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I feel the need to follow up on my last post regarding adoption, as the interpretation of my words by some was not what I intended. I did not mean to suggest that we are having a particularly trying time and I am sorry if that is how it came across. It is a huge [...]

I have been reluctant over the past two years to write anything of our application to adopt, for it has felt too private and too intense. It has felt like an age since the process began: the initial disappointments when our own local authority decided not to even consider us because we had a weird [...]

Some of my friends are angry with me, dispatching lengthy emails voicing their dissatisfaction. I know I should be hurt and offended, but instead I find myself thinking that this is just the voice of the Divine, revealing itself through His creation. I could compose great tracts in my defence, but I fear it would [...]

‘You may have convinced everyone else Sara,’ sneered Sajeda, ‘but I’m not persuaded by this sudden transformation of yours.’1 Blocking the entrance to the prayer room, preventing Sara from entering, she raised her right hand and jabbed it towards her heart. Forlornly, Sara looked back at the one person she had always respected and trusted; [...]

On his arrival in the UK last week, Geert Wilders hailed it as a victory for freedom of speech. Funny that—as comedian Jeremy Hardy pointed out on The News Quiz last year—given that he wants to ban the Qur’an. And with that thought, his presence escaped me. It was left to our Qur’an teacher to [...]

There is a disease that I have harboured for the best part of my life. It accompanied me as a child, an adolescent and an adult; as a Christian, an atheist, an agnostic and a Muslim; and in times of both health and sickness. I would define it as a disease of the soul — [...]

Recent months have seen a sudden upsurge in devotion to the Christian faith amongst followers of the British National Party (BNP) and the English Defence League (EDL). In June the BNP chimed against the Islamic colonisation of Britain, seen in the widespread conversion of churches throughout the land: the Central Mosque of Brent; the former [...]

I have long been one of those admirers of the Muslim woman, who says, ‘How I wish I had faith the strength of theirs.’ For to take upon a visual marker of identity outside the norms of society and to wear it whenever one wanders into the public eye takes great courage. Observing English women [...]

As a weekend Ramadan Retreat drew to a close yesterday, the thought that stayed in my mind was that it was just what the doctor ordered. Though one fellow was heard muttering that it was just a social gathering — perhaps anticipating a hermit’s flight — for me ‘retreat’ indeed summed it up. For it [...]

This Ramadan I resolved to memorise the remaining short suras I have thus far failed to learn. One sura a day, I told myself, for I can do it, for it’s not that hard, for I have learnt twenty ayats in an afternoon or a morning before. But taking stock, on this the nineteenth day [...]

When will you believe, I ask myself? When will you set aside your foolish games and get down to work for Him? When will you stand your nights in prayer, when will your heart contemplate, when will your supplications move you? I ask the question, but the desires remain, and so too my paltry faith [...]

Most search engine terms that people use to find my website are quite mundane and boring. This one today really made me laugh, however: ‘muslims are smelly neighbours london‘. They would have got my post on remembering your neighbours’ rights, but all sorts of pictures are now flowing through my mind… An estate agent who [...]