I often wonder about love after death. After the bodies are buried, janazas are done, and people become memories – how do we love souls then? Is it in the past, like a faded memory? Does loving end when the grief ends? Can we continue to love, and have our lives shaped by that love, after the person is gone? What if…. they never actually really leave? How do we love through transitions into the hereafter? This past July, I went... Read more
The Real Ones Something happened in the development sector Something we forgot Something we should have known That humans aren’t blank slates Awaiting our arrival To scribble new thoughts, new words, new ways of living Over their faces That humans aren’t blank slates Awaiting our arrival To draw them anew and say Now you know How to live, how to think, how to behave Now you have rights We don’t walk into empty fields, we don’t walk into barren lands,... Read more
Columbia University hosted the second annual symposium, The Muslim Protagonist: “A Synthesis of Journeys” this past weekend, sponsored by Columbia University’s Muslim Student Association. The event featured Muslim writers, artists, and other emerging creative voices. An event like this is evidence that Muslim cultural creatives are moving into the space of cultural producers rather than just cultural consumers, inshAllah. You know the cool part? Our influence is global. And as we celebrate our own identity, we also intersect with humanity on issues... Read more
“‘I love you’ scares me,” he admitted, looking nervous. “I’m not sure I know what it even means.” I sighed with exasperation. It means everything, I thought. You could paraphrase it as I see you. Better yet, I read you. There’s nothing else important to say, really. I didn’t become a hopeful romantic because of rom-coms or Disney. I grew up without a television in a progressive household, and though my parents have a marriage suitable for any American dream... Read more
All I heard was the word “friends”. Everything after that was muffled. To be quite honest, I wasn’t really listening. He could have told me the building was on fire and I would have just kept smiling and nodding. I was in the friends zone. Maybe intentionally. Maybe not. Regardless it was a smack in the face. I thought this is how Biz Markie must have felt. I should have just busted out in rhymes in the middle of the... Read more
I recently decided to step back from actively searching for someone to marry. I’m serious and interested, but aspects of the Muslim matchmaking process are strange for me. I lost my beloved wife, Joan, just over a year ago. The prospect of starting over with someone new after sixteen years of marriage is daunting. I am a forty-year-old white American male, but I am also Muslim. Some readers may respond, “So what?” But I’ve discovered that when you are a member... Read more
I have a problem with Jerry Maguire. It’s got nothing to do with Tom Cruise’s toothy grin or with the fact that I can’t watch Renee Zellweger without thinking of her character in Empire Records. I take issue with one of the most famous lines from the film: “You complete me.” People, can we just stop for a minute. Not only does he say it, but then apparently there was never any need for him to say it because he had... Read more
Love, Inshallah presents an author interview podcast with The Faith Club author, Ranya Tabari Idliby, as she discusses her memoir, Burqas, Baseball, and Apple Pie: Being Muslim in America. Deonna Kelli Sayed (DKS): This is Deonna Kelli Sayed for www.patheos.com/blogs/loveinshallah. Ranya Tabari Idliby is an American-Muslim writer. You’ve probably heard of her first book, the celebrated The Faith Club: A Muslim, a Christian, a Jew: Three Women Search for Understanding, which featured an interfaith group of female friends promoting common ground... Read more
Inter-Dependent I wanted to show you what I saw And heard And understood But it was so boring Like talking to myself A conversation I had before Things I already know And I know you don’t know it But it was boring nevertheless Because to explain I have to say too much Describe too much Contextualize And if I don’t explain I say Nothing I saw Wheat fields and corn fields carefully cultivated Spreading as far as the eye can... Read more
Happy Valentine’s Day to our readers – we love you! Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve. Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book... Read more
Love, InshAllah
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