I had an idea today, a little spontaneous: to look for roles in my field, but in the international development sector, with the likes of UNHCR, UNICEF or Save the Children. Twenty-five years ago, as I finished my studies, I wasn’t in a good state of mind or body to pursue employment related to my …
Careful what you wish for. It might just melt your brain. I speak from experience, naturally. For I spent the first half of 2021 desperately trying to find people I had known in the distant past, hoping to make amends with them, and the second half lamenting that I had been well and truly forgotten …
By time. Surely mankind is in loss, except those who have faith, do good, and urge each other to truth, and urge each other to patience. Quran 103
It is not hate speech to express solidarity or sympathy for innocent people caught up in truly awful conflict situations. That is just to be human. To protest against indiscriminate violence disproportionally affecting women, children, the elderly and infirm has nothing whatsoever to do with supporting terrorists. It’s exactly what we’d expect of normal people …
The first email of the day and week convinces me that my superiors simply just don’t get it. Actually, the impression I have is that though they nod a lot whenever we meet, they don’t actually understand a word I’m saying. If I have consistently said we must prioritise accessibility, it now occurs to me …
Don’t be afraid of being called a heretic. Some of the greatest people that ever lived were called heretics in their time. Stand up for truth and justice, whatever the cost. You’re not accountable to the braying mob. You’re only accountable to God. Be just, even against yourself.
They’re everywhere. Some of them share my religion. Some the colour of my skin. Some my nationality. Some the religion I was raised in. Some of other religions, some of no religion at all. Some for an ideological cause. Some for nothing but a sports team. All of them hold one thing in common: they …
In the end, people will believe whatever they want to believe. In one workplace a few years ago, my colleagues insisted on telling me what I believed. When I told them that was not in fact the case, they insisted on telling me I was wrong anyway. Jabbing at their newspaper, they told me that …
Everywhere, we witness the scourge of nationalism, poisoning everything. Just be human.
It was once asked after an incident on the bus on my way home from school, “Why don’t you stand up for yourself?” But I never did, because I felt completely powerless. In truth, I didn’t know how to. So though that was the last time I told anyone what was going on, it carried …
When he had finished putting four children through private school and university, my father retired from an illustrious career in Law, and retrained as a parish priest. I think that is what I should do too: to pursue, once practical responsibilities are out of the way, my true calling. My father had been a lay …
And the Creator of all mankind addresses us: O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then …
I know I really shouldn’t write when I’m ill and sleep-deprived. But writing and turmeric milk are the only remedies I have. One for my soul, the other for my body. May God grant me shifa.
Look at the face in the photograph. That’s what everyone else saw. So reflect: no, it was impossible, all that you imagined. You were a skeleton then, so self-conscious and shy. Whatever you dreamed up, it was pure make-believe. The confusion of a confused soul. You had to patiently await your turn. Put everything in …
