007: Reason for Living and Challenge Winner

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In this Letter: I joined a bootcamp, reason for living, school preparations, Ramadan thoughts and who is the Salawat Challenge Winner

Assalam o Alaikum,

It happened, friend! I hope you can feel my excitement because I am still buzzing from it after a week. Around 10 o’clock at night, little snowflakes started falling from the sky last Wednesday, creating a wonderful curtain that blew with the breeze. The snowfall was on and off for the next five hours. There was a moment when I opened the front door to peek at it and witnessed the snowflakes shimmering from the entrance light giving the appearance of glitter falling from the sky. It was stunning, subhanAllah. We got around an inch or so and it was a perfect introduction to snow for me.

01 // Reason for Living

I share a lot of things from my life here but there is something that I have never shared with you before. I was reflecting on Sunnah Living, what it represents to me and for some of the Sunnah Family sisters who have written to me about it. Depression is a familiar friend, one that I can spot a mile away due to the way it walks. What I haven’t shared before is that I have struggled with suicide ideations twice in my life. The first one was the scariest and the most compelling close to two decades ago. The second one felt like a walk in the park compared to it. If it wasn’t for the fear of Allah ﷻ, I probably wouldn’t be writing this to you today. Yes, it was fear and nothing else which kept me going then. That’s what my heart needed to stay on the path, to shiver due to it, to hold my hands back from moving forward with it. I don’t recall feeling hope but oh am I grateful for that fear. Now as I was thinking about Sunnah Living and the good things that we have been able to accomplish together due to it from learning surahs, adhkars, raising money for charity and joining spiritual journeys together, I can’t help but feel grateful for having the chances to accumulate good deeds. Allah ﷻ granted me another day to do good deeds and an opportunity to ask for forgiveness. That is a blessing. My Book of Deeds isn’t yet closed. The gift, then, is the ability to do more good. So, dearest friend, if you find yourself in the similar anguish as I have in those moments in time that stretch out to the darkest corners of the mind, then remind yourself that your Book of Deeds needs more good. Live another day to do more good.

02 // I Did a Thing

Last week on a bit of a whim (how I do things mostly these days), I took a giant leap of faith and joined the Amanah Fitness Bootcamp (here she is on instagram and YouTube). All the newcomers got acquainted with each other in a lovely online community, printed out our calendars, did the initial steps to get ourselves ready for this healthy journey that I started this Monday. I’m nervous, you guys, but also hopeful. Coach Amina is also part of the Sunnah Family (Salam to you, sister!) and that motivated me even more. I will keep you updated so that maybe you can consider joining us too if you are in need of a faith based workout program.

03 // School Prep

I’ve been harping about this for a few weeks and this week it came. And I was… surprised. I had been expecting 200 pages to read the first week but instead, I got none. We were told to make an appointment and start working on something pretty simple. The university understood the anxiety we all must be facing and chose to start off slow. I don’t know how I feel about that! 😅 Today, I thought to share with you all the ways that I prepped for going back to school, in no particular order:

Removed distractions – social media took a back seat and I finally organized the bathroom which was the last place needing such immediate attention. Now with the unexpected extra days this week, I am planning on tackling the pantry and organizing my clothes in the closet insha’Allah.
Got supplies – I ordered this set of notebooks to take the least amount of space, these gel pens are my favorite to write with, and I’m ready to add some color in the note taking sanity with Emott pens (this 40-piece set is a dream I hope to fulfill one day insha’Allah!) and Tombow dual brush pens (this is my favorite color palette)
Applied a mask – skincare is my favorite form of self care so applying this Blush mask left me feeling rejuvenated.
Conditioned my hair – My hair needed a little TLC and this Honey Myrtle deep conditioning mask made them feel extra happy and bouncy.
Wrote down my intentions – I knew why I was pursuing this career path but I thought to write a visual reminder that I could look at every time I sat on my desk was important. So I took a piece of paper, some colored pens and jotted down six intentions. They are taped right above my desk and I plan to use them to make dua every time I begin working on my assignments, insha’Allah.

04 // Ramadan is coming!

Rajab moon greeted us last week and subhnaAllah, the approach of Ramadan always seems to happen all of a sudden no matter how many heads-up I get from my friends. It is just two months away! I have begun thinking of ballpark goals for the sacred month but I am holding myself back a little just to see how the school schedule will settle down in a few weeks. Then I can make some concrete plans, insha’Allah. I’m thinking of what I want to do in Sha’ban to prepare my heart for Ramadan. Last year we did an Istighfar challenge together which was pretty amazing. Should we do something similar this year? Maybe the same challenge again? Do you have anything that you’d like to do? Please comment below and let me know.

05 // Interesting Tidbits

I don’t really care for Muslim representation in Hollywood but this type of representation is always welcomed. I didn’t know about this “Trojan Horse Affair” in the UK and how horrible it was. The podcast mentioned in this article looks like a must-listen and I’m adding it to my list.
I’m all about learning from other faith-based couples. This 3-minute marriage advice video popped up on my YT feed and it was a delight.
This Question and Answer was a heart breaker and relatable at my current point in life (one of the reasons why I am taking a social media break).
I have been gathering ingredients to make this tagine recipe, a task that has been difficult in our tiny town and, surprisingly, online as well.

SALAWAT CHALLENGE WINNER

Last week, we started a 7-day Salawat Challenge together and there was to be one random winner to receive a gift card from Kube Publishing. Congratulations to Sister Nazeefa for winning!

Until next time, I hope you experience the best of what life has to offer insha’Allah.

With love,

Samia