Azka's Writeups

I had to write this review around a month ago, but better late then never. So here goes... We have all studied the life, character and the actions of the Prophet (SAW) at some point in our lives. I felt truly inspired by his character. The events from  his life that we came across on social media, through a class, through an elder were nothing short of beautiful. But I did not know that I was missing on a true connection until this Ramadan. Earlier, I did find the character of the Prophet (SAW) very inspiring, very motivating but rarely did I laugh and cry while learning about him.  This Ramadan I watched Yaqeen Institute's series on Meeting Muhammad(SAW). Spread over 30 episodes which were uploaded daily in Ramadan, it was the most beautiful and insightful series on Seerah that I have watched yet. Not even the books I have read could take me so deep into the life, the actions and the reasons behind those actions of the Prophet (SAW).  Starting from the physical appearanc...

A few days ago I learnt that the people who were displaced from Palestine during the Original Nakba could never even visit their country again. But their children and grandchildren could.  The background of this story is a similar one. Yousef returns to Palestine to fulfill his father's dying wish... 'It should be right here,' I whisper to myself. I can feel hope and raw emotion filling up my chest as I turn the corner.  The hope is the first to go away, the raw emotion stays, grows, claws at my heart.  I run, down the street and back up again. Could I have made a wrong turn, could I be in the wrong block?  But the tree is there, that tree I'd recognize anywhere, the tree I had seen many a times when my father had shown me pictures of his neighborhood. 'This is our local graveyard Yousef, this is where my parents are buried, this is where I want to buried, with them,close to them,' he had whispered, as his hand traced the edges of the picture in his lap.  And th...