-
Women’s Empowerment in Pakistan: Meet Nabila
Nabila, a Pakistani woman, is making great strides as a professional now, but that wasn’t always the case. At 16-years-old, she was married. Within a year of marriage, she became a widow with a baby boy to care for. Her husband had fallen ill and was on his deathbed for 16 days. While she waited at his bedside, his family grew suspicious. They eventually put her and her young son out, believing that it was Nabila who caused her husband’s illness and ultimately death. She had nowhere to go but back to stay with her father. Although he worked hard as a driver, his salary still wasn’t enough to support…
-
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,…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Ramadan Reflections: Day 21 Nafs Hack with Tariq Touré
Nafs Hack: Putting the Phone Away Assalamu alaikum! This is Tariq here with IRUSA’s Nafs Hack. My Nafs Hack is this little device right here (points to his phone) that has so much of our attention, including mine. During this month of Ramadan, we want to make sure that our attention as much as possible is on building our connection with Allah (SWT). So, in doing that, one of the most practical Nafs Hacks that I use for myself is that I never go to bed with this little bad boy near me. This phone which has an alarm clock on it as well to wake me up for fajr,…
-
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…
