I’ll admit, it’s a bit of a slippery slope sometimes, and I don’t always know what I’m doing, but that’s the art of living I guess. You never know for sure what is a good or bad thing, you just do the best you can, roll with the punches, and hope that it is enough.
I’m not slating the technological advances we’ve experienced because Lord only knows that I’ve met some of the greatest people in my life through these means, but there comes a point where you start to lose sight of what’s right in front of you because of all the other lovely things there are to see in the world.
It is high time that we take the reigns and create for our communities exactly what we needed to find Allāh ﷻ, even in the depths of our sins. And that, is precisely what Ustādh Shabbir and Shaykh Hasib have managed to do. They've cultivated a space that isn't imposing, free of judgement, and does exactly what it says in its title - allows you to come to faith as you are.
I have told myself, before anyone else could, that my face in its natural state is not enough. I've told myself that my nose is too big, my cheeks too plump, my eyes too small, but most importantly, that my face will only look better when it's not my face.
The days are dark, and the light seems as though it will never shine upon us, but we’re going to power through anyway and hold on to the most powerful thing we have, hope. The tides will inevitably change, and our paths will too often stray from the linear one we’d hoped for it to stay on, but that isn’t always a bad thing; sometimes what we need is different to what we want and it is in the right timing and situation that all which is right for us will align and make its self apparent.
On the good days and the bad, I reached out for my comfort book and read it cover to cover until my little brain pleaded with me to change it up a bit and read something new. But, my goodness, that book changed me.
And that’s the biggest difference in this new year of life. For so long I have lived for everyone else that I forgot that I’m a person too, and I deserve to be cared for by me.
On some mornings I still stand in front of the mirror for a minute too long and have to fight the urge to knock all of these products off the sink, but I have to take a moment to remind myself that this is for me. It hasn't always been for me, but it is now. I owe it to myself to be kind to my body, mind, and soul.
