Abdel Rahim Mahmoud.. a poet who led his footsteps to death

Abdul Rahim followed the path of formal education;

He attended primary school in his hometown of Anabta, then moved to Al-Najah National School in Nablus (Getty)

The Palestinian poet Abdel Rahim Mahmoud provided a model for the poetry of resistance and fighting for freedom. He consciously linked the situation and the meaning. He fought with his weapon until he achieved martyrdom, and he expressed in his poetry the feelings of the revolutionaries who defended the right of the people of Palestine to protect their land and sanctities.

Between birth and death 35 years (1913-1948);

But during it he witnessed many events that proved that the poet speaks his word and dies so that life can come alive within its chains. When he is proud of Arab generosity;

He is generous with himself, and that is the utmost generosity.

Authenticity of lineage and knowledge

Abdul Rahim Mahmoud is a poet of pure lineage.

His father, Sheikh Mahmoud Al-Anabtawi, was from an ancient and wealthy Palestinian family, and he occupied an important social position. Arabs would come to his gathering so that he would solve their problems and reconcile themselves, people would follow his behavior, and guests would speak of his generosity and good qualities.

He was also a poet and jurist who graduated from Al-Azhar, and became one of the sheikhs of the Hanbali school of thought.

The entire family was also known for culture, science, and jurisprudence, so the people of Palestine called them “jurists,” and this had an impact on building Abdul Rahim’s personality, psychology, and attitudes.

Sheikh Mahmoud’s council was the first school in which the poet learned science, religion, eloquence, eloquence, and rhetoric, memorized the Qur’an, and listened to much Arab poetry and the biographies of their heroes. Thus, Abdul Rahim combined the authenticity of lineage, language, and historical experience with the authenticity of knowledge, ideas, and meanings, the strength of pride in Arab identity, and the sincerity of belonging to Islam. These factors affected his personality, poetry, imagination, and meanings.

At Al-Najah National School

However, Abdul Rahim followed the path of formal education;

He attended primary school in his hometown of Anabta, then moved to Al-Najah National School in Nablus.

He met his teacher, Ibrahim Touqan, who was working as a teacher in this school, and Touqan’s personality influenced the direction of Abdul Rahim and his poetic dictionary, and after he completed his studies;

He was appointed professor of Arabic literature at the same school, and his relationship with Touqan strengthened.

But Abdul Rahim decided to resign from school when the Arab Revolt broke out in 1936 to join the ranks of the fighters and become a commander who achieved many victories over the British army and carried out commando operations.

So the British authorities chased him.

Due to persecution, he was forced to immigrate to Iraq in 1939, where he joined the Military College in Baghdad, where he graduated with the rank of lieutenant, and participated with the Iraqi revolutionaries in the Rashid Ali al-Kilani revolution.

Return and testify

Abdul Rahim returned to Palestine in 1947, to participate in the revolution of his people that broke out after the partition decision. He joined the Salvation Army to play a leadership role in it, and participated in important battles such as the battle of Bayar Adas and Ras al-Ain, and assumed command of the Mujahideen brigades in Tulkarm and Nazareth.

Under his leadership, these battalions achieved many victories during the first half of 1948 over the Zionist gangs, although the British army left their weapons to these gangs, which used them to destroy Palestinian villages and annihilate their residents. However, Abd al-Rahim and his forces continued to fight.

Until he won martyrdom in the battle of the village of Al-Shajara, which he was the leader and hero of, on July 13, 1948.

Insist on testimony

The poetry of Abd al-Rahim Mahmoud that has come down to us is little, as is the case with all the poets who participated in battles and sang on battlefields to motivate men. We only know of his poems what a committee of Palestinian writers was able to collect in 1958 from his works published in newspapers and magazines. There are 27 poems in total.

These few poems explain how his soul was flying in the sky of martyrdom, searching for it and waiting for it, so he wrote a poem when he was only 24 years old, in the beginning of which he says:

I will carry my soul on my palm and throw it into the abyss of ruin

Either a life that pleases a friend, or a death that enrages an enemy

The honorable soul has two goals: the arrival of desires and the attainment of desires

For your life, I see my death, but I follow my steps towards it

I see my death without my lost rights and without my country

As he says about the martyr:

He slept to dream the dream of eternity and enjoy the most beautiful visions therein

Because of your age, this is the death of men, and whoever desires an honorable death, that is great

If the poet lived a short life by people's standards, his poetry lived long and was popular. His previous poems and other poems were transformed into songs and anthems that resistance fighters in Palestine and elsewhere sing to this day.

This type of literature opens a new scientific field, which is anticipating the future of the conflict by studying the literature of resistance and liberation, which contributes to shaping the psychology of the heroes who defend their faith, their land, and their right, or as Abdel Rahim says in his poem, “The Roses of Destiny and the Attainment of Destiny.”

In his poem A Call to Jihad, Abdul Rahim Mahmoud says:

The homeland called on the sacrificed person to wage jihad, and my heart was filled with joy

And I raced with the breeze and there was no pride. Should I not sacrifice my country?

But here I disagree with the poet;

It is the right of the free resistor to be proud of the submissive, submissive people who are afraid of brute force, and for the Islamic nation to be proud of every mujahid who comes forward to liberate his land.

His children have the right to be proud of his career, which lights the way for national liberation movements.

Therefore, I agree with Abdul Karim Al Karmi in his description of Abdul Rahim as “the most righteous boy of the most holy mother.”

Every water other than Palestine is turbid

Regarding Palestine, which he loved and sacrificed his life for, he says:

These are my homelands, and this is drawn in the woods of my heart

Oh my country, oh my heart, if you surrender to me, the world is a waste

My wish in my exile before the calamity is to fill your sight

O my country, sip me a drop of every water other than what is in you is turbidity

I wish I had a handful of that richness more precious than the scent of fragrant soil

Abdul Rahim Mahmoud explains that the mujahid is fighting to extract his rights, so he is not begging for peaceful solutions.

Therefore, he addresses the Arabs on the Arab League Day:

And never usurp your rights, do not beg for them. Indeed, those who take away rights are mean

This is your way of life, and no one has walked it before you

He adds in his poem a call to jihad:

If Palestine is lost while you are alive, then I believe

That the people of our Arabism were complacent and their pursuit of righteousness erred

He also rejects the solutions that come from the Security Council, as he believes that the United Nations helps tyrants.

And he says:

O council of humiliation, you are part of our calamity that gives rights to those who were poor

O Council of Shame, those who have oppressed the blood of peoples on history will not ask you to shame you

Fire burns a people when it rises against tyrants, and your eyes do not see it

Therefore, the only solution is resistance, struggle and jihad.

He gives his final advice to the Arabs:

Do not make the Roman spear your protector, for the wolf is for the sheep and the lambs are slaughterers

They only want all your oil and for the chief Roman to be a lord

Martyrdom was the noble conclusion to the life of a young, revolutionary poet. He set out carrying his weapon to protect Palestine and defend its land. He used his words to restore his nation’s awareness that it could achieve victory and glory and seize its freedom and rights.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.