Patheos Welcomes the “Love, InshAllah” blog

A few years back a manuscript (for review purposes) came mailed to my house, not too long after I joined Patheos as the managing editor of the Muslim channel. It was Love, InshAllah – The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women. I was hooked. Some chapters spoke to me, some shocked me and made me really uncomfortable, while others made me reflect more on love in my own relationships.  More than anything, it made me think of the conversations about love and relationships that I want to have with my children, ones that never occurred between my parents and me growing.

The editors, Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi, soon began a book and media tour for their new anthology, and word spread quickly. This book got people talking, and soon after a second anthology focusing on the love lives of American Muslim men followed. But perhaps just as intriguing and thought-provoking as the books, sometimes even more so, was the blog that Ayesha and Nura developed to carry on the conversations of love and faith among Muslims.

I am thrilled to announce that their blog, Love, InshAllah – Fresh Perspectives on Love, has come to Patheos Muslim. With great writers and editors like Deonna Kelli, Tanzila “Taz” Ahmed and Huda Al-Marashi (among others), you’re going to find so many posts and essays that push your buttons and make you think. Posts you will disagree with and ones that will speak to your soul.

Here’s more from Ayesha on Love, InshAllah

Love, InshAllah was a conversation between two best friends that became a book that became a community.

My co-editor Nura Maznavi and I didn’t see ourselves represented in the discourses of Muslim communities, or mainstream media and pop culture, so we decided to change that by sharing the stories we like best: love stories.

We wanted to connect and reveal our humanity to all of our communities  – to fellow Muslims and those of other faiths and backgrounds. We wanted to recognize & honor the true diversity within the Muslim community and to create a rare space where orthodox, secular & cultural Muslims of all backgrounds could connect and bear witness to each other’s lives. We wanted, simply, to share our real selves and stories in all their glorious complexity.

What began with 25 women writing their stories in the Love InshAllah anthology in 2012, became a global community with reader after reader reaching out to us, telling us that for the first time in their lives they saw themselves reflected in a Muslim narrative, that they no longer felt alone, that they too now had the courage to speak and to share their truth – with their friends, families and communities.

Our website, which initially grew out of the book, later also encompassed the companion anthology published earlier this year – Salaam Love, featuring Muslim men’s search for love.

Both anthologies focused on the search for romantic love, but the website features love and relationships – Divine, familial, romantic, friendship and more –  in their broadest sense: the pursuit of connection, community, social justice, beauty and excellence that lies at the heart of every human.

One of the most powerful ways we can begin to know one another is through listening to each other’s stories. Art and literature are not just reflections of the world, they have the power to effect, re-create, shape and move the world in different directions.

We’re thrilled to be sharing these irresistible and honest stories with you as we join the Patheos family – one that reflects our values & commitment to diversity, divergence, and complexity.

We hope you enjoy meeting our monthly and guest columnists, and look forward to hearing your story too. Write to us at stories@loveinshAllah.com We’d love to hear from you!

Welcome Love, InshAllah! We are so glad to have you at Patheos Muslim!