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December 22, 2025

Chapter 30: The Waning Dusk (series)

Myth: Let’s kill time It’s the time that’s killing us. I (swear) by the Time, Man is in a state of loss indeed, Except those who believed and did righteous deeds, and exhorted each other to follow truth, and exhorted each other to observe patience. (103:1-3) There can be no fitting ending to this series than Surah Al-Asr, the summary of the entire Quran. I started off with a post that made a reference to it and I will converge everything here too. It’s a whole comprehensive chapter in itself and according to Imam Shafa’i, it can substitute for the whole Quran and suffice everyone. There can be no greater lesson to be picked from Ramadan. That if nothing else, we have learnt how quickly time flies by. And that tiny tinge of regret, that state of loss that it leaves us with– it’s going to be amplified when life leaves us for real. And with each passing day we are heading towards the end of our timeline. Not a day goes by when you aren’t getting closer to death, or your friends aren’t nearing their ends; some faster than others. Now that you know what loss feels like, don’t let another day pass by without making the most of it. Allah starts with swearing by Time that is running out to make a point that we are drowning in a state of loss. But that’s not it. Allah did not just swear by time. He used all the emphasis in the
Yasha Fatima
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December 22, 2025

Chapter 28: The Waning Dusk (series)

Myth: Let the “Haraam” game begin O Prophet, why do you ban (on your self) something that Allah has made lawful for you, seeking to please your wives? And Allah is Most-Forgiving, Very-Merciful. (66:1) Though the story behind this verse is different, the gist is the same– declaring something haraam upon yourself when it might not be. People, in particular Facebook users, have a lot of time on their hands. There’s some sort of “this-brand-is-haraam campaign” going on over Facebook, usually flaunted by low-res, shoddily photoshopped images of widely-consumed products telling people to freeze chewing candies midway. Breathe. Before you are compelled by your moral obligation to hit ‘Share’ just because the picture has haraam written on it– stop. Just pause for a moment and do your own research. It does not befit an educated Muslim to fuel a rumor mill without verifying sensitive information before spreading panic and mass hysteria all over the place. It is the position of the scholars and relevant organisations to give their stamp of approval or disapproval. Run your info through them. When you are done with your background check, list your sources and cite your references if indeed something is haraam and not in common knowledge. Make your information easily verifiable and authentic with sound proofs instead of a hybrid between spam and baseless E-911 jargon. That said, happy sharing. Stuff could be halal or haraam for all we know. But on principle– verify it before freaking out.
Yasha Fatima
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December 22, 2025

My Ramadan Diary: Those People Again!

By Umm Ibrahim Ramadan has ended. Eid is here. Eid Mubarak! May Allah accept from us and you all! Allah is the Greatest. There is no God but Him. And to Him belongs all Praise and Gratitude. Many of us have been privileged to go through the entire Quran this month either on our own, in Taraweeh, or in a halaqah. When one reaches the end of the Quran, one is forced to think over the fact that the last Surah that Allah places in the Quran is an-Naas (Mankind). The last word of the Surah, and hence the Quran, is also an-Naas. After you’ve gone through the entire Quran, with its perfect wisdom in its halal and haram, laws and stories, promises and threats, Allah reminds us at the end how vulnerable we remain to the whispers of those who whisper evil thoughts in our hearts. We are reminded that we desperately need to seek Allah’s protection from the devils from among the jinns and the humans (an-Naas). The devils that had been chained have now been released. And yes, there are definitely devil’s agents from among the people, even among our own families and friends, those who detract us even after we have clearly seen the truth and decided to follow it. Their weapon is often words. And words hurt. Consider some of these statements. Have they ever been hurled at you or uttered about you? Are you trying to make fun of us? You’ve fallen in
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December 22, 2025

Chapter 26: The Waning Dusk (series)

In a session with a scholar, he pointed out something that I had never thought of before. And this probably why I like listening to different speakers because they always offer a fresh perspective on “stuff we’ve heard so much about”. Addressing all the volunteers, he said, “Allah chose you. Just like He selectively chose the companions around the Prophet. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) could not have spread the Deen without his companions’ unwavering support, loyalty and sacrifices. Similarly, Allah hand-picked you all to carry Deen forward in this age. So, whenever you feel demotivated or insignificant, just think of that. It could have been someone else in your place.” Indeed, We have sent you (O prophet,) as a witness and as a bearer of good news and as a warner. So that you (O people,) believe in Allah and His Messenger, and support him and revere him, and pronounce His (Allah’s) purity morning and evening. (48:8-9) What’s different about this verse is that Allah has addressed both the Prophet and his people in the same flow, a style that’s called “iltifaat” in Arabic. The companions did their bit (a pretty colossal bit actually) in their lives. And the command is now directed at us. So this goes out to all da’ees serving Islam in their own small ways or linked with organizations. The verse begins and ends with Allah, and everything in between is interlinked. Belief in prophet-hood demands that you revere and respect the prophet (pbuh) and hold him in
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December 22, 2025

Chapter 27: The Waning Dusk (series)

Myth: It’s family. Everything works. It’s usually people close to us who get to see us unleash our full-blown tirade on them. Nonsensical quotes like, “If you can’t handle me at my worst, then you certainly don’t deserve me at my best” are partly the reason why we justify expressing our cranky side. In this part of the Quran, the people of Paradise are engaged in a conversation about their worldly matters. When I read this verse, I knew I had a situation there: They will say, “Indeed we were afraid (of Allah’s punishment) when we were amidst our family,  But Allah did favour to us and saved us from the torment of Fire’s scorching breath. (52:26-27) I can give up music, I can give up TV-series, movies, can even try not to backbite but putting on the best conduct with family– that was just overreaching. Get your folks and friends in one place and when they’ll get around to discussing you, they’ll realize they’re not talking about the same person. You are just a fraction of your private self in public. Had a bad day– the family gets it, exam next day—moms get to dodge the mood swings, fight with a friend—passive-aggressive-serial-killer attitude all day long. It’s our families who have to tiptoe around our sensitivities while we go blasting our tempers off. We borrow stuff from friends, and we pay it off penny by penny. Though with family, there’s some unwritten rule number 42 that whatever belongs to your sibling is
Yasha Fatima
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December 22, 2025

My Ramadan Diary: What will the People Say?

By Umm Ibrahim “Log kia kahein gy?” “Log kia kahein gy?” – this has probably killed more dreams and good intentions than any other thought. As Ramadan softens our hearts and shakes our conscience, we dream of becoming better people, we make good, honest intentions, but often the fear of people stops us from forging ahead. We hesitate to step out of our comfort zone, fearing the reaction of people more than anything else. Be it a beard, a hijab, praying regularly, joining a Quran Class or saying no to gossip and music- change and the associated questions and remarks it invites from the people around us make us very uncomfortable. Our brain and the whispers of the devil play odd tricks on us. We play out worst-case scenarios in our mind until we lose the courage to change anything in ourselves for the better, stifle the squeaky voice of our conscience and settle back into the status-quo. One of three things happen From experience, I can tell you this: when you recognize the hollowness of the discouraging voices in your head, when you trust Allah completely and purify your intention, and just take the plunge, one of these things happens: 1- Nothing. No one starts laughing hysterically and pointing at you when you enter the room. The unnecessary drama that you concocted in your head never really takes place. Someone might even compliment you or wish that they could be more like you. Your confidence sky-rockets. 2- You
Yasha Fatima
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December 22, 2025

Chapter 25: The Waning Dusk (series)

Myth: The fault in our Imaams “By the power vested in me, I dub thee jaahil!” So you are an average know-it-all preacher surveying the common room in your university. Between a person who’s not praying and another praying in a corner but her ruku’ and sujood are not agreeable to your madhab, who would you choose to admonish? No points in guessing. The praying person gets it. Hanafi vs. Shafa’i vs. Maliki vs. Hanbali. And none of the contestants would have read their own Imaam’s biography or their conduct when they had a clash in opinion. Some of them were in fact, students of the one another. The scholars of the past had all been noble in their quest for recording and transmitting knowledge. And their efforts are unparalleled to date. It is not the Imaams who were at fault when they differed in their opinions, for they had enlightening intellectual discourses where they either accepted the other’s opinion or entertained it without taking an ego trip. Quite unlike ours where we end up branding each other “kaafir” or “deviant” or we bad-mouth a scholar who could be closer to Allah than you would ever be and incur Allah’s wrath upon us in more ways than one. The fault is in our minds that are religiously uneducated. We memorize chunks but we don’t take any of it in spirit. We think we’ve seen it all and done it all after a couple of year’s worth of studies and that gives
Yasha Fatima
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December 22, 2025

Chapter 23: The Waning Dusk (series)

Myth: That book was a gripping page-turner… You get goosebumps from watching a certain movie that you could relate to. That fills you with such an intense fervor that you brood on it for another hour so. Or it was a song in sync with your melancholy. So you listen to it over and over again till it takes over. Then you tell your friends to watch that movie so they could feel what you felt. So that your souls share the same two-hour rush from a motion film that was very well-directed. And you want this person to breathe in that same song too as you split the earphones and cozy up in a corner. And maybe you spent your time together reading the same books and loving the same characters. You collected years and wisdom from the tales of those in the yellow pages and shared their moments as if they were yours. And you gasped and laughed and cried at the right places. But very few of us have friends with whom we shared some spine-tingling moments together in a revered gathering about Allah. Where hearts are turned over. Where we mentally resolved to make a fresh start or turn over. Where we let the lives of companions consume us into an odd stillness and the battles past had us awestruck and thinking. Because the bond strengthened with each passage of the Quran as it was read and delved into. So hold on to these little moments that had more joy and
Yasha Fatima
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December 22, 2025

Chapter 24: The Waning Dusk (series)

Myth: Allah is going to write me off. Don’t confuse what people think of you with what Allah thinks of you. We are usually one of the two types of sinners. We either take it all very lightly and shrug it off thinking no harm done; or we can’t forgive ourselves for the awful sins we have committed. And we sentence ourselves to misery assuming there’s no way we can face Allah after what we have done and said and the lines we crossed. But Allah hasn’t given up on us. He never does. Say (on My behalf), “O servants of Mine who have acted recklessly against their own selves, do not despair of Allah’s mercy. Surely, Allah will forgive all sins. Surely, He is the One who is the Most-Forgiving, the Very-Merciful. (39:53) There’s hope even for the hypocrites who have been shunned into the lowest, deepest pit of Hellfire as Allah says in the Quran. But even there He makes an exception for those who turn back later. If there’s redemption for the potential bottom-most level dwellers of Hell, then there’s redemption for us too. There are people who only pray Friday to Friday. For some, it’s just Eid prayer that is left. Most of them only try to pray and fast in Ramadan. That’s all the doors they have. Tonight is going to be another long one. Give Allah a chance and you’ll find Him waiting at the door you left open. Talk to Him. About
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December 22, 2025

Chapter 21: The Waning Dusk (series)

Myth: It’s all Yahudi saazish Yes, stuff and bother. But Allah is the best of Planners. With Allah’s help. He helps whomsoever He wills. And He is the Mighty, the Very-Merciful. It is a promise from Allah. Allah does not fail in His promise, but most of the people do not know. (30:5-6) Will our glorious days repeat themselves? ‘Umar bin Khattab (ra), the first liberator of Jerusalem, says that history does repeat itself. He said that the latter generations of this Ummah would not prevail except by means of that by which the first generations prevailed. If we try to seek honor through anything other than Islam, Allah will cause us to suffer from humiliation. Earlier generations of Muslims ruled and prevailed by following the Deen. And at the time of decline and during crusades, Salah ad-Deen Ayubi drew the same conclusion– that Islam was the only way to reclaim their glory. And henceforth, he conquered Jerusalem from the crusaders again. And none of it happened overnight. We see the death toll rising in Gaza and the chaotic, haphazard affairs of the Muslim Ummah. People are calling for immediate and long term solutions while the skeptics smirk meanwhile. It’s amazing how we still manage to squabble, neck-down in a quagmire of problems– suffocating and dying a slow death. Snide comments like, “How many tweets have you all collected for Gaza?” or “What about people dying in your own country?” are thrown at anyone who shares related content online. First off, what kind of a human are you if someone’s concern about
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December 22, 2025

Chapter 22: The Waning Dusk (series)

Myth: She probably likes me. “She giggles every time I answer a question. Does she like me or is this some kind of game?” Men are clueless. But I had no idea they were THAT clueless. A guy asked me this a long time ago and I had to struggle to give an answer that didn’t sound half as scathing as the ones in my head. Won’t go into the foreground or background of my opening lines that must have raised some eyebrows by now. The point you need to chew– is in this verse. So, do not be too soft in your speech, lest someone having disease in his heart should develop fancies (about you); and do speak with appropriate words. (33:32) This is something every parent should tell his or her daughter before sending her off to co-ed school. Your non-verbal cues, gestures, tone and choice of words are some of the most important things you need to keep a check on when interacting with the opposite gender. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just women who spin fantasies in their heads, though their khush fehmiyan are arguably well-grounded. It’s usually men who tend to pick up the wrong signals. In my defense– I’m not generalizing here. Only talking about the ones this verse has singled out– men who have a disease in their hearts. And you will find most of these in your college/university. As for females who habitually giggle every time a guy asks them something, I
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December 22, 2025

Chapter 20: The Waning Dusk (series)

Myth: Imaan is in the heart Do people think that they will be left (at ease) only on their saying, “We believe” and will not be put to any test? (29:2) There are a few surahs in the Quran that have a very powerful opening. No intro, down-to-the-point-bleeding kind of opening that either makes you shudder in exponential degrees or it cuts you open– a big gash on your soul exposing all your flaws and making you come to terms with your delusions. Surah Al-‘Ankabut is one of them. Right after Alim Laam Meem, Allah (swt) dispels all wishful thinking (khush-fehmiyaan, as you like) that you haven’t secured a direct flight to Jannah yet. You’ll be weighed and measured, tried and tested on your theoretical imaan before you can even begin to get comfortable. Arabic word fa-ta-na literally means to burn gold until its impurities fall off. The verse was revealed when the early followers of Islam underwent inhumane torture just because they believed. And our tests don’t even come close to that. (golfland.com) This in itself speaks volumes about our little imaan that we stash away “in the heart” instead of “wearing it on the sleeve”. It is Allah’s sunnah to try each and everyone of us. And it is true– we will never ever truly taste the sweetness of faith unless we’ve been cooked and boiled to the point of dis-figuration in our crucible. And I say dis-figuration because it apparently looks that way. You will, in fact, acknowledge it to be one
Yasha Fatima
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