Assalamualaikum my dear,

How are you feeling this week?

Today I have a bit of an announcement post to make.

Recently, I’ve been feeling a bit frustrated at myself because I feel like the quality of my writing has dropped. I have a few deadlines looming, and as a result, I’m finding it difficult to write as much as I used to. I really dislike sending out posts that I’m not fully happy with, because I want to make sure that anything I write for you is packed with value!  

So, I’ve been thinking of trying out bi-weekly newsletters instead ☺️  There might still be an occasional weekly newsletter too (if I have a sudden flood of inspiration!), but I will definitely be in your inbox every other week (with Allahs permission).

I hope that’s ok with you! I’d love to hear your thoughts too 🌻

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A Short Reflection

But before I leave you today, I just wanted to share a dua I’ve been clinging onto recently. 

It was actually my mum who introduced me to this dua. I remember confiding into her one day, early on into my marriage (nearly 2 years ago now!), how I was finding managing the household chores, work, and the rest of it a bit of a struggle. How I just felt like everything was taking double the time and effort than I was hoping. How a recipe would say 30 minutes cooking time, but I’d be still standing in the kitchen an hour and a half later!

She laughed and told me to firstly, stop believing the prep times since they’re never right (which was just as valuable advice for me!). And then she turned to me and with the utmost conviction in her eyes, said-

‘Thasni, read this dua. This dua has always helped me.’

She then goes on to tell me the first time she used that dua.

It was one afternoon where she got a call from my dad telling her that the guest he was meant to pick up from the station and take out for food, were on their way to our home instead! They were family friends from abroad who’d come to England and had been travelling around for quite a while now. That weekend they were coming to visit my parents. My parents were planning to take them out to a famous restaurant nearby. To show them around our small city.

But when my father picked them up, before even having the chance to bring up the restaurant idea, they exclaimed how excited they were to finally have some homemade food after so long.

The thing is, there was no lunch ready for them! My dad asked what we should do, and my mum, even though she knew it was going to be a tough one, said to bring them over. Then she made her way to the kitchen, and with that one dua repeating on her lips, she managed to whip up a full spread of food in no time. For my mum, the ease of that day came only through that dua.

There was no way I could have cooked all that on a normal day, she told me. But that day, her conviction came from the words she kept repeating again and again and again. Ya Allah, only you can grant ease. Ya Allah, only you can make this difficulty easy. Every onion that she cut, every cup of rice she scooped, she continued repeating these words.

‘It was only because of that dua.’

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And so the next morning, as I open the kitchen door and took out the vegetables from the fridge, I too started to whisper these words throughout. Ya Allah, only you can grant ease. Ya Allah, only you can make this difficulty easy. 

I had a busy day ahead and meal prepping for the week was just the start of it. And throughout I just kept whispering the dua again, and again and again.

I really wanted to share this dua with you today, because I too felt what my mum felt that day – a sense of ease amidst the storm.

And now it’s a dua that has become a part of my life, a dua I cling to when things feel like a bit much.

The Beauty of This Dua

I find this dua so beautiful because if you look at it closely you realise - we’re not really asking Allah for something.

More than an ask, it is a statement. We are not asking Allah in this dua to make the difficult easy. We are just reaffirming to ourselves that anything can be made easy by our Lord. That nothing is too difficult for our Lord, the Most Powerful.

The more we affirm, the more we are granted ease.

Why is that?

The more we recite this dua, the more we reaffirm that no task or trial in my life is too difficult for Allah. And the more we reaffirm, the greater the ease we will find from Him.

The power of this dua is not in just saying it on repeat though. I’m not here to tell you to use it like a magic spell.

The power in it is the surrendering that we do to our Lord. It’s a dua of surrender. A dua that reminds me and you, that nothing is in our hands.

My expertise or my lack of it, my intelligence, or my lack of it, my resources or my lack of it are not the reason why this task is easy or di for me. It is You, My Lord, the One who has full power, The One who has full control, it is You who can make this moment ease.

So Sis,

Whenever you stand in the face of a task that towers over you, a task that haunts and stresses you, cling to this dua. Maybe you are struggling with work, or your Quran memorisation. Or maybe you’re struggling with building good relationships with your family.

For any moment that you struggle, cling onto this dua. Surrender yourself to Him, The One who has all power and most of all, the One who loves you most.

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Until next week (or the week after!).

From your sis,

Thasneema 🌻