Soaring like an angel
Her eyes stare
Like a messenger on a wrong track
Her path swings
Speedily her venom strikes
Beyond her bars
Into the territory that knows her not
Vum! She is with the sky
Her abode of comfort
The children of the ground
Are now in pain and sorrow
Her young are missing
Like a mysterious light
With speed, she disappeared
You're a thief and a destroyer
The fate of the race without prayer
Give us our daily bread she preys
On the blood of the flesh without skin
That we may feed our bodies for more feathers
To the glory of the sky life we further
Food we must eat for survival
For the fittest strangles the large meat
To narrow the wide arrow of men
On us, just behind us
Though we all are doomed
On a day that knows our name
But before then, food is for the stomach, and life is for the living.
1 Every time you long for wealth, someone is begging Allah for health. Every time you wish for more, someone is wishing for just enough. Life is a constant reminder: blessings and trials are distributed with divine wisdom.
2 "And if you tried to count Allah’s favors, you could never enumerate them. Truly, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." (Qur'an 16:18) We often count our problems. But we rarely count our blessings.
3 When you drive a fancy car, somewhere, someone dies in a car crash.
When a mansion rises from the earth, somewhere, a grave is dug beneath it. Every joy we celebrate coexists with another’s grief. Such is the balance of dunya (this world).
You asked Allah for patience, for courage, for success...
But what if the hardship you’re facing is the answer?
A thread on how Allah responds, not always by changing your life, but by changing you.
1/ Out of the trillions of souls never brought into existence, Allah chose you, to live, to strive, to experience, to grow. That alone is a sign of profound purpose. "And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me." (Qur'an 51:56)
2/ When you ask Allah for patience (sabr), He may not simply hand you calmness. He sends you moments that stretch you, test you so you become patient. "Indeed, Allah is with the patient." (Qur'an 2:153)
1/ So, I had this deeply thought-provoking conversation with a good friend of mine recently. I won't call her a feminist but she is really pro-women, and we got talking about something I’ve been observing.
I asked her, “I notice that some Muslim women seem to regress in their Imaan whenever they co-opt feminism. Why do you think that is? It’s concerning, TBH.”
Her response really struck me.
2/ She said, “You’re not imagining it. I’ve noticed it, too, even in myself.
And it’s a struggle. But let me tell you this: a lot of Muslim men contribute to this regression.”
I asked her to explain, and what she shared opened my eyes in ways I didn’t expect.
1/ To my sisters chasing dreams—whether on social media, in coaching, building a brand, or climbing the corporate ladder—this is from the heart:
If your growth in the world is coming at the cost of your iman, pause and pay attention.
2/ Compromise doesn’t happen overnight. It’s gradual, a step here, a step there.
It starts small:
\- Delayed salah for “just one more post.”
\- A hijab shrinking, earrings showing, or strands of hair slipping out.
\- A “networking” happy hour you attend but don’t drink.
3/ You invest hours and dollars into personal development, but Islamic classes? Too hard to fit in.
You consume books and podcasts about “enlightenment,” yet neglect the profound wisdom of your own faith.
And your connection to the Muslim community? Slowly disappearing.
People often go through a phase of religiosity and piety, which is then followed by a burn out period. For example, for a couple of weeks - you found it incredibly easy to get up at night and pray Qiyam, but now you feel lazy to get out of bed.
Don’t worry, this is natural & very common.
For the Prophet ﷺ said: “Verily, the iman of one of you will wear out within him, just as a shirt becomes worn out, so ask Allah to renew iman in your hearts.”, and someone asked, “O Messenger of Allah, how do we renew our iman?”
and he ﷺ responded: “Increase in saying La ilaha ila Allah.” [musnad ahmad]
———
There is a couple of things you can do to improve this:
• (1) As mentioned, you should repeat “La ilaha ila Allah” whenever you feel this way, and you should do so sincerely from your heart.
I've found that as I've gotten older that most virtues or wise principles are paradoxes. "When you give, don't expect anything return," I think is 100% a wise, virtuous principle, and yet another wise, virtuous principle is "good relationships are restoring, not draining."
If your relationships are draining you, i.e., you're giving more to them than you're getting back, then they aren't good relationships to you. At best, those people are kind of unaware and self-centered. At worst, they are exploiting you.
Some people are too self-centered and need to learn to take others into account. Other people are too agreeable - also known as being a doormat - and need to learn to look out for their own interests and be a little selfish.