Experiences of pain among Palestinian advanced cancer patients: a socio-cultural reading of reports from the Israeli occupied West Bank

This social support/social solidarity, is generally regarded as a <i>wajib</i> (واجب), or obligation and duty people must fulfill and cannot be neglected. Dependence on God (<i>Allah</i>) and <i>Tawwakul</i>, that is, the reliance on <i>Allah</i>, which they drew upon for support and endurance, was also emphasized. The notion of <i>Tawwakul</i> and reliance on <i>Allah</i> is of particular importance in assisting patients and their families in coming to terms with their sickness and pain, and in confronting death, as revealed by our participants. However, the incorrect interpretation of <i>Tawwakul</i> as fatalism is rooted in colonial and racial perspectives, and needs to be addressed and undone in the process of decolonizing knowledge production.