It’s funny, ever since I got back from Hajj, my prayers have changed. Before, I would often go into autopilot when I’d be praying. It’s hard not to. We memorize the whole prayer, it’s formal and prescribed as such, there’s only a few spots for spontaneity. I used to wonder why. But over the years [...]

until they change what is in themselves. I’ve read this phrase in the Quran a number of times and it’s funny but I always thought it only referred to the oppressed and downtrodden. But I attended a lecture a while back and a scholar made a good point. He said that no, this phrase applies [...]

I started writing this on Sunday night. Tonight on Oprah’s visionaries Will.i.am was talking. If you’re not sure who he is, you’re not alone. I’d heard his name, but didn’t realize he’s one of the co-founders of the group Black-eyed Peas. The first half of the show was just him spouting off about how tickled [...]

I keep forgetting. Honestly, I’ll go most of the day completely unaware that I wear hijab, have brown skin, and otherwise look any different from anyone else and then suddenly something will bring me up short. I’ll see myself reflected in a shop window or someone will say something  like acknowledging how ‘tolerant’ they are [...]

So bittersweet! To say good bye to Ramadan, but to have your heart swell with the joy of Eid! A long time ago my older sister, her husband (at the time) and my husband and me, had an Eid greeting card business. And it was my job to come up with the jingles inside. One [...]

That’s what I think Ramadan is. It’s a time to reboot, turn the switch off, and start again. All the bad habits, the excesses that we might have gotten into the habit of eating, drinking or doing, are shut off, from dawn till sunset for a lunar month of 29 or 30 days. And isn’t [...]

It feels like a big fluffy blanket of serenity has drifted down on me and my household. This seems to happen every Ramadan and the problem with that is that it really makes it hard to take anything else, world squabbles over a debt crisis, and attending an impending SCBWI convention, very seriously. In the [...]

Okay, tiling’s done, but the house is still upside down and I was starting to ask myself, “What the heck’s so wrong with a shabby kitchen anyway???” There’s something kind of tempting to living beneath your means. On the one hand you could try to convince yourself that you’re above all that superficial nonsense and [...]

On Saturday I drove out to Pearson Airport, to the Canada Customs agents in charge of luggage that comes in later, I guess, and finally got my luggage from my Hajj trip! Yippee! I feel like it’s closed the chapter on the whole experience. One thing I really learned from this…make sure you get a [...]

Just when I thought the dreams of Mecca and Mina were over, I had another one last night. Me gathered with millions of others, sending my thoughts and prayers up to our Lord and Creator. Yesterday I took one of my daughters and her children down to visit my parents. It was my first post [...]