There’s pollen dusting the skylight windows of the sunroom. It softens the edges of the sunbeams that fall inside, casting shadows of leaves on the gauzy white curtains. Right now, the room is empty because I’ve claimed it for homework, but I can still hear my parents and three sisters sounding like a circus in …
I would like to ask Average American Joe’s apologies for: The genocide that cut the American Indian population from 100% of what became the United States, down to 1.6% due to attacks on their homeland, theft of said land, forced migration, and the spread of white person-borne diseases. The enslavement of 4 million human beings, …
Of course I miss the iftar parties, the rush to get to the masjid before the taraweeh parking ran out, the hugs and the recitation of my own college classmates during long hours of prayer. That’s all a given. But in Ramadan 2020, I learned I can pray 8 rakaat of taraweeh all on my …
They make it easy for you to have lengthy WhatsApp conversations with your friends when you should really, really be sleeping – maybe at 1 a.m. or some days close to 5 a.m., and you’re all exhausted and yet no one can seem to stop talking about the Civilized Frog Thread on Twitter or the …
Like most Muslim kids, I was expected to memorize at least a few chapters of the Quran. Unlike most Muslim kids, my mom – who had taught herself Arabic and the rules of its pronunciation in her adulthood – wanted me to memorize it all. We quickly learned that I was not an especially gifted …
People sometimes ask me, “Why do you only write about Islam and Muslims?” They say, “Shouldn’t you branch out, cover some other topics, too?” They’re not wrong. I should branch out more, just like everyone else needs to expand their horizons in some way. I do want to cover other topics, anyway – topics that …
There were 50 victims of the Christchurch shooting, and we laid out 50 prayer rugs, collected from various members of the Muslim Students Association. We worried that only Muslims would come. We were wrong. All of us, in our grief, needed to see that crowd, drenched in sunset, faces tipped up towards the ten of …
Shakoor, Amira Mustafa, President of MSA, texted in the WhatsApp group used by the organization’s board members. What’s this qiyam thing? Shakoor Afzal, Community Service Chair, texted back a moment later: a general body member had asked if the organization could host one, and so immediately he’d dropped a message in all of MSA’s multiple …
My favorite dessert is ras malai. For those of you who haven’t had it, it’s spongey little cakes of Indian dessert cheese that are served in a bowl of saffron and pistachio-flavored milk cream. They’re light on your tongue and dissolve almost instantly, more air than anything else. The last time my family went to …
You always say, “I’m sad,” and I know you are, with good reason. You were diagnosed with high-functioning autism late, after fifteen years of everyone wondering why you talked a little too slow, processed things a little too late. You still haven’t accepted your diagnosis, even though you’re twenty years old now. You don’t want …