Thousands of students, friends and community members filled the Pit, the crowd stretching far back into the quad. And not one person said a word.
Instead, they turned their faces, many lit by candlelight, upward toward the smiles that were flickering on a screen in the Pit. Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha were shot and killed Tuesday at the off-campus Finley Forest neighborhood.
Sophomore Omar Rezk, who said he knew Barakat personally, said while members of the community are mourning an enormous loss, he takes comfort in knowing the family is now in heaven.
“All of us belong to God, and to Him we will return,” he said, quoting a verse that is often said when a member of the Muslim community dies.
This idea was emphasized almost every time someone close to one of the victims got up to speak.
Deah Shaddy Barakat’s older brother, Farris Barakat, called on attendees to trust in God — even during tragedy.
“Praise be to God. We say that in good and in bad, knowing that God is the most wise. We depend on God the wise in this time,” he said.
Like many of the speakers at the vigil, Farris Barakat emphasized the charitable and pious life that Deah Barakat and his wife lived.