Fig & Olive

You can’t attach to the goal and remain attached to God. I’ll share a bit about myself, which I try not to do too often, and that is that I was attached to a goal. Maybe not much to say, aren’t we all? But it only recently dawned on me just how deeply attached I […]

Alienation is the state of being withdrawn or separated from a group, person, or situation to which one was formerly attached.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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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… […]

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 […]

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 […]