Monumental Courage
By Humaira Masihuddin
Islamabad, Pakistan
“Cowards die many times before their death, the valiant taste of death but once.” - Shakespeare.
Black Saturday will live in the history of Islamabad as a day of infamy, when scores of people lost their lives in one of the worst demonstration of terrorism this country has seen .But black Saturday will also be remembered for the accompanying act of awesome heroism displayed by the security staff at the gates of the Marriott . Thanks to modern technology, an unbelievable moment of heroism was recorded for posterity.
One watched in horror the blazing inferno that the Marriott turned into, the voluminous smoke emanating from the rising flames, the frenzied reporters, pictures of the injured and the dead, but those scenes fade away in comparison to that one heroic scene in which a few gallant men stood against monumental odds to divert the tide of destruction and mayhem.
Those few moments in which the security guards argued with the demon driven suicide bomber then ran for cover as he blew himself, then came back to extinguish the fire while telling others to flee because the ammunition in the truck was about to explode, and that of the lone security guard who at one point single-handedly tried to put out the fire are symbolic and packed with a myriad messages.
A lesson in courage was taught in those few minutes in which the guards showed what is the ultimate meaning of the words Duty above self, altruism, selflessness, valor and courage - a far cry from the kind of lessons our political, bureaucratic and military elite tries to give us keeping mum when the country is attacked and the people people are bombed. Not a squeak comes out of them, and when it does, it is too little, too late. Let them, as all others, take a lesson from those underpaid, overworked security staff members who embody Claude Mackay’s words “Like men ,we will face the murderous, cowardly pack/pressed to the wall, dying but fighting back.”
But one is compelled at this juncture to try and understand the phenomenon called courage. Where does it come from? How does one dissect a courageous moment and study the anatomy of a courageous act. That courage is inextricably linked to integrity is certain.. The courageous person has a strong sense of right and wrong and a single-minded devotion to stand up for truth and what is right, come what may … The truest test of courage is when one is in a weak and vulnerable position and facing a daunting and insurmountable task. Last but not the least courage is born out of the womb of faith. Faith in a higher order as well as an immense sense of self-worth. All these then blend in a deadly combination when an ordinary mortal becomes a hero and performs the unthinkable and the undoable which are the ultimate products of courage.
The security staff of Marriott and what they did on Saturday the twentieth of September 2008 embodies all of the above and much more which is beyond articulation. Islamabad, as indeed the whole of Pakistan, are proud of these brave souls.
The majesty of those few precious moments which packed in themselves all that is noble within the human soul must now be enshrined in a monument at the entrance of the Marriott Hotel when it is rebuilt. I hope and pray the monument is in the shape of a security guard with a fire extinguisher in his hand.
