I spent my life running after the creation. I have always been what you might call ‘needy’. I needed friends, I needed people. All the time. And I couldn’t handle letdowns. But at the heart of what makes us run after the creation, is simply love. The need to give and receive love. This need… Read More
Emotional bullying and being a ‘loser’ in marriage By: Yasmin Mogahed A few weeks ago, an article was widely circulated about a woman whose husband told her he was leaving and she decided to ‘ignore’ him (and his feelings) until they magically disappeared (See: http://theweek.com/article/index/99512/the-last-word-he-said-he-was-leaving-she-ignored-him#) . As I read the article, I did something… Read More
Picking up the Wrong Ball By: Yasmin Mogahed Everyone has problems. At least that’s what my 7th grade teacher told us. He asked us to imagine rolling up all our problems into a ball and throwing that ball on a pile filled with the problems of all other people. He then argued to us… Read More
I have spent a lot of my life trying to reconcile between hardship and ease. On the one hand, we are told again and again that the straight path is not easy and requires struggle and sacrifice. But on the other hand, as humans we always desire ease. What I have come to realize is… Read More
Allah tell us in the Quran that for all things He has created an “appointed term’. This includes our hardships and struggles. They all have a birth and a death. They all have an appointed term. Every situation in our life has an appointed term, after which they come to an end and/or change. There have been… Read More
A photo of me when I was a little girl. My dad won a photography contest for it and appropriately called the piece “A Little Angry”. (I didn’t like my hairstyle–always had an opinion!)
Today, I’m going to talk about poverty. Yet, the poverty I speak about today isn’t the apparent kind. You see, before we can begin to speak about a concept, we need a criterion. We need definitions. In speaking about poverty, we need to understand that there is external poverty and there is internal poverty. And… Read More
This was the hardest talk I’ve ever had to give… Leaving Mecca By: Yasmin Mogahed When I was 17 years old, I had a dream. I dreamt that I was sitting inside a masjid and a little girl walked up to ask me a question. She asked me: “Why do people have to leave each… Read More
I Grieve By: Yasmin Mogahed I lifted my head Once more Only to see The sun had set, The trees had slept, And they’d all gone home I grieve. The sky that was clear is now covered with fog. My path, I no longer see. Why try…when it’s all so gray? … Read More
One Jewish Woman’s Fight for Palestine By: Yasmin Mogahed For Jennifer Loewenstein, April 19, 2002 was a “waking nightmare”. She stood silent at the edge of the camp, in disbelief–and horror. Listening to the sound of wailing, she watched as medical workers lay out the bodies of the dead. The corpses, wrapped in white, were… Read More
