While a public declaration of faith is not for me, in a way I’m glad that the mild-mannered are at last speaking up and making themselves heard. Glad because it counters the raucous voices that teem online. My only hope that they’re not swept along with the ugly vitriol, but instead become anchors amidst the …
In a month’s time, I will have been Muslim exactly twenty-five years. In that time, I cannot say that everything has been easy. A lot of this period has been characterised by me tripping and stumbling onwards. For years, every Ramadan I would resolve to sit and study the Quran, but more often than not …
Advice received from an older gentleman with that extra chromosome: My advice to a younger sufferers is find the love of your life, stay together no matter what and make your dreams come true. Wonderful advice, so true. Truly, a good woman and faith is all we need. Well, also treatment, obviously, and possibly counselling.
Say, “Come! Let me recite to you what your Lord has forbidden to you. Do not associate others with Him. Honour your parents. Do not kill your children for fear of poverty. We provide for you and for them. Do not come near indecencies, openly or secretly. Do not take a life—made sacred by God—except …
Sometimes I work on a project for days, weeks, even months — investing my heart and soul in it — only for it to occur to me all of a sudden: “This so dumb, stupid.” Yep, and I’ve just have one of those moments. So dumb.
We all need such a space. Those of us that don’t have one, I suppose, must create our own. For sure, my heart yearns for such a place. Perhaps one weekend I will make pilgrimage to their humble dwelling for an afternoon. It reminds me of that place of my dreams, on a journey up …
Did We not relieve your heart for you and ease you of the burden that weighed so heavily on your back, and raised high for you your repute? So, surely with hardship comes ease. Indeed, with hardship comes more ease. So when you have finished your duties, then stand for worship, and to your Lord …
“I’d love to see a Scotsman becoming the leader of a Pakistani political party.” Your political and historical awareness is lamentable. Time to give Sathnam Sanghera’s Empireland a read and develop a little humility.
I was not raised a pacifist. Like many of my generation, I was brought up hearing tales of World War Two heroism, my parents having been born just after the war. There was no squeamishness about warfare in my upbringing. For us children, it was quite normal for us to spend our weekends clambering over …
WordPress asks me today, “Who was your most influential teacher and why?” That would be my English language teacher when I went to sixth form college. Influential because she was the first teacher who attempted to convince me that I wasn’t a dunce and actually had some potential. I suppose she was the teacher who …
And, just like that, another year zips past. Where did it go? What can we say? How will we be accounted? Life fleets past in the blink of an eye. Ramadan mubarak to you all. May the Most Merciful shower his infinite mercy on you and your family during this blessed month. May the One …
