I will never forget 7/7, none of us here in Britain ever will and neither should we. I remember exactly where I was on that fateful day. A 14 year old in second period at secondary school studying English literature, turning on a television to see the horror of what had unfolded that day- Three trains blown up and a bus: those images are etched in our national consciousness. I remember a student saying 'I always knew it would happen here, have said it all along'.
Then there were the rumors that there were similar bombing attacks at Elephant and Castle and Waterloo, as well as the worry for my father who worked in Central London. I had never lived to know that London could be so vulnerable. And how it still is.
Having watched an incredible 'A Song for Jenny' over the weekend also makes me feel utterly sombre over the lives lost. The drama looked at how a mother, Julie Nicholson a woman of faith-an ordinary human being came to terms of losing her daughter; one of 52 killed that day.
But the human loss is immeasurable. And the lives taken away in an instant, for no other reason that they were British and somehow implicit in the UK government's undertakings (at most warped) in countries such as Israel/Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. Either way, it was unjustifiable.
This heart ache also reminds us of the civilians who have been killed unjustly in conflict or non conflict ridden situations since then. Their blood and soul is equally sacred. All human life is sacred.
What I remember most vividly from that day was sitting in what was supposed to be my IT lesson and saying to a classmate next to me 'These people are not following Islam doing this. It's forbidden'. She stared into the monitor as if to say 'yeah right?'
Alongside the general feeling of insecurity at home and abroad, this is perhaps one of the most tragic and enduring legacies of that day 10 years on- that as a society, as a people, we are as divided. Whilst many agree that the majority of Muslims - in fact Islam itself has nothing to do with these barbarous attacks, Muslims are circumspect to the most extreme and robust suspicion. We also continue to live in the shadow of a shameless, selfish and Unislamic state of affairs.
But what is just as important is that 52 families as well as loved ones out there are still scarred. I salute their courage and bravery all these years and their endeavor to heal and change; to give us all the determination to do the same.
Quran Chapter 5 verse 32: "...if anyone killed a person..... it would be as if he killed all mankind, and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind."