Nisan da ke tsakanin mutane ba sarari ne na zahiri kawai ba; haka kuma gini ne na ɗabi'a da na hankali. Ta haka ma, nisan yana bayyana ne ta yadda masu aikata laifi suke ganin waɗanda aka cutar. Kisan fuska da fuska yana samuwa ne idan waɗanda aka kashe sun riga sun shiga wani mummunan biki na shiga rayuwa, inda a idanun masu kisan suka riga suka mutu "mutuwar zamantakewa".

Distance is not simply a physical space; it is a moral and psychological construct as well. In this way, range also is defined by the perpetrators’ perception of the victims. Face-to-face killing is enabled when the victims have been through a lethal rite of passage in which they have already died a “social death” in the eyes of the perpetrators.

Col. Dave Grossman a cikin shahararren littafinsa, ‘On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society’, ya bayyana abubuwan da ke sa wa mutum sauƙin kisa (ko sauƙi da yawa). Ya ɗauki nisan da ke tsakanin mai kisa da wanda za a kashe a matsayin muhimmin ma’auni, yana ganin shi a matsayin kewayon da ke bayyana komai - daga iyakar nesa zuwa faɗa da hannu. Nisa daga wanda za a kashe yana hana mutum gane ko wanene wannan wanda aka kashe. Harba bindiga ko jefa bom daga nesa yana mayar da waɗanda za a kashe su zama ‘baƙin manufa’ da ba a sani ba, wani gungu na rashin komai da ake iya ‘shafewa’ cikin sauƙi. Matukin jirgin sama yana dogara ne da taimakon injina; wani hoto da aka nuna a allo yana bayyana siffofin waɗanda za a kashe da aka gani a kan allo. Nisan jiki yana sauƙaƙa kisan, saboda haka alhaki da laifi suna raguwa. Abin da nisan yake haifarwa shi ne rabuwar zuciya da manufar, wanda hakan yana hana jin tausayi. Grossman ya gano cewa a kisan da ake yi daga nesa ta jiki, babu “…misali ɗaya ko guda ɗaya na mutanen da suka ki kashe abokin gaba a irin waɗannan yanayi” kuma babu “misali ɗaya na ɓacin rai na tunani da ke da alaƙa da wannan irin kisa.”75

Col. Dave Grossman in his popular work, ‘On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society’ details what makes it easy (or easier) for a person to kill. He considers the distance spectrum as a vital indicator, seeing it as a defining range - from maximum range to hand-to-hand combat. Distance from a victim disallows individual identification with that victim. Firing a weapon or dropping a bomb from a range converts the victims into ‘unknown’ targets, a mesh of nothingness easily ‘obliterated’. The aircraft pilot relies on mechanical assistance; a projected image showing silhouetted victims spotted on a screen. The physical distance facilitates the killing and therefore responsibility and guilt are stemmed. What distance creates is an emotional disassociating with the target, and thus disallowing feelings of empathy. Grossman found that with physical distance in killing, there is no “…one single instance of individuals who have refused to kill the enemy under these circumstances” and nor “a single instance of psychiatric trauma associated with this type of killing.”75

Yayin da wannan tazara tsakanin mai aikata laifi da wanda aka cutar ke raguwa, kisa yakan zama mafi wahala. Abin da mai aikata laifi zai fuskanta shi ne ƙa'idodin ɗan adam na ganewa, wanda a cikinsa yawancin abin da ke cikinmu ana iya gani kuma ana jin shi a cikin wasu. Alƙur'ani ya sanar da mu cewa a asali muna kama da juna ta hanyoyi da yawa:

As this range between perpetrator and victim decreases, the killing becomes far more difficult. What a perpetrator would be exposed to is human codes of recognisability wherein much of ourselves is observable and felt in others. The Qur’ān informs us that at the base level we are similar in so many ways:

49:13 - Ya ku mutane, Mun halicce ku ne daga namiji ɗaya da mace ɗaya, kuma muka sanya ku zama al'ummai da kabilu don ku san juna. Lallai mafi girma a cikinku a wajen Allah shi ne mafi tsoronsa. Lallai Allah masani ne, mai cikakken sani.

49:13 - People, We created you all from a single man and a single woman, and made you into races and tribes so that you should recognize one another. In God’s eyes, the most honoured of you are the ones most mindful of Him: God is all knowing, all aware.

Ƙarin mutum ya ga wanda zai kashe a matsayin kusa da shi, to ya fi wahala a yi kisan, sai dai idan waɗannan waɗanda ake kashewa sun riga sun shiga halin "mutuwar zamantakewa", inda aka tura su zuwa gefen abin da al'umma ke ɗauka a matsayin karɓaɓɓe, aka fitar da su daga ka'idojin ɗabi'a na cikin al'umma, aka mayar da su cikin yanayin rashin mutunci wanda zuriyarsu ma za su taso a cikinsa.

The closer a perpetrator perceives his victim the more difficult a killing becomes, unless and until those victims have already experienced a ‘social death’ wherein victims are pushed to the margins of what is socially acceptable, excommunicated from the norms of what is moral in society, relegated to a state of dishonour into which their descendants will also be born.

Patterson ya bayar da hujjar cewa waɗannan abubuwa suna nufin zuriyarsu ba za su iya ginawa a kan al'adun kakanninsu ba. Saboda haka mutuwar zamantakewa tana haifar da yaduwar ɗabi'un kisan kiyashi, domin rayuwar waɗanda ake yi wa kisan kiyashi ta riga ta zama marar ma'ana. Wannan rashin ɗan'adam yana kai hari ga asalin ƙungiya. Primo Levi ya yi baƙin ciki cewa Nazis sun ɗauke wa Yahudawa komai na asalin kansu, har ma da sunayensu. Abin da kaɗai za su iya riƙewa shi ne ma'anar kansu daga sunayen da suka taɓa samu.

These factors, Patterson argues, mean that their subsequent generations will be prevented from building on the traditions of their forefathers. Social death therefore necessitates the burgeoning of genocidal tendencies, because the lives of victims of genocide have already been rendered meaningless. This dehumanisation targets group identity. Primo Levi lamented that with the Nazis stripping everything of Jewish self-identity and even their names. The only thing which they can retain is the meaning of themselves from the names they once had:

"Babu abin da ya kasance namu kuma; sun kwace mana tufafinmu, takalmanmu, har ma gashin kanmu; idan muka yi magana, ba za su saurare mu ba, kuma idan sun saurara, ba za su fahimta ba. Har sunan mu za su karɓa: kuma idan muna son mu riƙe shi, sai mun sami ƙarfi a cikin kanmu don yin hakan, mu iya kawo abu ta yadda bayan sunan wani abu namu, na mu kamar yadda muka kasance, zai ci gaba da kasancewa."76

“Nothing belongs to us anymore; they have taken away our clothes, our shoes, even our hair; if we speak, they will not listen to us, and if they listen, they will not understand. They will even take away our name: and if we want to keep it, we will have to find in ourselves the strength to do so, to manage somehow so that behind the name something of us, of us as we were, still remains.”76

ظهور الترحيب باللاإنسانية يبدأ بنزع قيم الأخلاق الإنسانية المشتركة التي تربطنا ببعض بوصفنا بشراً. فيُنزع عن الشخص أو الجماعة الحيوية الاجتماعية التي تقوم عليها مكانتهم، وهذا التشويه يسبق أي أذى جسدي أو موت يقع على الضحية. ومن المهم أن يمنح المسلم دائماً الشخص الذي يتعامل معه الاحترام المعتاد. وكان النبي ﷺ يخاطب الناس بألقابهم، ويعترف بمكانتهم الاجتماعية، ويشهد بإنجازاتهم. وهذه العوامل ضرورية ليس فقط لبناء علاقات فعّالة ومتطورة، بل كذلك وقايةً من ظهور النزعات الإبادية في المجتمع، إذ توفر خلفية اجتماعية إيجابية إذا استُهدف أي مجتمع أو عرق. وفي كثير من الحالات ليست نادرة، يُعدّ ذلك، بمعناه الواسع، تحقيقاً لما يُقصد "لخير البشرية"، لأنه يحفظ التماسك الاجتماعي ويمنع زرع بذور الموت الاجتماعي أو انتشارها. في ألمانيا، قبل زمن طويل من بدء الموت الجسدي لليهود، كان رجال ونساء عاديون يجعلون اليهود يعانون الموت الاجتماعي كل يوم. ويُحَسّ ذلك بقوة في وصف فيليب موللر لمعسكر العائلات الذي نُقل إلى أوشفيتز. ففي وصفه ينبّهنا إلى تدمير ما يراه موللر نظاماً اجتماعياً كان اليهود يُحمَون فيه يوماً ما. ويصف بكلماته موتاً اجتماعياً جماعياً شُوّه فيه مشهده المألوف، وحُرم فيه الإحساس بالمكان والانتماء.

Dehumanisation begins with a stripping away of the moral human code which bonds us as human beings. The social vitality behind a person or group is stripped away and this defacing precedes any physical injury or death inflicted on that victim. It is important for the Muslim to always afford a customary privilege to the one with whom he is engaged. The Prophet (peace be upon him) would refer to people with their titles, recognise their social standing and bear testimony to their achievements. These factors are essential not only for the progression of effective relationship building, but also as a preventative in the social emerging of genocidal tendencies, providing a positive social backdrop if any community or ethnicity is targeted. In less-than-rare situations, this, in a broad context, is a fulfilment of a coming out “for the good of mankind” since it maintains a social cohesiveness and disallows the saplings of social death from being planted or spread. In Germany, long before the physical deaths of Jews began, ordinary German men and women made Jews suffer a social death every day. This is felt evocatively in Filip Müller’s description of the Family Camp taken to Auschwitz. In his description, we are alerted to a decimation of what Müller views as a social order in which Jews were once protected. In his words, he describes a communal social death in which his familiar landscape had been disfigured and a sense of place and belonging denied:

"Yanzu, a lokacin da na kalli 'yan ƙasata suna shiga ɗakin iskar gas, cikin jaruntaka, alfahari da ƙudiri, sai na tambayi kaina irin rayuwa ce za ta kasance a gare ni, idan ba zato ba tsammani na fita daga sansanin da rai. Me zai jira ni idan na koma garinmu na haihuwa? Ba wai dukiya ta abin duniya ce ke damuna ba, don ana iya maye gurbinta. Amma wa zai iya maye gurbin iyayena, ɗan'uwana, ko sauran iyalina, waɗanda ni kaɗai na tsira daga cikinsu? Kuma me game da abokai, malamai, da mutane da yawa na al'ummar Yahudawa tamu?"

“Now, when I watched my fellow countrymen walk into the gas chamber, brave, proud and determined, I asked myself what sort exemplary of life it would be for me in the unlikely event of my getting out of the camp alive. What would await me if I returned to my native town? It was not so much a matter of material possessions, they were replaceable. But who could replace my parents, my brother, or the rest of my family, of whom I was the sole survivor? And what of friends, teachers, and the many members of our Jewish community?

Ɗaga cikin sakaci: "Ai ba su ne suka tuna mini da yarinta da ƙuruciyata ba? Ba tare da su ba, ba zai zama duk marar rai da matacce ba, wannan siffar da ta saba ta garinmu tare da kogensa mai kyau, shimfidar wurinsa da mutane ke ƙauna, da kuma 'yan ƙasa masu gaskiya da adalci? Kuma me zai faru idan na yi karo da 'yan gadin Hlinka da masu azabtar da Yahudawa, ko kuma mutanen FS*, duk waɗannan jini-sha waɗanda suka tsotse 'yan ƙasarsu Yahudawa har ƙarshe kafin korarsu, suka kuma kwace dukiyarsu ta duniya? Haɗuwa da su fuska da fuska za ta mayar da ni zuwa ga mafi duhun abin da ya shige. Ba zai yiwu kawai in ci gaba da zaren rayuwata ta farin ciki da rashin damuwa ba. A cikin gidanmu, wanda ya kasance cibiyar rayuwata, za a sami baƙi. A makarantar Yahudawa inda na san kowane lungu da sako, za a yi shiru."77

For was it not they who reminded me of my childhood and youth? Without them would it not all be soulless and dead, that familiar outline of my home town with its pretty river, its much loved landscape and its honest and upright citizens? And what would happen if I ran across the Hlinka guardsmen and Jew tormentors, or the FS men*, leeches all of them who had sucked their Jewish fellow citizens dry before their deportation and stolen their worldly belongings? Coming face to face with them would take me back to the darkest past. It would simply not be possible to pick up the threads of my former happy and carefree life. In our house, once the centre of my existence, there would be strangers. In the Jewish school where I knew every nook and cranny there would be silence.”77

S. Yizhar yana bayyana, a cikin littafinsa na labari Khirbet Khizeh, korar Falasɗinawa da karfi daga ƙauyen Khirbet Khizeh a shekarar 1948, kuma yana duba gwagwarmayar lamiri ta wanda ya aikata laifin. Ana kalubalantar mutum da tunani a kansa da kuma yanayin lokaci da wuri, kuma wannan yana zama hanya ta duba iyakokin ɗan adam da suka shafi wahala, zama wanda aka zalunta da kuma zumunci da mallakar wuri. Yizhar ya nuna a Khirbet Khizeh yadda waɗannan wurare ke cikin canji, yayin da mazauna ƙauyen ake korarsu, kuma matasan mamaya suna hasashen sabon gida. Kasancewar sojoji sun nuna halin ko-in-kula na gama-gari ne ya sa mai ba da labarin ya iya ganin yadda gida ke ci gaba da kasancewa a zuciya duk da an bar shi.

S. Yizhar describes in his novella Khirbet Khizeh, the violent expulsion of Palestinians from the village of Khirbet Khizeh in 1948 and considers the struggle in conscience of a perpetrator. At once challenged by self-reflection and temporalities of space, this serves as a medium for consideration of human boundaries related to suffering, victimhood and belonging. Yizhar shows in Khirbet Khizeh how those sites are in flux, as the villagers are pushed out and the young occupiers imagine a new home. It is in the frame of collective indifference of the soldiers that the narrator can see the mental ‘unabandoning’ of the home.

Yana gani:

He sees:

"bango da aka yi wa ado da kulawa…ƙananan kayan ado da suke rataye a bango, suna shaida wata kulawa mai cike da soyayya wadda tushenta ya lalace; alamomin "hikimar mace ce ta gina gidanta", suna mai da hankali sosai ga dubban cikakkun bayanai waɗanda lokacinsu ya riga ya wuce; wani tsari da mutum ɗaya zai iya fahimta, da kuma rikicewar da wani ya samu hanyarsa a cikinta gwargwadon yadda ya ga dama; ragowar tukwane da kwanoni da aka tara ba tare da tsari ba, yadda bukata ta taso, waɗanda farin ciki da baƙin ciki na kashin kai suka taɓa, abin da baƙo ba zai iya fahimta ba; yagaggun kayan da suke da ma'ana ga wanda ya saba da su – wata hanyar rayuwa da ma'anarta ta ɓace, himma da ta kai ga ƙarshenta, kuma wata shiru mai girma da zurfi ta lulluɓe soyayyar, hayaniyar, damuwar, buri, da lokutan alheri da na ƙasa da alheri, gawarwaki da yawa da ba a binne ba."78

“walls attentively decorated…little ornaments that hung on the walls, testifying to a loving care whose foundation had been eradicated; traces of female-wisdom-hath-builded-her-house, paying close attention to myriad details whose time now had passed; an order intelligible to someone and a disorder in which somebody at his convenience had found his way; remnants of pots and pans that had been collected in a haphazard fashion, as need arose, touched by very private joys and woes that a stranger could not understand; tatters that made sense to someone who was used to them – a way of life whose meaning was lost, diligence that had reached its negation, and a great, very deep muteness had settled upon the love, the bustle, the bother, the hopes, and the good and less-good times, so many unburied corpses.”78

Yayin da muke tafiya a rayuwa, mu kan ga a cikin wahalar wani cewa akwai yiwuwar irin wannan wahala da muke tunani a rayuwar mutum da kansa. Yizhar ya bayyana:

As we navigate through life, we see in the distress of another that there may be a potential for similar imagined distress in one’s own life. Yizhar describes:

"Mutanen da za su zauna a wannan ƙauye – ashe bangon ba zai yi kuka a kunnuwansu ba? Waɗancan abubuwan gani, kukan da aka yi da kuma wanda ba a yi ba, rashin laifi cikin ruɗani na tumaki da suka gigice, biyayyar masu rauni, da jarumtakarsu, wannan jarumta ta musamman ta masu rauni waɗanda ba su san abin da za su yi ba kuma ba su iya yin komai ba, masu rauni da aka rufe wa baki – shin sababbin mazauna ba za su ji cewa iskar nan tana cike da inuwa, murya, da kallo mai nauyi ba?"79

“The people who would live in this village – wouldn’t the walls cry out in their ears? Those sights, screams that were screamed and that were not screamed, the confused innocence of dazed sheep, the submissiveness of the weak, and their heroism, that unique heroism of the weak who didn’t know what to do and were unable to do anything, the silenced weak – would the new settlers not sense that the air here was heavy with shades, voices, and stares?”79

Wannan kasancewar wani a bayyane, a cikin wurin da ya ƙunshi "kukan da aka yi…ba a yi ba", da kuma wanda aka yi, tare da sautin "raunanan da aka rufe bakunansu", ne ya sa wannan labari ya zama mai ratsa zuciya kuma a lokaci guda mai koyarwa.

It is the patent presence of another in a space made up of “screams that were…not screamed”, as well as having been screamed, juxtaposed with the sounds of the “silenced weak” that makes the account so harrowing and yet so instructive:

"Na ji wani rugujewa mai ban tsoro a cikina. Ina da wata tunani guda ɗaya, mai tabbata, kamar ƙusa da aka buga, cewa ba zan taɓa yin sulhu da komai ba, muddin hawayen wani yaro mai kuka suna ƙyalli yayin da yake tafiya tare da mahaifiyarsa, wadda ke kokawa sosai don hana hawayenta bayyana ba tare da sauti ba, a hanyarsa ta zuwa gudun hijira, yana ɗauke da wata hayaniyar rashin adalci da kuma irin wannan ihu – ba zai yiwu ba cewa babu wanda a duniyarsa zai karɓi wannan ihu idan lokaci ya zo – sai na ce wa Moshe: “Ba mu da hakki, Moishe, mu kore su daga nan!” Ban so muryata ta yi rawar jiki ba."80

“I felt a terrifying collapse inside me. I had a single, set idea, like a hammered nail, that I could never be reconciled to anything, so long as the tears of a weeping child still glistened as he walked along with his mother, who furiously fought back her soundless tears, on his way into exile, bearing with him a roar of injustice and such scream that – it was impossible that no one in his world would gather that scream in when the moment came – and then I said to Moshe: “We have no right, Moishe, to kick them out of here!” I didn’t want my voice to tremble.”80

Don haka, ana aiwatar da dabaru iri-iri na cire mutuntaka daga mutane, wanda manufarsu ita ce taimaka wa masu aikata laifi su manta da ɗan Adam na waɗanda suka zalunta. Ɗaya daga cikin irin waɗannan dabaru shi ne canza yanayin waɗanda za a kashe kafin a kashe su. A lokacin Kisan Kiyashi na Yahudawa, misali, an tilasta wa Yahudawa su taru tsirara, kuma a kore su tare. An ƙirƙiri wani ji na bambanci a tsakanin taron jikunan tsirara da ke tafiya a cikin sansani cikin firgici da rashin sanin abin da ke faruwa. An ɗauke musu tufafinsu, kuma hakan ya yi kama da an ɗauke musu mutuncinsu, domin bambancin da ke tsakanin abin da ake ɗauka a matsayin al'ada da abin da ba al'ada ba ya yi yawa sosai. Wannan nuni na bambanci an ƙara shi har zuwa tabbatar da cewa halayen waɗannan waɗanda aka zalunta sun yi nisa sosai daga ɗan Adam. Ƴan Nazi sun yi haka ta hanyar sanya su cikin yunwa. A cikin matsanancin yanayi inda aka tilasta wa fursunoni rayuwa cikin datti nasu, an mayar da su kamar babu komai.

And so, various techniques of depersonalization are put into action, aimed at helping perpetrators forget the humanity of their victims. One such technique is a transformation before being killed. In the Holocaust for example, Jews were forced to congregate naked and to be herded together. An impression of Otherness was created around the naked mass of bodies moving along the camp in abject terror and bewilderment. Being stripped of their clothing was akin to being stripped of their humanity since the dissimilarity between what was normal and abnormal was too striking. The visual display of otherness was then extended to ensuring that the behaviour of such victims was too remote and unhuman. The Nazis did this by subjecting them to a starvation. In the extremity of such situations where inmates were forced to live in their own filth, they were reduced to a nothingness.

Hakazalika, fursunonin yakin Rasha, da Höss wanda abin mamaki shi ne ya ƙirƙiri irin waɗannan yanayi, ya ce, "Ba su ƙara zama mutane ba… Sun koma dabbobi waɗanda ba sa tunanin komai sai cin abinci."81 Wolters yana ganin cewa cin zarafin Iraqi maza ta fuskar jima'i da aka nuna a hotunan Abu Ghraib yana nuna cewa masu kallo suna jin kansu tare da sojojin Amurka, don haka suna shigar da masu kallo a matsayin mahalarta cikin labarin mulkin mallaka na zamani, wanda a cikinsa ake mamaye wani Balarabe mara daraja, Ɗan Wasu, ta hannun maharin Yammacin Duniya.

Similarly, Russian prisoners of war, Höss who was ironically responsible for creating such conditions, said, “They were no longer men…They’d turned into beasts who thought only about eating.”81 Wolters surmises that the sexual humiliation of Iraqi men depicted in the Abu Ghraib pictures implies audience identification with the American soldiers and thus incorporates viewers as participants in a neo-colonial narrative in which an inferior Arab Other is dominated by his Western invader.

Their creation of an iconic spectacle of torture and the staging of human trauma makes them comparable to photographs of black lynching victims, which contrast the projection of black suffering with the mode of bystanding in white spectators.82 This conditioning of victims and Othering was a necessary step to ensure that guards carried out their policies without the emotional burden of guilt. The natural way is to humanise, to place onto another what one sees in oneself. The example of Hābīl, having murdered his brother, is important here in that he transitioned from pathological envy to entrenched regret over his actions. In observing a raven scratching away at the earth, he realises that the disfigurement of his brother and of the earth upon which he rests require a hiding away, so as to normalise and repair what had been lost: Wannan ya sa suka zama kamar hotunan wadanda aka kashe ta hanyar lynching baƙaƙe, waɗanda ke bambanta azabar baƙar fata da yanayin kallon fararen mutane da ke tsaye suna kallo.82 Wannan horar da waɗanda aka azabtar da kuma sanya su a matsayin baƙi wani mataki ne mai muhimmanci don tabbatar da cewa masu tsaron gida sun aiwatar da manufofinsu ba tare da nauyin laifi a zuciyarsu ba. Hanyar dabi'a ita ce mutuntawa, wato a danganta wa wani abin da mutum ke gani a cikin kansa. Misalin Hābīl, bayan ya kashe ɗan'uwansa, yana da muhimmanci a nan domin ya sauya daga hassada mai cutarwa zuwa nadama mai zurfi kan abin da ya aikata. Yayin da ya ga wani hankaka yana tona ƙasa, sai ya fahimci cewa lalacewar ɗan'uwansa da ta ƙasar da yake kwance a kanta na bukatar a ɓoye shi, domin a mayar da abin da aka rasa zuwa yanayinsa na al'ada kuma a gyara shi:

Their creating of an iconic spectacle of torture and the staging of human trauma renders them comparable to photographs of black lynching victims which contrast the projection of black suffering with the mode of bystanding in white spectators.82 This conditioning of victims and Othering was a necessary step to ensure that guards carried out their policies without the emotional burden of guilt. The natural way is to humanise, to place onto another what one sees in oneself. The example of Hābīl, having murdered his brother is important here in that he transitioned from pathological envy to entrenched regret over his actions. In observing a raven scratching away at the earth, he realises that the disfigurement of his brother and of the earth upon which he rests require a hiding away, so as to normalise and repair what had been lost:

5:30 - Sai ransa ta yi masa kwaɗayin kashe ɗan'uwansa, sai ya kashe shi, ya zama ɗaya daga cikin masu hasara.

5:30 - But his soul prompted him to kill his brother: he killed him and became one of the losers.

5:31 - Allah ya aiko da wani gwaggwon hankaka, yana tonawa a ƙasa, don ya nuna masa yadda zai rufe gawar ɗan'uwansa. Sai ya ce, "Kaico na! Shin ba zan iya zama kamar wannan gwaggwon hankakin ba, in rufe gawar ɗan'uwana?" Sai ya zama mai nadama.

5:31 - God sent a raven to scratch up the ground and show him how to cover his brother’s corpse and he said, ‘Woe is me! Could I not have been like this raven and covered up my brother’s body?’ He became remorseful.

Zaɓin da Allah yake yi na ƙwarƙwara ma yana da ban mamaki.

The choice Allāh makes of a crow is also remarkable:

Ka ɗauki shaho... (no) — Ka ɗauki gaggafa? No. Here is the faithful translation: Ka ɗauki Ƙwarya (magpie). Ta amfani da tsarin alamar ƙarya iri ɗaya da aka yi amfani da shi a kan dolphins da giwaye, wani bincike na kwanan nan ya nuna cewa Ƙwarya tana iya gane kanta a madubi. Yanzu, ku lura, Ƙwarya ba tsuntsu ne kawai ba: ita tana cikin dangin corvid, wanda ya haɗa da ƙwarƙwara (crows), ravens da jays, waɗanda suke da ƙwaƙwalwa mai girma sosai. Idan aka sanya su a gaban madubi, Ƙwarya za ta yi ƙoƙarin cire ƙaramin alamar launi da aka manna a kan gashin wuyanta. Za ta ci gaba da shafa da ƙafarta har sai alamar ta ƙare, amma za ta bar alamar baƙar fata shi kaɗai, mai yiwuwa saboda ba ta fita fili a kan baƙin wuyanta. Haka kuma, ba za ta yi shafa mai tsanani ba idan babu madubin da za ta gani kanta a ciki.83

“Take the magpie. Applying the same sham-mark design as used with dolphins and elephants, a recent study has shown mirror self-recognition in magpies. Now, mind you, the magpie isn’t just any bird: It is a corvid, a family that includes crows, ravens, and jays, endowed with exceptionally large brains. Put in front of a mirror, magpies will try to remove a tiny colored sticker attached to their throat feathers. They will keep scratching with their foot until the mark is gone, but will leave a black mark alone probably because it doesn’t stand out against their black throat. They also won’t do any frantic scratching if there’s no mirror to see themselves in.”83

Abin mamaki ne yadda hankaka ba ta iya jure wani abu baƙo a jikinta ba. Ta iya gano wata matsala, sai ta nemi cire ta. Haka ma gwaggon tsuntsun da ya fara tona ƙasa ya koyar da Hābīl cewa dole ɗan'uwansa a binne shi, cewa gawar mutum tana cikin ƙasa. Ƙazantar kisan kai tana ɓata duka ƙasa da lamirin ɗan adam, kuma wannan fahimta ta haifar masa da farkawar nadama a cikinsa. Ya fi sauƙi ga mutum ya yanke zumunci da wanda ba zai iya haɗuwa da shi ba, kuma bambance-bambancen da tsarin Othering ke kawowa suna musanta alamomin ɗan adam na sanin juna waɗanda ke shigar da mu cikin tsarin gama-gari da muke kira ‘ɗan adam’. A cikin tarihin rayuwarsa na 1977 mai suna A Rumor Of War, game da aikinsa a Rundunar Sojojin Ruwan Amurka (USMC) a farkon shekarun yaƙin Vietnam, Phillip Caputo ya bayyana mutuwar wani yaro ɗan Viet Cong cikin zane-zane, kuma ya rubuta a fili cewa samun fahimtar ‘ɗan adam’ na wani ta hanyar duba alamomin sanin juna waɗanda ke haɗa mu duka zai buƙaci sake tsara wannan Othering ɗin.

It is very interesting that the magpie was unable to tolerate a foreign substance on its body. It was able to detect an abnormality and sought to remove it. Similarly, the raven that began to scratch the earth taught Hābīl that his brother needed to be buried, that a deceased body belongs under the earth. The vileness of murder defiles both the earth and the human conscience, and this realisation produced a self-awakening of remorse within him. It is far easier for a person to disconnect from one he cannot associate with, and the differences heralded by a process of Othering deny the human codes of recognisability that enter us into a collective frame of what we call ‘humanity’. In Phillip Caputo 1977 memoir, A Rumor Of War, about his service in the United States Marine Corps (USMC) in the early years of the Vietnam War, he describes the graphic death of a Viet Cong boy and writes lucidly about the way accessing another’s ‘humanity’ by considering the human codes of recognisability that connect us all would necessitate a re-framing of that Other:

"Babu komai a jikinsa, babu hotuna, babu wasiku, ko takardar shaida. Hakan zai bata wa hukumar leƙen asiri rai, amma ni ba damuwa na yi ba. Ina so wannan yaro ya kasance ba a san shi ba. Ina so in dauke shi ba a matsayin mutum mai suna, shekaru, da iyali ba, sai dai a matsayin abokin gaba da ya mutu."

“There was nothing on him, no photographs, no letters, or identification. That would disappoint the intelligence, but it was fine with me. I wanted this boy to remain anonymous. I wanted to think of him not human being with a name, age, and family, but as a dead enemy.

"Hakan ya sa abubuwa su zama da sauƙi sosai."84

That made everything easier.”84