The Eyes of Humanity: Honouring Saleh Al-Jaafrawi and Gaza’s Martyrs

When the lights went out in Gaza, and the world looked away, a few refused to turn their cameras off.
They had no armour, no protection, no immunity — except the immunity of Allah.
They carried no weapons but their lenses, no shields but their īmān, and no reward but truth itself.

Saleh Al-Jaafrawi was among them — one of the few remaining voices when Gaza was cut off from the earth.
Through smoke and rubble, through the cries of orphans and the silence of the world, he filmed, he spoke, he bore witness.
He was not just a journalist; he was the eyes and ears of humanity when the world was deaf and blind.

They stood where others would flee.
They raised their cameras where others raised white flags.
And when their time came — when the decree of Allah reached them — they fell with their cameras still in hand, capturing the truth in their final breath.

But for the martyr, death is not darkness — it is light.
The Prophet ﷺ said that when the angels take the soul of a martyr,

“they come with faces as bright as the sun, carrying shrouds and perfumes from Paradise.
They say, ‘Come forth, O pure soul, content and well-pleased;
receive the mercy and fragrance of your Lord.’”

And the angels lift that soul gently, passing it from hand to hand until it reaches the heavens —
while from the place where they fell to the place where they are buried, the earth carries the fragrance of musk.

No state will offer them medals.
No army will salute them.
But the angels know their names.
And the Lord of the Worlds bears witness to their truth.

They asked for no fame, no safety, no recognition.
They sought only to bear witness — shuhadāʾ in every sense of the word.

The emergence of the Ummah is built upon the shoulders of such people.
It is a new dawn — one that begins with martyrs and ends only in Allah’s victory on this earth.
Through their sacrifice, the path is illuminated for generations to come, and the promise of justice, honour, and triumph is rekindled.

And so Allah honoured them with the highest title:

وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ قُتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتًا ۚ بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ
“And never think of those who have been killed in the way of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision.”
(Qur’an 3:169)

Their voices live on in every clip, every cry, every grain of dust illuminated by their cameras.
And as we scroll past their images, may we whisper a prayer —

“O Allah, accept them among the truthful and the steadfast.
Make their testimony light for Gaza, and a proof against those who chose silence.”

Because they did not just report history —
They became it.