Fig & Olive

A few months ago my sister (Ustadha Faatimah) and I hosted a Facebook livestream on the topic of “Fangirling” in the context of the female student of knowledge and male shuyukh relationship. Alhumdulilah it was a good discussion and everyone who tuned in contributed a great deal to the topic. This is a summary of […]

The story of Yusuf, peace to him, is unique in the Quran in that Allah provides us with a great deal of detail. Many prophets and righteous people are mentioned in the Quran but their stories are usually brief and only give us a small insight into their lives. In Surah Yusuf Allah tells us, […]

When I would hear about how much clothes the average American threw away yearly I’d mentally pat myself on the back knowing that my family would never dream of throwing away clothes, we gave our old clothes to the salvation army. But as I continued to learn about the consumption habits of the typical Westerner […]

The bare minimum for a man to cover his ‘awra’ (‘nakedness’ according to Islamic law) is much less than that for women. Men must cover from their navel to their knees and women must cover all of themselves except their hands and face. That is the law, but the spirit of Islam dictates that male […]

There’s an old saying that behind every great man is a great woman, I think most of us still believe that but we nevertheless would rather the woman stand for herself instead of behind her man. A lot of what feminists —Muslim feminists included, complain about and fight against are legitimate concerns, but in reality, within an […]

I’ve discussed the issue of shaykhy crush/fangirling from both the student and teacher’s perspective before and as much as many seem to enjoy creating villains and victims I don’t think most of these cases are as clear-cut as people would like to pretend they are. A victim is someone who is preyed upon, a villain […]

Decided to make a video today discussing one of my favorite books, Fascinating Womanhood by Helen Andelin. I read this book quite a few years ago -before getting married and now I’m rereading it. The book is such a powerful reminder in a society that urges us to be “gender neutral”, that there are values […]

“And do not insult one another and do not call each other by [offensive] nicknames.” [49:11] Let me first say that the argument about whether white people should get to use the n-word is both tired and played out —the answer has always been no. It is a word used within a particular community and that has […]

If you grew up a generation or two before mine —or within particular cultures (Caribbean or African for example), you know that when you were a kid, no one really cared about what you had to say. There was such a thing as a “grown ups table” and a “kid’s table” at large family gatherings. […]

Liberals and far-right conservatives (within and outside the Muslim community) have the same problem -they think that one can read absolutely anything into Islam/Islamic texts (primarily the Quran and Hadith). Reza Aslan, bless his heart, continuously goes on TV and talks about his “version” or “interpretation” of Islam, his “reading” of the Quran and his […]