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What They Didn’t Tell You: An Unauthorized Guide to Post-Shahada Life

By: Tricia P. Long after the celebratory shouts that accompanied your acceptance into Islam have faded into the past, a hard reality emerges. Many online resources deal with what should take place after your shahada–few deal with what actually can happen. I am here to tell the cautionary tale about what happens all too often, and what you can do to avoid the pitfalls of a post-shahada life. Soon after your shahada,... Read More →

Choice

Everything is a distinct choice. You must choose to do the right thing. You must choose to become stronger. You must choose to succeed. You must choose to go on every day. You don’t realize it most days because the choice came so naturally and there was no question about it. You chose with the same amount of effort as it takes to blink. But other days you can’t open your eyes. You lay there in bed; curling under your... Read More →

It’s a bird… it’s a plane… it’s… Baba!

When I was a child, I loved to get piggy-back rides from my father. I would run over, jump onto his back, and make him walk around with me clinging onto his chest and back. I thought he was the strongest, most amazing man in the world and that he could never do anything wrong. In many ways, I put my father on a pedestal in my mind; he was invincible, untouchable. For those of us who, alhamdulilLahi Rabb al-`alameen (all... Read More →

Is Hijab Really Overrated?

Is Hijab Really Overrated? © By Umm Zakiyyah It’s something we hear all the time—if we aren’t saying it ourselves:  “Why are people always talking about hijab?  There are more important things in Islam.” For years, this sentiment has stumped me, not because I have no response… But because I have difficulty understanding how anyone who believes in Allah could utter something like this. Because the... Read More →

Event: Women’s Rights in Islam at UCSB

By: Sifat Reazi Zaytuna College Scholar Discusses Women’s Rights in Islam at UCSB Social networking, texting, and email were abuzz last month in Santa Barbara. Not often does the small coastal city host Muslim scholars with backgrounds in both traditional and Western education. One might have assumed a pop star was dropping by. As a diverse congregation of about 150 rustled into an antiquated lecture hall, one could... Read More →

Just the Way You Are

Abercrombie & Fitch just came out with a push up bikini top… for seven year old girls. The news channel I was watching this on interviewed a few moms who said that this would cause girls at such a young age to start thinking about themselves in a sexual manner. They will understand faster and clearer what’s hot and what’s not. We all know how that story ends. Low self-esteem, negative body image, and increased... Read More →

What Happens to Alcohol When Cooked

When we’re dining out and discover the recipe we’re dying to enjoy was prepared with alcohol, should we wave the concern away with the common understanding that “it burns off or evaporates from the heat?” I think we’d probably react differently to beer-battered shrimp than to teriyaki, although both traditionally employ significant amounts of alcohol.  I wondered, though, what the purpose of cooking with alcohol... Read More →

Nadoona

Changing the World, One Calorie at a Time! Health is a part of our deen. Allah gave us our bodies, we are entrusted with them, and only we can control what we do to them. No one is holding up french fries and candy bars, forcing us to eat. No matter what we’re served, at the end of the day we’re the ones who control what our hands pick up to place in our mouths. We are eating way too much, and our food selections,... Read More →