Oh women! Allah raised your status from beneath the ground to the heavens. You were considered nothing— buried alive in Pre-Islamic Arabia— then He elevated you. You are the glad tidings to Jannah for your parents when you are born. You are a best friend to your siblings. You save your spouse from the fire of hell; you complete half his faith. It was for you the Prophet of Allah (pbuh) said, “paradise is beneath the feet of the mothers.”... Read more
Healthy eating is probably one of the biggest motherhood struggles. It stresses them out. Moms go into healthy mode and look up recipes on Pinterest. They save them to their board and wipe out the kitchen from all the ‘junk food’ and vow to never let their kids breathe chocolate or candy every again. That lasts for a few days…if you’re lucky. Then it’s back to the old eating habits. Those Pinterest recipes get forever stored on your board and... Read more
After having two boys, I was thrilled to have a girl. Throughout my pregnancy, people reminded me to read Surah Yusuf lest I have an ugly child. Not to argue its merit, but I had always found this advice to be off-putting. It would be accompanied by an encouraging smile, which made me feel like my husband and I were ogres and that between the two of us only Surah Yusuf could save our poor child. I have a confession,... Read more
If you are a parent with school-age children, you may have experienced a time when your child had a hard time with a certain subject or class at school Sometimes, though, a child will struggle with processing different types of verbal or non-verbal information. This can indicate that a child has a learning disability. Learning disabilities typically lead to children struggling in one or more important learning skill including reading, writing or math. A psycho-educational assessment completed by a psychologist... Read more
We woke our children up with extra gentleness the morning after inauguration day. The night was too long, filled with sad, sleepless thoughts about the road ahead. Calls for optimism filled our social media feed, but many of us were still busy calming the anxiety within ourselves and our homes. We had some dark dreams that night, but it’s morning now, the children are awake, and God is the light of the heavens and the earth. Islam teaches us that... Read more
The moment we all look forward to when we’re pregnant: holding our precious babies in our arms after they’re born. Our emotions are made up of some combination of joy, relief, comfort, longing, exhaustion, excitement, and anxiety to name a few. We hold this tiny human being that was living inside of us and we think “did this really just happen?” The concept of becoming a mother is phenomenal and miraculous to say the least. We spend nine months preparing... Read more
Child rearing is difficult beyond measure. There’s nothing that could have prepared you fully for this, and no end in sight to the multitude of tasks that lie ahead. Some of you have slowly begun to forget the world outside, the work you did, the things you learned, the dreams you have. The strength, ambition and drive that you had before have been severely depleted. Your relationship with your spouse has slowly changed. You want to be the you that... Read more
When I found out I was joining the Grow Mama team, I tried to think of a topic or theme to write about. With all of the heart-wrenching news I come across on a daily basis, I wanted to write about something light and relatively mindless. After some soul-searching, I settled on one of my most embarrassing yet wildly entertaining past times – celebrity news. And then Trump won. I decided to share an incident that shook and challenged me... Read more
Assalamu Alaikum mamas and mamas-to-be. Congratulations to you and your family on your bun in the oven. May Allah bless you with a healthy and happy baby who lives and strives off faith and Islam. Motherhood! A very exciting experience and something I believe most women desire and dream for, as we are born nurtures. Amidst all the excitement, shopping, and getting our homes ready for this new addition to the family, sometimes we forget our spiritual connection with that Exalted... Read more
When I married my husband, people were very happy for us alhamdulillah, but as my husband comes from a Ukrainian Catholic family, there was one concern that seemed to come up again and again from people: “OMG! What are you going to do about Christmas?” “When you have kids, you’re not going to let them celebrate Christmas are you??” I had of course thought about this too but these questions only served to create anxiety. Looking back now I view... Read more
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