‘EVERY NATION HAS a trial, and the trial of my nation is wealth,’ said the Prophet ﷺ (Tirmidhi). He ﷺ also said: ‘By Allah, I do not fear poverty for you. Rather, I fear that worldly riches will be given to you as they were to those before you. You will compete for them as … Continue reading Rediscovering the Islamic View of Wealth
IT’S HARD TO miss Christmas if you live in the West right now. My neighbours have put up their lights, and a shop nearby is selling Christmas trees. The malls and stores are busy with people rushing to finish their shopping. I still remember the first time I learned about Christmas and Santa. I was … Continue reading A Muslim Reflection on the Christmas Season
DO NOT LET your heart become attached to the dunya. وَمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَآ إِلَّا مَتَـٰعُ ٱلْغُرُورِ “And what is the worldly life except the enjoyment of delusion.” (al-Hadid 20) This verse, “Wa mal-ḥayātud-dunyā illā matā‘ul-ghurūr,” contains two profound words that invite deep reflection. The first is dunyā. We often translate it as “worldly life,” yet in the Arabic … Continue reading The Worldly Life: A Means, Not an End
BLACK FRIDAY, CYBER Monday, mid-season discounts, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, summer sales, Halloween; the calendar is now filled with an ever-growing cycle of promotions, each urging us to spend. And spend we do. This raises two important questions: Why are we buying things we don’t need? And why are we buying … Continue reading Consumed by Consumerism: Buying Things We Don’t Need With Money We Don’t Have
IMAGINE FLEEING YOUR home. You leave everything behind, your family, your friends, your livelihood, because your iman is under attack. You cross the seas, you walk into an unknown land, hoping only for safety and freedom to worship Allah. This was the reality of the early Muslims who migrated to Abyssinia. They had escaped the persecution of … Continue reading Standing Firm: Lessons from the Muslims of Abyssinia
DO YOU SEE the world only as it is, or do you also see it as it should be? There is an incident from the seerah that struck me deeply when I first came across it many years ago. It took place in the early days of Makkah, when the believers were few and facing … Continue reading Seeing the World as It Is, and as It Should Be
THE QUESTION AFTER yesterday’s budget announcement is simple: who actually benefited from it? The answer is clear. Most people in Britain did not. They continue to face rising taxes in various forms while public services decline. The impact of this budget touches every part of the country, including the Muslim community. From the many discussions … Continue reading Wealth for the Few, Struggle for the Many
CONTINUING FROM OUR discussion about identity, I asked my daughter: Don’t we sometimes act as though we have different identities depending on whether we’re around Muslims or non-Muslims? For example, with Muslims, we say Bismillah, inshaAllah, alhamdulillah, and so on. But we rarely use these expressions in front of non-Muslims. But why is that? The … Continue reading Do We Have a “Muslim Switch”?
MID TO LATE autumn is always a busy time in the garden. The trees stand almost bare now. Their last leaves drift down, joining the golden mounds scattered across the lawn. I rake them up and add them to the compost heap, recycling at its finest. The herbaceous perennials that lit up the summer now … Continue reading Simple Pleasures: Autumn Gardening
WITH MY OLDER son at university and my youngest too young to talk, my daughter gets my full attention during the forty-minute school runs, twice a day. These drives are our special time, where conversations flow unexpectedly. Sometimes she talks, sometimes I do, but more often, we just share our thoughts together. Lately, I’ve noticed … Continue reading Rooted in Islam: Having a Consistent Identity
Living For Islam 