I understand the ayah "Indeed with hardship is ease" through the story of Maryam (as) in Surat Maryam 16-26

When Maryam (as) went into labor, she was entirely alone, away from home, and felt such pain that it made her cry out wishing she had perished instead Then, a voice called out to her, commanding her to drink from the stream below, shake the date palm and eat from the fruit that descends

The food and drink didn't take away the pain of labor nor make the monumental task of returning unmarried with a child to her people disappear

I was reading Surat Fussilat, and there's an ayah that suddenly brought my life into perspective for me:

"When We show favour to someone, they turn away, acting arrogantly. And when touched with evil, they make endless prayers ˹for good˺." 41:51 Sometimes, we are denied what we want because, if we were to get it, it would make us forget about Allah. We would be so engrossed in our joys that they would cause us to forget our purpose in life

This was me 12 years ago. Had I gotten what I wanted, I would've forgotten Allah

In many ways, to be human is to be in a state of perpetual incompleteness.

If the only perfect human is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, all of us are in constant aspiration for completeness through his emulation. We are like candles to the light of the full moon. We are rays of a lantern held against the illumination of the midday sun. The candle casts its brightness into the darkness around it, but it has no hope of matching the illumination of the moon above.

Going to add another level of nuance re: halal meat

If anyone has done work in poverty, you know 3 things:

1. The only access to groceries for a lot of impoverished communities is a local stop n shop (very limited options)

2. Food stamps rarely meet the needs of a full family 3. The time to cook is a luxury in a lot of under privileged households

Should a single mother of three working three jobs whose only reliable lunch comes from canned meat, does she get the same fatwa as a middle income family who wants to eat the chicken at Olive Garden?

Gonna jump into the halal meat controversy for a sec to share a story

Hazrat Mufti Taqi Usmani (ha) relayed a story of his father, Hazrat Mufti Shafi Sahib (ra). He visited the UK when there were basically no halal meat options, and people asked him for a fatwa to eat UK meat He said to them that he could give them a fatwa, but if he did that, they would become lazy and not create their own halal meat options

The first generation of Muslim immigrants to America did the same. There were families for whom the only halal meat available was fish

I was talking to a few young people about their anxiety in relationships last night. A lot of us, me included, experience serious anxiety when talking to someone for marriage. This usually manifests in two ways: avoidance or clinging. Both are mechanisms of managing anxiety Avoidance is keeping yourself from engaging with an open heart, avoiding communication, etc. Clinginess is the opposite: constant, 24/7 communication about anything and everything - and getting anxious if that communication is not reciprocated. Both are self-fulfilling prophecies

We have to move past a simplistic discourse on tawakkul

We were covering the story of Musa (as) at Sinai yesterday, and I traced the events that led to that moment

For Musa (as) to be at Sinai, he had to leave Madyan with his family. For that, he had to meet Shuaib (as) For him to meet Shuaib (as), he had to water the flock. For him to water the flock, he had to arrive at Madyan. For him to arrive at Madyan, he had to flee Egypt. For him to flee Egypt, he had to strike the man. For him to strike the man, he had to grow up in Fir'own's house

We had a meeting of khateebs on Saturday in which we were discussing how to handle a khutbah on Hasad (envy). The discussion quickly focused on the effect of social media (and instagram in particular) in exasperating the dual problems of self-esteem issues and hasad Khateebs shared stories of people in their families, friends, and communities who were deeply impacted by the curated nature of the insta image. People comparing the realities of their life to the imagined happiness in others; people developing body-image issues;

I've long held that the secret to life is in this ayah in Surat Yusuf:

"Whoever practices taqwa and patience, then Allah does not let the reward of those who do good go to waste"

I was talking to a young man today about making this his motto in life when I realized something Yusuf (as) mentions 3 things in this order

1. Taqwa
2. Patience
3. Doing good

This is the exact sequence of his story as well. He shows taqwa with the women, has sabr in wrongful imprisonment, and when he is released, he does good to the kingdom and brothers that wronged him

There's beauty in consistent prayer - a connection in despair - that can't be created when prayers are only offered like visits to a distant cousin. When your brow is always pressed against the ground, when hands are persistent in being raised without the force of desperate tears The mundaneness of everyday prayer creates a bond between the one offering and the One receiving. You take time from your day to sit with Him a while, showing love through time spent together in quiet solitude or in a gathering. You become familiar with Him, and He sees your love

Poem - Oaths I've Made

Around my birthday, I heard a ghazal by Daagh Dehlvi that ends with:

زیست سے تنگ ہو اے داغؔ تو جیتے کیوں ہو
جان پیاری بھی نہیں جان سے جاتے بھی نہیں

"If you've grown sick of life, Daagh, why do you live?
You don't value life, you don't leave it either" I was immediately affected by it - it resonated deeply with the person I was for most of my life: unable to live, unable to cease life. I had made an oath to my Allah in my teenages: I would never take my life. But as life progressed, that oath became more and more difficult

Poem - Searching For

Ghalib has a powerful couplet:

جلا ہے جسم جہاں دل بھی جل گیا ہوگا
کریدتے ہو جو اب راکھ جستجو کیا ہے

"The body, world has burned, the heart too must be burnt
Sifting through ash now- what are you searching for?"

I've always felt this couplet in my bones It's the couplet of someone who has focused on what was lost rather than imagining what has been gained - or what can be gained. It's a couplet of desperation, but also of despair: of someone desperately searching the ash knowing full well there's no heart to be found

If you're going through a difficult time in your life and are feeling overwhelmed by your emotions, add these to your life:

1. Some time, even if it's a little, to read Qur'an daily and make dua after

2. Keeping up with your prayers and waking up for tahajjud if you can 3. Getting physical activity in the morning to start your day

4. Writing in a journal to try and verbalize what you've bottled up inside

5. Find 2 - 3 people - family, friends - who you can talk to when things are particularly difficult

Reading Surat Ibrahim, ayahs 21-22 caught me. In these ayahs, Allah swt gives us a conversation between the underprivileged and the elite in jahannam as well as Shaytan and disbelievers. What strikes me in this discussion is how Allah swt empowers people to own their own lives The ayahs are not directed at the powerful; they are directed at those who are not. Instead of focusing only on the operation of structures, Allah swt tells those who feel disempowered that they do have the power to resist - and they will be asked about why they didn't

I keep coming back to this one ayah in Surat Yusuf as a kind of blueprint for life

When Yusuf (as) finally reveals himself to his brothers, he says

"Whosoever has taqwa and is patient, then Allah does not let the reward of those who do good go to waste" (12:90) In many ways, this is a full synopsis of the story of Yusuf (as): taqwa, patience, and continuously doing good; but it also sets our own expectations

So many times, when we do good or refrain from evil actions, we do so as a reaction to someone else's behavior

I want to talk about something that's ripping apart our families, communities, societies, but we are almost completely silent about it: pornography

When you work as the secretary to the Imam long enough, you get a very real sense of how wide-spread and destructive this cancer is No one is immune. It effects imams, scholars, and madrasa students just as it does the clubbing crowd. And its prevelance has an insane affect on everyone

1. It creates simultaneous obsession and frustration in the consumer

2. It warps their expectations about men and women