If I had a thousand lives, I’d be a shield for Able so that the children of Adam did not live with the guilt of the first true evil: murder! If I had a thousand lives, I’d shield Noah from those dark days of his confined tormenting isolation in the middle of a storm. If I had a thousand lives, I’d shield Abraham from his unsympathetic father and from the raging fire he was thrown into by arrogant Nimrod. If I had a thousand lives, I’d shield Prophet Ayub (Job) and empower him with more strength and faith in the Beloved, despite the sufferings of our combined illnesses. If I was a shield, I would comfort Prophet Yunus (Jonah) in the dark belly of the whale and tell him to recite with me the dua: Our Beloved alone “is sufficient for us.” If I was a shield, I would be the sling in the hands of David against Goliath: we’d stand for love and peace against oppression and hate. If I had a thousand lives, I’d shield Moses from the wrath of Pharaoh, the raging sea, and the skeptics of past and present. If I had a thousand lives, I would rescue Joseph from the well and from Zulekha’s ill intended clutches, even at the cost of the king’s orders. If I had a thousand lives, I’d walk with chivalrous, brave, and just Ram fighting all the horrid hate mongering Ravanas of past and present! If I had a thousand lives, I’d overlook and protect Gautama while he closed his eyes to connect – I’d be his Yasodhara, his Ananda, his shield from all evils till he became “Buddha”. If I had a thousand lives, I’d shield Jesus (Isa) with my body from his torment and torture in order to save Mother Mary’s heart from being broken, even if I had to sacrifice my life. If I had a thousand lives, I’d give them all gladly to Rasul Allah: I’d be the shield from every strike and every slander. If I had a thousand lives, I’d respond to the hardship of Hazrat Fatimah and serve her in every way and literally be her servant. If I had a thousand lives, I’d be a shield to Imam Hussain on the unjust field of Karbala, I would take every malicious lethal arrow of the zalim instead! If I had a thousand lives, I’d be a shield to every Holocaust victim. If I had a thousand lives, I’d be a human shield to every Bosniak in Srebrenica and beyond. If I had a thousand lives, I’d be a shield to every oppressed human community: the persecuted Jews, the oppressed Palestinians, the displaced Rohingyas, the brave Kashmiris, the innocent Syrians, and so on. If I had a thousand lives Beloved, I’d willingly, gladly and quietly sacrifice them all for You, for the love of humanity, in order to overcome hate, genocide, and the loss of precious human lives.