Istad'ā
INVOKING THE ABYSS
A call to hear the silenced, confront the unseen, and restore what history buried.
Advancing a step toward linguistic justice.
What Is Istad'ā?
Istad'ā is the conscious act of invoking what has been ignored, silenced, or erased — the voices, languages, identities, histories — and refusing the comfort of forgetting.
Since our founding in 2002, we have spent over two decades encountering countless individuals. We have witnessed the deep struggles of marginalized and specially-abled people to express themselves, be understood, and gain recognition.
Too many voices have remained unheard, overlooked, and forgotten. Istad'ā is the conscious act of bringing these voices into presence — summoning attention, awareness, and empathy.
استدعى — Istad'ā
The word Istad'ā is an Arabic verb meaning "He summoned, He invoked."
Here, "He" refers to the founder, Dr. Dipankar Kundu—the one who calls attention, summons awareness, and insists that what has been silenced must be heard and that society must bear witness.
This is not a metaphor. It is an active summons to notice, to understand, and to stand with those whose existence has been neglected.
"Istad'ā is the soul of our organization. It is what shapes our mission, vision, and philosophy — guiding every effort, every reflection, and every commitment we make."
To live Istad'ā is to insist on the dignity of voices too long ignored, to honor identity and memory, and to demand that humanity bears responsibility for those it has silenced.
It is for this reason that Istad'ā exists — to summon attention, demand recognition, and ensure that what has been buried, erased, or forgotten can no longer remain invisible.
Istad'ā is also the ethical foundation behind GELPP — the Global Endangered Languages Preservation Program by Dar Al Marjaan Group.
It serves as a structured, scalable, and technology-driven model designed to slow, halt, and, in some cases, reverse the disappearance of endangered languages worldwide.
Join GELPP's efforts to recognize unheard voices and safeguard endangered languages for a more equitable future.
What Is Being Summoned?
What Lies In The Abyss?
In the context of Istad'ā, the Abyss is not emptiness — it is depth. Words and languages are only the surface; they carry the stories, emotions, and experiences that lie beneath. The Abyss represents the accumulation of unheard stories, suppressed voices, forgotten contexts, and human truths that never fully make it into speech.
To invoke the Abyss is to summon this hidden depth, to call forth the lives, struggles, joys, griefs, and memories that language alone can only hint at. It is an ethical act: acknowledging that beneath every word lies a life — complex, unfinished, and often unseen — and insisting that it be recognized, understood, and witnessed.
Philosophically, the Abyss draws on multiple layers of meaning:
Depths of Consciousness
The interior life of individuals often ignored or silenced.
Unexplored Knowledge
Histories, cultures, and perspectives that have been forgotten, erased, or suppressed.
Mystery & Potential
The awe-inspiring unknown that challenges assumptions and invites responsibility.
Together, "Invoking the Abyss" is a deliberate act of awakening the hidden. It is a call to see, hear, and engage with what has remained unseen, giving presence to the invisible, the unspoken, and the forgotten.
Why the Abyss Must Be Invoked
Istad'ā does not exist in abstraction. It stands at the point where thought becomes responsibility, and where awareness demands consequence.
To invoke what has been silenced is not merely an intellectual exercise—it is an ethical stance. What we choose to notice, remember, or ignore shapes whose lives are protected and whose are erased.
Silence Is Not Neutral
Silence is often mistaken for restraint, diplomacy, or peace. In reality, silence most often shields power, not justice. When voices are ignored, when discomfort is avoided, when exclusion goes unchallenged, silence becomes an accomplice. It preserves imbalance, legitimizes neglect, and normalizes suffering by rendering it invisible.
Istad'ā rejects the comfort of quiet neutrality. It recognizes that failing to respond is itself a decision—one that frequently benefits those already heard, while further marginalizing those who are not.
Forgotten Languages Are Not Extinct — They Are Abandoned
Languages do not disappear naturally. They fade when communities are displaced, when education systems exclude, when institutions fail to listen, and when preservation is treated as optional rather than essential. What is often labeled 'extinction' is, in truth, abandonment.
Istad'ā directly confronts this abandonment. It affirms that every language carries memory, worldview, and identity—and that allowing it to vanish is not a cultural loss alone, but a moral one. Advocacy, preservation, and recognition are not acts of nostalgia; they are acts of responsibility.
Memory Is a Responsibility, Not a Luxury
Remembering is not a privilege reserved for the comfortable. It is an obligation owed to those whose histories were interrupted, erased, or dismissed. Memory demands effort, accountability, and the willingness to face uncomfortable truths.
Istad'ā insists that remembrance is not optional. To carry memory forward is to acknowledge harm, restore dignity, and prevent repetition. An organization grounded in ethics does not merely observe history—it stands accountable to it.
Our Philosophy In Practice
Istad'ā is not confined to ideas or declarations. It exists in choices—what is prioritized, what is protected, and what is refused.
Philosophy, when detached from action, becomes rhetoric. Istad'ā demands the opposite: that belief be tested through consequence, restraint, and responsibility.
Advocacy Beyond Visibility
Visibility alone does not correct injustice. Being seen does not guarantee being heard, understood, or protected. Much of what passes as advocacy today stops at recognition—content to name a problem without confronting its causes or costs.
Istad'ā moves beyond exposure. It insists on accountability, structural change, and sustained engagement. Advocacy, in this sense, is not about amplifying noise, but about altering conditions that allowed silence to exist in the first place.
Language as Survival, Not Ornament
Language is often treated as heritage, art, or cultural expression—valuable, but optional. Istad'ā rejects this framing. Language is survival. It carries legal agency, access to systems, intergenerational memory, and the ability to exist without distortion.
When language is denied, identity fractures. When it is preserved, dignity remains intact. To protect language is not to decorate culture, but to defend the right to be fully human.
Ethics Before Scale
Growth without ethics is not progress; it is expansion of harm. Many systems prioritize reach, numbers, and speed, even when inclusion, accuracy, and care are compromised. Istad'ā refuses this trade-off.
Scale matters only when ethics lead. Decisions are measured not by how far they spread, but by whom they serve, whom they exclude, and what they cost. Integrity is not something to be retrofitted—it is the foundation.
Our Stances
What we oppose, and what we champion.
What We Stand Against
Cultural erasure disguised as modernization.
Progress that demands forgetting.
Linguistic tokenism.
Visibility without protection. Representation without agency.
Performative inclusion.
Statements without structure. Promises without consequence.
Silence framed as neutrality.
Comfort mistaken for ethics. Inaction treated as innocence.
What We Stand For
Accountability over comfort.
Responsibility before convenience.
Depth over virality.
Understanding before amplification.
Communities over narratives.
Lived experience over external framing.
Continuity over trends.
Commitment beyond cycles of attention.
Istad'ā as a Living Commitment
Istad'ā is not a statement issued once and archived.
It is a standard we return to—again and again.
It guides how decisions are made, whose voices are centered, and what compromises are refused. It shapes not only what is pursued, but how and why. Each moment of action is measured against it, not for perfection, but for accountability.
Istad'ā endures because responsibility does not end. What has been silenced does not remain silent on its own—it must be continually summoned, protected, and honored.
This is not a conclusion.
It is an ongoing obligation.