I'm a writer, blogger, husband and father. Writing is my passion, and sharing beneficial knowledge and insights has been a pillar of my life for many years. I blog at dreamlife.wordpress.com.
This year’s Hajj pilgrimage commenced yesterday, with close on 3 million Muslims travelling to Makkah and surrounds for what is the world’s biggest annual gathering of humanity. … More Hajj: the greatest annual gathering of humanity
Year after year, we hear the excellent advice of what we should do if we are not going for Hajj. We all know about not clipping our nails and hair, the fasting of the first nine days of Dhul Hijjah, being charitable, making dua, and so on. While these are all excellent actions to take – essentials really – they may become repetitive and uninspiring, because they are so routine by now. If this is how you feel about Dhul Hijjah, try to do something different this year: do I’tikaaf. … More Missing Makkah: A Personal Plan for Dhul Hijjah
It was incredible to see and be among the 3 million pilgrims heading to Muzdalifah – both by bus and walking. The busses held passengers inside, on the roofs, and in the luggage compartments underneath. … More Reliance: How 9 hours defined My Hajj
So, here we are:
Dwellers of the concrete jungle,
Prisoners of our own, man-made environment;
the physical outside distorting the vision inside:
work in boxes,
live in boxes,
think in boxes.
Force-fed your vision of the world we inhabit,
Conditioned to accept the barrage of information which bombards us at hyper-speed. … More Book 2: You Suck!
Every former Hajji has their own unique story. Tales of the days they were blessed to spend on this sacred journey, so beloved that even the struggles and discomfort they faced are not enough to discourage them from wanting to return. At this time of year, that yearning grows stronger. So, what can they do about this? … More Missing Makkah: Special advice for former Hujjaj this season
Sometimes at work you just feel closed in. Bored by what you’ve got to do; restricted by the times you work; and caged in by the physical environment you’re in. … More The Cage
I wrote this 7 years ago, on the rooftop of the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) mosque, a few weeks prior to Hajj 2011. It was our final night in Madinah, and this piece was inspired by the time there. Sadly, I’ve not been back since then. … More A most blessed rooftop
The sun kisses my face
as i sit here in my empty bedroom.
At utter and total peace:
outside –
the subtle symphony of the birds,
the gentle breeze rustles the leaves,
and calm permeates the air
on this gloriously sunny Winter morning… … More Peace
I feel for those who leave their kids behind to undertake this trip. It’s heart-breaking…but it’s a necessary pain. It teaches us that, no matter how strong our attachments to the people we have in this life, we have to leave at some point. We have to meet our Creator. The same goes for attachments to material possessions and status. … More The Journey of a Lifetime
When this blog hit the 10-year mark, I planned on compiling a “best of” – which would be an e-book collecting what I considered my most meaningful creative pieces over that period. It was quite a feat to go through so much content, but I eventually settled on a body of material that I believed would work. The idea was that there would be three distinct areas: poetry (the biggest portion), reflections and prose, and photography. … More The book (that’s still on the way)
