Are you Muslim? …How Muslim are you? …No but, really…how Muslim are you? I get asked these questions, without fail, every time I perform my autobiographical one-woman show, All Atheists Are Muslim, a “boy meets girl” story about how I moved in with my whitey-white, atheist, infidel boyfriend, Duncan, and chose to tell my parents about it. And, no, I wasn’t disowned, forced into an arranged marriage or stoned in a ditch in my parents’ backyard. Perhaps it is the lack of stoning and... Read more
Torah A perspective on an interfaith relationship between a Jewish woman and Muslim man that didn’t work out. Thoughts? As a faithful Jew, and a faithful Muslim, there are limits to our love. It sounds fatalistic, but it’s the reality of our particular situation. There is no G-d but G-d. La Ilaha Illa Allah. And sometimes G-d’s children remain apart. Read the rest of the post, here Read more
Ali’a Ahmed Madani, 20, weightlifter, Sudan In light of the 2012 Olympics, take a look at the extraordinary photos & videos of Arab and Muslim women athletes in FT Magazine. “‘You should have it in your heart to do what you believe God wants you to do….[Sport] gives you confidence, it gives you structure, it gives you order – to be on time, practice, to encourage others … It gave me the ability to think I could do anything.” –... Read more
Why do love author & Love InshAllah contributor Patricia Dunn? Let us count the ways – Pat is an extraordinary writer, mother, friend, teacher, and mentor. She wrote a deeply honest piece on marital love and infertility for the anthology, a moving piece for this blog on her son’s cancer diagnosis, and this week shared a lovely piece in the Portland Book Review on why we are compelled to write, and the relationships that allow us to do so: When my son was receiving chemotherapy... Read more
Ed. note: This post won a Brass Crescent Award for being the ‘single most original and important post in the Islamosphere’ in 2012. O sisters let’s go down, Let’s go down, come on down. O sisters let’s go down, Down in the river to pray. – Alison Krause, Down to the River to Pray It’s hard for me to admit that light and darkness, love and rage, need and pain are entangled in my relationship with my mother. Every... Read more
One of the most meaningful aspects of Islam for me was the rule about no pre-marital sex. I came from a non-religious household. While my non-religious parents tried to non-religiously raise me with Judeo-Christian values, my total rejection of religion made futile any attempts by my mother to curtail raging teenaged hormones. Fast forward many years, many men who dumped me, many broken hearts and many relationships that might have worked out had I not been so willing to have... Read more
The 9th annual Brass Crescent Awards are open for nominations for the best blogs in the Islamosphere! We hope you’ll consider nominating the Love InshAllah blog for best new blog, best group blog and your favorite post on this site for best post/series. There is very little space for Muslim women and men to discuss the relationships – romantic, marital, Divine, familial, and those with friends and colleagues – that so deeply impact our lives. We’re proud to have created... Read more
Meghan Ward Love InshAllah editor Ayesha Mattu and contributor Zahra Noorbakhsh had a wonderful conversation with writer, editor and Writerland blogger Meghan Ward when they visited the SF Writers’ Grotto last week. MW: Ayesha, do you have a favorite story? ZN: Mine. You don’t have a favorite one besides mine, right? AM: Each one holds a sacred space. You are all my children. You are all equal. (laughter) Read the rest of the interview, here. Read more
NYU’s chaplain Imam Khalid Latif continues his Ramadan reflections this year at The Huffington Post. Check out hi piece from Day 3, “Considering Marriage”: “As a man, are you entitled to want to marry someone who will stay at home, cook, look after the kids and not work? Sure – but then don’t start a relationship with someone who doesn’t share a similar vision for her future. You will end up causing a lot more problems than you realize, mostly... Read more
We’re thrilled that Love InshAllah has been included on both the SFist’s summer reading list and that of author Minal Hajratwala! Read more
Love, InshAllah
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