The nightmare [4] of injustice. Al Maghrib - June 11, 1937
Three calamities have befallen our unfortunate people, greedily sucking the blood from their veins and attacking their source of life thereby diminishing their effectiveness and weakening their power:
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Ignorance which hounds all conscience and reduces its worth to the lowest rung
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Poverty which gnaws at the human body and robs it of its warmth
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Injustice which produces a humiliating effect and culminates in the annihilation of all human feeling
The sacred nature of justice is a gift from heaven. All nations who stray from its path are irreparably destined for failure. They will find themselves reduced to a sorrowful state of physical and ethical weakness, their societal gears seizing up and their affairs muddled. Justice however is but an empty word in this country. It is but a vocable. It is pointless to search for its meaning in a dictionary as it is not acknowledged by any government and it does not arouse concern in the mind of any individual. This is the worst thing that a human being, who has not lost neither his dignity nor his verve, can imagine. For justice is the unique gauge of all civilizations and that under its halo it is possible to distinguish men endowed with good breeding and intelligence from beasts who are totally devoid of such.
Why do you persist in ignoring the problems that clash with justice and why do you not seek to find remedies for them? What value do you place on this new way of life you intend for us? We refuse to set out on this road with you as long as you have not given us assurance that rights of the weak will be safeguarded and that no prejudice shall befall any victims who demand restitution for any wrongs they have been subjected to. Previously, we lived in an era where justice and injustice were in check and balance. But, today, at whatever spot in Morocco , one hears just the complaints of the victims of injustice. A journey across the country will inform you about the insecure period in which a Moroccan presently lives. It will show you the stretch of desert he must traverse in order to find the lost paradise of justice.
It is justified to ask whether the Moroccan has a (meaningful) life in the twentieth century, in the shade of the banner of civilization and under the protection of the nation with the tricolor flag. We fail to understand how we can build roads and raise buildings in a country where justice does not exist. We refuse to endorse a regime which persists in this threatening posture and which never stops brandishing the frightful weapon of injustice, a weapon which upsets our journeys through life and worries our minds. Dear Sirs, you who carry the torch of (western or modern) civilization, don't you think that it is indecent that this weapon of injustice is aimed at us while you reside in our country? Ask your own conscience, it will answer you.
[4] Said paid careful attention to the vocabulary he uses in his writing. In that regard one wonders if he choose deliberatedly the Arabic word 'kaboos' in his title because of its double entendre. In classical Arabic its translation is 'nightmare' but 'kaboos' also refers to a gun or 'weapon' in the colloquial. Did he wish the reader to select the connotation which naturally incites them the most with respect to injustice? Let the reader decide.
