Making God a Partner

'Who is he that will loan to Allah a beautiful loan, which Allah will double unto his credit and multiply many times? It is Allah who gives (you) want or plenty, and to Him shall be your return.' (Qur'an 2:245) It is almost a full week of 'normal' since Ramadan ended. The patter of the …

God’s Vicegerent

It's part of my routine personal prayer to thank God for making me human, the highest form of His creation. Those are the exact words that I use. The reasoning behind this is simply that I could have been created as anything, and subject to different ecological and biological laws, but I was made human, …

Ramadan Reflections: Eid, and Saying Farewell

Ramadan is over, for another year. I wrote yesterday that I think Ramadan hosts us more than we host it, but I was wrong. Ramadan is indeed our guest, to be honoured and cherished, and to be learned from while it's here - because you will never learn all you want to, and you will …

Ramadan Reflections, Day Twenty-nine: Sadness, and Elation

This morning... I woke up this with sadness commingled with excitement: this could be the last day of Ramadan. As I write this, the announcements are coming in that for the majority of countries, Eid-ul-Fitr (the day of celebration which marks the end of Ramadan) will be tomorrow, Sunday. I read something which described Ramadan …

Ramadan Reflections, Day Twenty-eight: Coming Clean

I don’t know what it is about Fridays, but it seems to be the day when I tip myself out in front of God and reset my peace of mind. Today, I had a long conversation with God after my midday prayer, and came clean about a couple of things. I am an angry person. …

Ramadan Reflections, Day Twenty-seven: Lessons my Aunt taught me

When I was twenty-one, I spent a few summer months with one of my mother's younger sisters - or khallahs as I know my maternal aunts - in New Jersey. She was bravely battling with a renewed onslaught of cancer, a battle she would ultimately and tragically lose, but at that time there was still hope. …

Ramadan Reflections, Day Twenty-six: Moses

I have been struggling a little bit with fear over the last couple of days. Fear of progressing in the things that I love; fear of being true to myself and my voice, which I have committed to maintaining without compromise. And, because I'm human, I have transferred that fear onto God, and subconsciously told …

Ramadan Reflections, Day Twenty-five: The Nearness of God

 

Ramadan Reflections, Day Twenty-four: Sadness

A heavy heart; so much sadness. More lives lost, and the fears of the living are heightened. I cannot bear it - all in the name of hate masked as faith, or anti-faith. All who act to take lives are in the same camp, that of the damned. A young Muslim girl abducted and killed …

Ramadan Reflections, Day Twenty-three: Dad

My father always used to tell me, 'you have a bright and brilliant mind - you can do anything you want!'. He always saw in me what I am beginning to see in myself now. My mother gave me the wings to fly to the heights my father always told me I could reach. They …