Fig & Olive

If you enjoy reading our blog consider subscribing to our substack where you can enjoy a free or paid newsletter subscription delivered straight to your email. Here are a few snippets of our posts thus far, hope to see you there. Sign up here. Should You Join a Tariqa I sat in on various tariqa […]

“Only God can judge me” is often said flippantly as a way to discourage judgment from others, nevertheless, it is true. We know that in Islam, as my teacher once said, “We judge by what’s apparent”. Yet “what’s apparent” is also all we can judge by. We don’t have insight into a person’s heart, we […]

Of late, I keep recalling these varied moments from other places. The times I waited for a taxi in Marrakech, hands filled with groceries. I should have kept it simple, dived into the culture around me, and shopped at the local grocery store—what we’d call a bodega back in Brooklyn. Brooklyn, the place where I […]

The ancient Egyptians of Musa’s time dealt heavily in magic. Magicians were of the most prominent people in society and when Pharaoh wanted to defeat Musa, peace be upon him, he called on the top magicians to do so. The job of a magician is to fool people. The best of magicians do so seamlessly […]

As Muslims, we’ve needed to talk about the internet for a long time. It’s a conversation that is grossly overdue. We joke about ‘Sheikh Google’ but seldom interrogate our relationship and dependence on the search engine. Often when we inquire about the downside of our relationship with the internet it’s limited to social media –perhaps […]

—But dad He said cutting his father short. The rubble His tone was absent of emotion, the illusion of calm, the voice of someone who’d been shocked far too many times. The absence of emotion as if there was none left to have. The rubble He said again as if he’d asked a question. Though […]

We suffer because we lack distraction. Healing is important, working on childhood wounds is crucial, and setting boundaries is valuable. But the occupation with the self and being exactly right in order to face the world is also simply a consequence of having no distractions. Real distractions, not the distractions that flicker across our screens […]

For some people, the issue of homosexuality is completely irrelevant. There is no point of discussion on the topic because their stance is clear based on their respective religion and/or worldview. For others, homosexuality is a non-issue because it is understood as yet another category of identity to be checked off on a list — […]

Something I’ve wondered for about 20+ years; are loner’s better off in the age of social media? While the idea of the ‘lone genius’ may be a way to neaten historical realities instead of an absolute truth—as James Bridle states in his book A New Dark Age, “the lie to the heroic narrative of history — […]

Women’s dislike of polygyny is similar to men’s resistance to their role as providers. As I discussed in this post women don’t have any power to stop a man from marrying again. That is, polygamy (restricted conditional polygyny as dictated by Islam) is 100% the domain of a man to choose to engage in, or […]

Amongst the condemnations, calls for resignations, and numerous accusations, one sentiment is seldom present; we have to pray for our leaders. Leaders have power over their people, many of whom are vulnerable or at the very least have given a portion of themselves over to them. They have said, “we see your success in this […]