My problem with traditional desi marriage

Last updated on: November 3, 2014 at 11:16 am By Posted by The Editors

Eds. Note: This is a response to yesterday’s guest post, How I met my son’s mother. Have a perspective to share on love and relationships? Read our guidelines, here. Update 11/26/13: Congratulations to writer Aisha Saeed on this post being chosen by the editors of WordPress for Freshly Pressed, highlighting the best posts on WordPress. In an email to www.patheos.com/blogs/loveinshallah, WordPress said: “Aisha Saeed’s response to your guest post about arranged marriages was a really powerful and articulate call for fairness and... Read more

How I Met My Son’s Mother

Last updated on: November 3, 2014 at 11:16 am By Posted by The Editors

Eds. Note 11/22/13: We are strongly committed to airing a diversity of perspectives to undermine the imposition of a single story and to contribute to honest discussions and a more inclusive ummah. That said, based on your feedback, we also understand that many of you view this site as a safe space and may experience triggers reading this piece. We welcome your responses. See our guidelines, here. “Here, I have her bio data from your aunt.” With a gleam in her eye,... Read more

Love Thyself (Inshallah)

Last updated on: November 3, 2014 at 11:16 am By Posted by The Editors

Bookstores are my turf. They’re my territory, where I live and breathe. I’m intimately familiar with all aspects of it: from the selling of books (bookseller, two years) to the buying of books (lifetime member of Bookaholics Anonymous, which, like most things, is a figment of my overactive imagination), from the writing of books to the reading of them. I will devour any word on any page. And yet…there is a part of this kingdom I’ve refused to go near:... Read more

Painted Hands With Jennifer Zobair

Last updated on: November 3, 2014 at 11:16 am By Posted by The Editors

Loveinshallah asked Jennifer Zobair, author of Painted Hands, to share insights on her novel, the writing process, and the dynamics of Muslim fiction in contemporary society. Click here to listen to audio of the author reading a passage from the book. How would you describe Painted Hands to a reader in fifty words or less? Painted Hands is about successful Muslim women in Boston. Zainab is a sharp-tongued campaign strategist with a penchant for generating controversy. Amra is an ambitious attorney.... Read more

broken

Last updated on: November 3, 2014 at 11:16 am By Posted by The Editors

What is a poet when he runs out of poetry it is a man who has run out of blood a woman who has run out of breath I have run out of my self into the street where the banshees are screaming blue and red onto the face of my secret I can write when my heart is broken in two but can’t when my heart is broken into the authorities said there was no sign of struggle, it... Read more

Faith, Identity & Storytelling

Last updated on: November 3, 2014 at 11:16 am By Posted by The Editors

An excellent conversation with 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar on faith, identity & storytelling at Princeton University. http://vimeo.com/76538759 Read more

Divorced Ramblings

Last updated on: November 3, 2014 at 11:16 am By Posted by The Editors

I am twenty-two-years old. I am a rebellious daughter, a fierce writer, a determined feminist, a fiery niqaabi. I have been to six countries, living in three of them. I have a three-year-old daughter. And I am divorced. Most people don’t know what to say, how to react. Some give me condolences, a sympathetic hand squeeze, a look of pity and sorrow. Others frown, shake their hands, mutter that I look too happy, too relieved, that my smile is too... Read more

Ghosts, Magic and Love

Last updated on: November 3, 2014 at 11:16 am By Posted by The Editors

I left my twelve-year marriage two years ago this week. The decision was a long time coming, yet the final countdown involved a weekend at an abandoned haunted asylum hunting ghosts in the dark with a religious philosophy professor and his wife. We found our way to a room where four people allegedly committed suicide, and the rest of the evening passed in lofty dialogue about metaphysical issues regarding life after death, Heidegger’s philosophy, long-term commitment (the professor and his... Read more

Tiny little red lights leading the way to my heart

Last updated on: November 3, 2014 at 11:16 am By Posted by The Editors

Eds. Note: Yasmine Khan shared her unfolding love story in the Love InshAllah anthology. Here, she continues her story of becoming a wife to Yasser and mother to 10-year-old Lemon. My beloved blog sweepthesunshine.com has been resurrected with upgrades and updates, and, in scrolling back through old posts, I wish I had written more over the last 12 months, if only to have a coherent record of what was quite possibly the most challenging yet rewarding year of my life. My... Read more

Poetry

Last updated on: November 3, 2014 at 11:16 am By Posted by The Editors

Poetry When a woman loves a man, when she opens her self to him, he can hurt her even by silence, caginess She should keep some defenses, a piece of her shield but it's mostly impossible if love is love She unfolds If he is not noble If he is not clean of heart If he has not learned discernment— she is done for Poetry is like being in love with the world ~ From Mohja Kahf’s unpublished love poetry... Read more