THE world lived every moment of those 100 hours in anxiety, hope and pain in a story that tells the greatness of a people who did the impossible in order to rescue a five-year-old child who fell into a deep well.
Rayan succumbed to fate but he made one of the most wonderful epics of solidarity that dazzled the world. It became the top priority of the humanitarian King, Mohammed VI, the spiritual father of all Moroccans, and the king of the poor. From the early hours of the incident, he managed to mobilize all state agencies to get Rayan out of the well.
Moroccans knew that King Mohammed VI - a king with exceptional human qualities - was behind all the initiatives, interventions, and delicate details and technical operations that were carried out at the scene of the incident. Everyone noticed how the Moroccan forearms slashed a mountain and moved it from its place to reach the child lurking in its depths.
There is no objection to the divine decree, whether good or bad, that man accepts with absolute conviction. However, during those moments when this child lived with the world in the darkness of the pit, the flame of hope illuminated the souls that called for him to survive, come out to the light alive, and return to the custody of his parents, quenching their thirst to embrace him to the fullest meaning of his name.
While the eyes of the entire Arab world were focused on the site of the incident, a lesson was given on how leaders and kings interact with their people who exchange loyalty with them. This is the king - the man who dedicated himself to his people to the extent that we thought Rayan was the son of Mohammed VI. In the obituary statement, he expressed signs of the highest level of intimacy between him and his people.
Anyone who observes the reactions to this incident would feel at first glance that the child’s parents were the ones who comforted the Moroccan monarch. Rayan became not only the son of his parents, but the son of all Moroccans who together prayed to the Almighty to bring him out of the darkness of loneliness and pain and into the light.
This is the 1000-year relationship of mutual love between kings who, for centuries, were on the side of their people. Together they made stability, security and safety a covenant established by a king who seeks day and night to serve his people.
Nonetheless, this incident reminded us of the green march through which the Moroccans embarked on another challenge when they marched under the leadership of the late King Hassan II to liberate their land from Spanish colonialism ... And they got what they wanted. That march was only the beginning of a renaissance that Morocco is still advancing at all levels.
May Almighty Allah honor you, O prudent king ... And to the gardens of eternity went Rayan, who carried with him purity and innocence. He had gathered the world around his country and left behind a glimpse into the culture of Morocco that the world saw during the 100 hours when it followed a great human epic. He also left behind an example of the relationship between the king, whose name is Mohammed VI, and the people who are proud of their leader and reciprocate with affection and loyalty.
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times
