A Beautiful Patience: A Memoir of Marriage, Motherhood, and a Mission to Gaza

A Beautiful Patience: A Memoir of Marriage, Motherhood and a Mission to Gaza

When Samaiya Mushtaq’s husband considers joining a medical mission in Gaza, she must face the quiet terror of what it might cost them. As a physician, she understands his calling—but as a mother of two young children, she fears the unthinkable. What if he doesn’t come back? In the face of uncertainty, they choose faith over fear: Mahmoud will go to Gaza; Samaiya will hold their lives together at home.

In Gaza, Mahmoud removes shrapnel, helps amputate limbs, and finds a colony of maggots in a wound that isn’t healing properly. In Texas, Samaiya nurses their infant at night and spends her mornings wrangling their toddler before signing in to work, only to do it all again in the evening. Each night, Samaiya and Mahmoud connect through messages and calls. While he tells her about his patients and asks about the kids, she can hear air strikes in the background.

At once devastating and inspiring, A Beautiful Patience is a poignant memoir that explores our responsibility to our families and fellow humans, the power of trusting in God, and different ways to persist and resist against all odds.

• Author: Samaiya Mushtaq
• Publisher: ‎Rabata's Daybreak Press
• Publication Date: March 17, 2026
• Language: ‎English
• ISBN-13: 978-1-967369-03-4
• Binding: Paperback 
• Number of Pages: 248
• Weight: 0.646 lb (293.02 g)