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Islamic Relief USA’s Goals Centered On Compassion and Social Justice
The following is a guest blog post by Amna Amin, an intern with Islamic Relief USA’s Public Affairs department. Muslims have been in the United States since the 1600s, as many people who identified with the Islamic tradition were among those taken across the ocean via the atrocities of the slave trade in Africa. Of the slaves brought over, approximately 15% were Muslim. Even more had contact with Islam before coming to North America. Consequently, Islamic values became embedded within the earliest culture of the United States. In fact, Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers, owned a Qur’an and even wanted to specifically mention Muslims and their religious freedom…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 29 Nafs Hack with Fatimah Aulaqi
Nafs Hack: Maintaining Your Happiness Assalamu alaikum. My name is Fatimah Aulaqi, and this is your Ramadan Nafs Hack. Many of the viewers know that this is my eighth year living with multiple sclerosis. It’s an autoimmune disease that attacks your central nervous system. What keeps me going every day is Allah (SWT) and my tawakkul. I keep my whole trust in Allah (SWT) knowing he gave me this chronic illness for a reason. I always go by this verse in the Qur’an, ‘Allah (SWT) does not put burden on a soul more than they can bear.’ I know that Allah (SWT) has given me this illness for a reason,…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 28 Nafs Hack with Syed M. Hassan
Nafs Hack: Getting Through Dense Islamic Texts Salaam alaikum, everyone! This is Syed M. Hassan from Islamic Relief USA’s Public Affairs Department. For today’s Nafs Hack, I wanted to talk to you about the importance of incorporating Islamic teachings and Islamic advice, especially the ones you get from reading and studying Islamic texts. A lot of Islamic texts tend to be very voluminous, very large, but they’re chock-full of information. To give you an example, last year I read two books: Forty Hadiths and Nahjul Balagha, the famous sayings and famous teachings of Imam Ali. And both of these books were great, I enjoyed reading them a lot, and I…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 27 Nafs Hack with Suhaib Webb
Nafs Hack: Discipline Your Nafs Salaam alaikum wa rahmutallah. My name is Suhaib, and this is my Nafs Hack. You know in order to discipline the nafs, you’ve got to take away something that it likes—something it finds value in. One of the scholars said the nafs is like an infant. If you just let it breastfeed, it will continue. But if you ween it, you will discipline it. So here’s something that I do that I would encourage you to think about doing, and that is any day that you miss fajr or any of the prayers—but fajr particularly—don’t post anything on social media. Your nafs will go crazy.…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 26 Nafs Hack with Walid Hamadeh
Nafs Hack: Don’t Waste Time Assalamu alaikum! This is Walid Hamadeh, and this is my Nafs Hack. So, have you ever felt pressured with your day-to-day tasks? Have you ever felt like there’s just so much piling up and you don’t know what to do? Do you ever wake up in the morning and think, ‘Oh man, I have so many things to do’, and you don’t know where to start and you end up not doing anything? Well, it happens to all of us. It happens to me especially. I think the problem is we have really poor time management. Essentially, we like to waste a lot of time.…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 25 Nafs Hack with Rowaida Abdelaziz
Nafs Hack: Personalizing Your Dua’a Assalamu alaikum wa rahmutallah. My name is Rowaida Abdelaziz. I’m a reporter, and I’m here to share your daily Nafs Hack. My Nafs Hack for you all today is about the power of dua’a and personalizing your dua’a. We all know Ramadan is a special time for worship and ibada. We fast, we pray, we read the Qur’an. But dua’a is on another spiritual level for me, and I want to give you all some tips about how you can personalize your dua’a for the month of Ramadan and insha’Allah making it into habit until after the month. One of the beautiful things about our…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 24 Nafs Hack with Ahmed Aduib
Nafs Hack: Be Positive A Nafs Hack that I try to abide by and follow every day is I try to remind myself to always think positive. If I wake up in the morning and I’m having a bad day and there’s a lot of things on my mind, I basically just talk to myself on my ride to work or on my commute anywhere throughout the day. I just remind myself on all the good things that I have in life—the family that’s around me, the friends that are around me. I try to remind myself of the good things that I have. If I just constantly think of…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 23 Nafs Hack with Sami Shaban
Nafs Hack: Evaluating Goals in Ramadan Salaam wa alaikum! My name is Sami Shaban, and here’s my Nafs Hack. Often times throughout the year, I find that I get caught up in the daily grind. Going from work to family to other really important things, but things that might not be on point for the goals that I’ve set out for myself. I like to use Ramadan as a point of reflection—a spiritual checkpoint, where I get to look back at the past year and see where I may be hitting the ball out of the park or coming up short, or maybe even adding a goal that I didn’t…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 22 Nafs Hack with Sana Mahmood
Nafs Hack: Zhikr in Your Daily Routine Assalamu alaikum. My name is Sana Mahmood, and for my Nafs Hack, I’m going to be talking about how to bring zhikr into your daily routine. We live in a fast paced society, and it can get really tough to slow down and remember Allah (SWT), especially in times when we’re not praying. So, while I’m commuting or if I’m cooking, while I’m doing some of these mindless tasks, I like to do my zhikr. As I do my zhikr, I am able to really reflect upon my day. I’m able to reflect about my nafs, the state of my heart. In those…
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Ramadan Reflections: Day 20 Nafs Hack with Preacher Moss
Nafs Hack: Be Kind Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatalahu wa barakatu. My name is Preacher Moss, and I’m here with my Ramadan Nafs Hack. So, the moral of this story that I’m about to tell you is be nice to people during Ramadan and especially outside of Ramadan. My reflection is this: Years ago, I was a young Muslim, and I was struggling with Ramadan. I basically took my shahada two weeks before Ramadan came. There I was man—going through Ramadan, starving, waiting in line. The people weren’t bringing the food fast enough. I got really upset, and I stormed out because they didn’t know I was fasting. I remember I…
