friends, and my community have helped me not merely cope with what I'm going through, but actually seek the reward of going through this trial, and try to sincerely accept what Allah wills for me.
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