Blog
Asalaamalaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu (May Allah shower you in tranquility, His Mercy and His Divine Aid)
This is an age of fast news, algorithms favouring the churning out of daily content with no heart and no soul embedded into it. An abundance of smiles and serenity on our screens - there seems to be so much love to go around, and yet we somehow still remain hungry. Starved. Women who seem to be bathing in Divine Light with their talk of closeness and connection with our Lord, yet we feel immobile and enfolded in darkness. Trauma that doesn’t seem like it wants to leave. And yet:
‘There is beauty yet in this brutal, damaged world of ours. hidden, fierce, immense’ - a. Roy.
We want these monthly newsletters to be a journey of creating and solidifying our sisterhood - the Newsletter aims to centre on Muslim women’s voices, with all of its rawness, wit, spirituality and strength and use it as a means of encouraging ourselves to re-establish our relationship with Allah with a foundation of Love and Hope. We truly believe in the power of story telling, of sharing, and ultimately Allah's Mercy.
This is a journey we hope you’ll take with us, one that will, bi’ithnillah, be filled with some healing, and inspiration.
Navigating Unrealistic Study Standards
With the COVID-19 pandemic taking over our lives for the last two years, I can only sympathise with students striving to get on with their education. Whilst learning at its core should be enjoyable it can often feel like a competition; to be at the top of the class, to get the best grades, to get into the colleges and universities of your choice.
The link between performing for male gaze and gossiping
Society has taught women the need to perform for the male gaze, to be the ‘good girl’, a pliant, pretty, perfect thing, a caricature that extinguishes our fire and nurtures a deep rage and hunger to be seen as our authentic selves. Gossiping is the ugly manifestation of that internal battle between performance and desire for authenticity.
The Life Balance Myth
Balance is one of those words that is overused and mostly seems unattainable. As young women we are taught that we must balance our work with our family commitments, we must balance studying and our career goals with seeking Islamic knowledge.
Growing and Changing Positively
If we were to view our lives as one great vast ocean, the changes in our life can exist as anything from the tiniest of ripples to the grandest of waves. The ocean is rarely completely still, and just like the deep blue expanse, our lives are in a constant state of flux, with new moments and memories being created all of the time due to these changes, even if they are so minute that we choose not to dwell on it.
Let me tell you what you never hear about growth.
Growing and learning about yourself can be incredibly overwhelming and confusing. It feels like jumping off a ledge not knowing if you have a safety net to catch you.