"I was standing by the entrance of the press club when I saw a man trying to enter a few meters from me. My colleagues, security guards, stopped him for a routine check. At that moment, the suicide bomber blew himself up. I saw body parts flying and, without thinking, I jumped back as much as I could. I started crying and heard everyone running outside the gate. I screamed for help, but no one came to me. Around 30 minutes later, I was dragged by a colleague to a rickshaw, to be taken to a hospital. Currently, I work at the press club. Allah is great, if he wanted me dead on that day, I wouldn't be here today." Ayoub Yousef, 25, security guard at the Peshawar Press Club, injured by a suicide bomber in Peshawar, Pakistan on 22 December 2009.

In recent years, Pakistan has been rocked by hundreds of attacks on civilians. From roadside bombs to suicide bombings and target killings, attacks take place on an almost daily basis in cities across the country, as a result of terrorism, sectarian conflict, and a mix of political, religious, and criminal violence. In the last ten years, over 5,000 people have lost their lives and some 10,000 have been injured in attacks perpetrated by militants in Pakistan. Of those lucky enough to survive, many carry physical disabilities or mental scars for the rest of their lives.

Suffering is far from unknow in a part of the world with a high rate of poverty, and also often hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. However, many devout Muslims embrace those tragedies as their particular fate. Pakistan is a majority Muslim country, where faith is the most sacred and precious thing in many people's lives, and where the devout believe in al-Qadr (Destiny) - that all that exists or happens is an expression of Allah's will. Believer's accept their fate because they trust in His will.