“Every trial that happens to you in life is doing two things: pointing you to who your Lord is, and bringing to surface who your ‘lord’ is in your heart. And everything you say or do thereafter is either a testimony for you or against you—in preparation to expose to you one last time the spiritual state of your soul. …
Did you know that July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month? The following is an excerpt from the true story, No One Taught Me the Human Side of Islam: The Muslim Hippie’s Story of Living with Bipolar Disorder: Sakinah ‘The Muslim Hippie’ says: My friend Halimah wasn’t the only one who overhead me being talked about negatively in the Muslim …
“Beware of emotionalism. It is like a cheating spouse. Faithful to nothing except what excites it at the moment. Follow it and you’ll find yourself constantly off balance, furious, and confused, even if you’ve no idea why. Principles and morality are more dependable. They remain faithful, no matter what excitement is happening in the world. So choose principles and morality …
Where are the men? They are scowling at me for my “wrong” hijab. SubhaanAllah! Where are the men? They are criticizing me for fearing Allah on my job. O Allah! Where are the men? They are making jokes about me and the suffering I’ve endured. Yaa Rabb! Where are the men? They are shaking hands and patting each other on …
“And you have more knowledge than the imam, huh?” she asked, mockery in her tone. I said nothing to this question, which was more a dare and a threat than it was a sincere inquiry. Whenever our conversations devolved into pulling rank, I lost interest in continuing the discussion. She knew just as well as I did that spiritual truth …
I was both shocked and heartbroken when I found myself on the receiving end of my community’s slander and character defamation, and it had all been incited when I chose my soul over blindly following the community imam. As I mentioned in my blog “Be Prepared To Be Alone:” I was in my mid-twenties at the time, and I had …
“If what the imam is teaching is wrong,” a community elder told me, “then why would Allah bless him with all these followers?” I was in my mid-twenties at the time, and I had just begun my own spiritual journey of studying Qur’an and the prophetic teachings and striving my level best to do what I sincerely believed Allah required …
Nothing in this world belongs to you. Nothing. Not even your own soul is yours, as it will be returned to its Owner once this earthly journey of yours is complete. And all those worldly comforts and human relationships you thought you couldn’t live without? They were just temporary companions on your journey home. They were divine mercies—and tests—scattered along …
This must be what it feels like to give up on your soul, I remember thinking years ago when I nearly left Islam. During that difficult time, I began to understand emotional pain like I never did before. I began to understand spiritual darkness like I never did before. And I began to understand sin like I never did before. …
The following is an excerpt from the book Prejudice Bones in My Body: Essays on Muslim Racism, Bigotry and Spiritual Abuse by Umm Zakiyyah: “Good,” she said so matter-of-factly that I was momentarily confused. Blinking, I held the phone’s receiver as I processed this simple response that held little connection to what I had just said. It was months after …
