Whispering above the turtledove, a breeze of lavender flowers
And Nafud desert embraced its plains and valley of Tihama
The song "حكماء الخليج" ("Wise Men of the Gulf"), sung by Mohammed Abdo, lyrics by Saud Salem.
I could not avoid national songs, while I was thinking about National Day. Especially the creativity of Mohammed Abdo's voice in the two aforementioned verses, in expressing the longing for love for the homeland, in the way he pronounces the letters haa (ه), faa (ف), and waaw (و). As if you see the breezes of flowers embracing the sky and the earth with love and passion, uniting the passionate feelings of all regions of our dear kingdom.
The song "مولد أمّة" (Birth of a Nation) by Talal Maddah and Mohammed Abdo is another beautiful description of a journey through the regions of Saudi Arabia. The poet describes his beloved Saudi Arabia in the famous duet "معشوقتك معشوقتي" (My Beloved), written by Prince Saud bin Abdullah.
One of my favorite lines from a national song is from the song "هل التوحيد" (Is the Monotheism) by Mohammed Abdo in the early 1990s, written by the wordsmith Prince Badr bin Abdulmohsin:
Our home is like a bride, and we are all its suitors
Whoever wants the sun of all suns, whoever loves its soil
Its dowry is the sacrifices, its veil, and its protection
The word of God and the sword.
But I was struck by the idea that nations are always described as feminine, and always as a bride or young. In fact, all of these songs have been around for more than 30 or 40 years. I wondered what happened to this bride and this nation that was born and beloved of the journey?
I would like to reconsider this description. Where is our bride today, and where is her future?
In fact, I see that our bride today has married her kings, and has become a mother and a woman in the prime of her life, with the strength of her crown prince and his youth. She is proud of her sons and daughters of the Saudi people and their current achievements in all aspects of life, and she looks forward to her bright future in Vision 2030.
We rarely imagine the shape of our current or real culture and history because we live it, and we forget that it is unique in its time and events.
I invite you to stop for a moment to think and contemplate the Kingdom today on its birthday. Let us imagine its new form that is completely different from the beautiful national songs I mentioned above. We need a new description and new songs to look at the Kingdom now, and then we may be able to see the Kingdom in the year 2030 when it wins the bid to host Expo 2030, God willing, in a new look and shape.
Let us pay attention to the current situation, as it is a tangible reality in its distinctive form, different from the past, and there is no doubt that it is different from the future as well!