Bangladesh: Man breaks the fast of Ramadan… See his reason

While nowadays, in the mainstream media whose ignorance disputes it with slander, Islam is unfortunately the religion pardoned par excellence, the very pious Jawad Alaw comes to remind us from his native Bangladesh, through his beautiful saving gesture, the importance it gives to human life.

Rajesh Kumar is an eight-year-old Bangladeshi boy with Cooley’s disease (a form of hereditary anaemia that requires the patient to have a blood transfusion every three to four weeks). A few days ago, after suddenly complaining of unbearable pain, his father, in great anxiety, took him to the emergency room of the Sadar hospital where many Rohingyas who have taken refuge in the camp of Cox’s Bazar. Given the seriousness of his condition, a blood transfusion proved to be a vital necessity.

Knowing the hours of his little boy counted, it is an anxious father, but determined to try everything, who travelled 200 kilometres by car to get to the blood bank located in Kuchaikote.

On his arrival, his hopes were dashed in a split second by the announcement of terrible news: the unavailability of the blood group that his son so badly needed. To top it off, it was said that it would take two to three days to get the prescribed blood dose, so that the countdown to save his child would be over, and tragically.

At last, feeling his strength to abandon it and despair to invade him, this unfortunate man collapsed in the lobby of the blood bank, when, suddenly, an employee approached him, upset by his case. The latter suggested that he immediately contact Anwar Hussain, a member of the “Blood Donors” team.

Among the few compatible donors known to Anwar Hussain was his friend Jawad Alaw, a Muslim known for his devotion. Sensitive to the distress of Rajesh’s father and the absolute urgency of his situation, he did not think twice before making his decision: he was going to break his fast of Ramadan, rush to the bedside of the child and save him from certain death.

“When my friend Anwar asked me if I would give blood to a seriously ill young patient, although observing Ramadan, I did not feel like I was facing a dilemma. It was the life of a child,” he told Indian channel NDTV, stating that doctors, initially reluctant because of his abstinence from food, but had finally accepted his help to the express condition that it feeds fairly well enough not to fall into a state of weakness.

“My religion commands me to help my neighbour in all circumstances, so I naturally broke my fast to save little Rajesh. Islam is a humanist religion in essence and the Qur’an teaches us that life, the gift of God, is sacred,” he said.