Alienation is the state of being withdrawn or separated from a group, person, or situation to which one was formerly attached. There are quite a few definitions of alienation, including those specific to Marxism and psychiatry. The best definition, for our purpose, in the one above. Alienation in some ways isn’t particularly special or interesting. […]
June 1, 2020
March 2, 2020
Seeing God’s presence in the ‘little’ things
It is true. Nature brings us closer to God. We know, as human beings, that we did not create the sky, the dirt, the moon or the trees. It is difficult not to acknowledge that there is a “higher being,” “higher consciousness” or “mastermind” involved in the creation of nature —of those things that exist […]
November 19, 2019
Men are the maintainers… women are the keepers of the unseen…
God declares in surah 4, verse 34, that men are providers and maintainers of women and women are obedient to men and the “keepers of the unseen”. While the end of the verse is often what attracts our attention as modern readers because it is so at odds with our cultural conception of marriage, the […]
October 29, 2019
So, you walk in to a bar…
The tongue, Mohamed Ghilan states in his podcast episode entitled Prohibitions of the tongue: Part 1 of 6, is like a bar. If a Muslim walks into a bar, they might be going to simply get a glass of water or soda. Or it could be that the company they work for decides to hold an […]
September 30, 2019
Marital Rape
The conversation around consent has evolved over the past decade. 10 years ago, it wouldn’t be uncommon to hear a male character on a TV sitcom laugh about attempting to get a woman to sleep with them by giving them ample alcohol. It’d be equally as likely to see female characters laugh about “getting so […]
September 23, 2019
Why do people get married? (1)
Why do people get married? I was asked recently by a young woman after my lecture on the age of Lady ‘Aisha. Though the purpose of the question was vague, I answered anyhow; people marry for love, companionship, etc. Well, she followed up, how could someone find that with a 6-year-old? One of the biggest […]
August 30, 2019
Islamic studies
I stumbled across one of Sheikh Nuh’s old pamphlets that someone had given me years ago. Early in its pages, he lays out the profound difference between Academic Islamic studies and Traditional Islamic studies. He states: University degrees… indicate a certain earnestness and effort of those who possess them but it cannot take the place… […]
August 26, 2019
Prayer for connection
There was a time when I felt afraid of making dua. My reasoning? I didn’t want to be angry with God. If things didn’t work out -if I prayed for something that didn’t come to pass, what was I supposed to feel? If God didn’t give me what I wanted I feared I’d be left […]
August 6, 2019
Moving away from debate
When I started studying Islam somewhat seriously, I listened to everyone —perennial Sufis, Salafis, Shia, and traditional scholars. For a while my favorite scholar was Bilal Philips. It took a while until I found my way and when I did I stuck with. After a year or two of going to lectures and conferences, I […]
July 15, 2019
We need gender norms… but which ones?
She started to create a bizarre ritual where she would call the maid to the dining room, stand in place, then send the maid away. Through a bit of digging Freud discovered that her husband, to whom she was separated, had been impotent on their wedding night. After attempting several failed attempts to “deflower” his […]
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