I guess winter is here.
So everything that I have experienced this year can be summarised this way: Laa hawla wa laa quwwata illa billah — there’s no power and strength other than through God. Whereas I’ve always had a generic understanding of this concept, this year it has been thrown into sharp focus, made absolute.
I couldn’t sleep last night, my mind hurtling into hyperdrive, bothered by my thoughts. Foremost amongst them: “Do I even exist?” A strange question, but one borne of a strange year, in which all previous suppositions have been thrown into disarray. Early morning, I tapped these sentiments into my phone: Right now, I feel like …
It’s so refreshing that racism is back in fashion, and we no longer have to obscure our prejudices. For most of the past two decades, we had to pretend that our racism was all about ideology and had some intellectual basis. “My only beef is with Muslamic extremism,” we’d say, certain that none could disagree. …
It’s best to maintain financial independence from your wider family. I don’t mean that you shouldn’t support your kin when they’re in need, or that you should build walls between you. But it’s best to separate your concerns, and live self-contained lives if you can. The alternative is the scenario I have encountered repeatedly: younger …
This time last year, I was found ruminating that it was likely impossible that amidst a population of sixty-seven million citizens my path would ever again cross with those I had once known. Of course, within months, that hypothesis was thoroughly blown out of the water by reality. But should I really be surprised? A …
Eating meat regularly and in large quantities is really a modern phenomenon. If I go to stay in my wife’s village back home, their ordinary diet mostly comprises corn, cabbage and beans. From time to time in winter, if there are guests, someone might bring home a bag of hamsi (anchovy), but meat is a …
A surge in childhood diseases, resulting in premature death? Shocked? Not particularly. Some (wholly-unqualified) observations: First: it’s difficult to get a GP appointment these days. Often, adult patients will first be offered a telephone consultation, some days away. If your symptoms are deemed worrying, you may then be invited to an in-person consultation. Timely access …
My grandmother used to tell me that for the whole of his career, my Methodist grandfather was derided by his colleagues for not drinking, smoking or gambling. His ethos was to live within his means and not squander the wealth he earned. I am sure he would be shocked if he were alive today learning …
Despite the challenges, suggested a friend the other day, there must be advantages of your chromosomal complement. I struggled to think of any. Some identify increased empathy as a positive impact. But where does that come from? Isn’t that just a psychological effect of a youth spent being sidelined and derided for perceived difference? Certainly, …
I no longer follow religious social media, except for a singular YouTube subscription. I occasionally catch the drift of what exercises my brethren via a WhatsApp group, but most of these folk are just as cynical as me, likewise given to watching from the sidelines. Occasionally this puts me at a disadvantage, slow to grasp …
We often feel legitimately aggrieved by the imprecision of language when others associate the whole with the actions of the few. When newspapers seem to associate all Muslims with the actions an extremist fringe, we rightly decry such inaccuracies, if not as plain deception. We would think then that we would be alert to that …
Where am I from? I am from dust, and will return to dust. And then I will be raised alive when all are raised alive. In that epoch, we will at last know our final destination. Until then, we are all travellers on the road of life. If you are settled, you have missed the …
Listen to the beautiful poetic music of the maghreb. Even if you don’t understand the lyrics, you will hear their humanity. The people of the boats have dreams and aspirations too. They are humans, with hearts, who love and cry like you. There are no illegal humans. All humans have the right to life and …
