Fig & Olive

“Cover your hair when you pray,” I’ve wanted to say these six words to women many times over the years but with a small sigh of despair, I often do not. We all have various levels of modesty at different times in our life. Especially in the West, it can often be difficult to maintain […]

What was the purpose of Halima Aden’s inclusion in Sports Illustrated, Swimsuit Edition? Was it to show that ‘Muslim women can be sexy too’ or that, ‘Modesty is sexy too’ or simply that, ‘Muslim women can be in Sports Illustrated too’. Muslim women have been on the quest for ‘too’ ever since we were made […]

Focus on what’s essential and eliminate everything else -Greg Mckeown, Essentialism When I was in my early twenties and “discovered” the internet, a world of possibilities opened up to me. I taught myself how to create a WordPress website, I learned how to design flyers, I even learned a bit of code. I blogged, created a magazine, […]

Being 30 and childless I don’t take this information lightly, but I’ve come to appreciate truth over feel-good rhetoric. The reality is, the previous generation of women, and our society at large, has failed us. They told us that we could be just like the boys, that our twenties were for going to school, making […]

Deep Minimalism: The idea that too much of anything is a bad idea. Whether it’s too much food, too many clothes, too much scrolling, overconsumption is a distraction from ourselves and our Lord. I’ve been practicing intermittent fasting of late. Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where you deliberately fast from eating for a period […]

Traditional marriages where men are the primary breadwinners and women are homemakers are largely a pipe dream for African American women, or so I’ve been told. When I’ve discussed the issue of men being financial caretakers of women I’m often met with at least one man who tells me this idea is impossible for black […]

“Khadija was a tradeswoman of honor and wealth. She used to hire men to carry out her trade based on profit-sharing, as Quraysh were a people of commerce” (Seerah of Ibn Hisham). Upon learning of the prophet’s character she offered him a proposal to work for her in the same manner. Muslims utilize Khadija’s position […]

I spoke to Imam Dawud Walid of CAIR-MI over the weekend about sacred activism and the limits of ‘woke’ culture for our podcast episode on the subject, which will be released this week, inshaAllah. Part of our discussion covered the issue of Adab in activism. A subject that can feel deeply uncomfortable to some in […]

I have to say that for a while I was of the “you don’t have to change your name when you become Muslim” camp —which is technically true. You do not have to take on a “Muslim name” when you convert to Islam but my reasons expanded beyond this reality. My dad named his three eldest […]

The problem with forgoing rights is that you still know they belong to you, you may forgo them if everything is good but once there’s a crack in other areas that rocky foundation starts to fall apart. A friend may not ask you for the money they loaned you but if you go too long […]