“My worth as a human being is measured on a higher scale: a scale of righteousness and piety. And my purpose in life-despite what fashion magazines say-is something more sublime than just looking good for men.”

I think we all carry within us different versions of ourselves. Our true, greatest, most honest versions of ourselves can either be developed and nourished, or it can remain dead from neglect.

We fail because when Allah gives us these blessings, we unwittingly turn them into false idols in the heart.

The Prophets! And they were the closest to Allah. Every hardship is good for you-if it brings you closer to Him!

When we can’t marry the person we had in mind, our inability to look beyond may even blind sight us from someone who is in fact better for us.

This world isn’t perfect. That means it isn’t perfectly good; but it isn’t perfectly bad, either. The ease comes with the hardship. Shift the focus of what you see, and your experience of this life will change.

You’ve been given status today, but never forget where you came from. You came from dirt and will return to dirt. You will be on that day as you began: just you and Him.

Don’t expect your spouse to be perfect. He/she is only the dunya version of themselves. Their ‘perfect’ version is saved for jennah.

Before anything can break your heart, it must first own your heart. Stop handing your heart to dunya-it’ll stop breaking it.

We will suffer the moment we take our eyes off the End and get lost in the means.

Many years ago, our father Ibrahim (AS) made a choice. He loved his son. But He loved God more.

We will be asked, “what did you love most in this world? What did you spend life doing? What did you run after? Will it last? The things that you chased, will they last? Will they help you, or will they hurt you when the illusion of this life has passed?”

My value as a woman is not measured by the size of my waist or the number of men who like me.

Everything is as it should be. God’s design is perfect.

There’s something amazing about this life. The very same worldly attribute that causes us pain is also what gives us relief:

People think it’s the mind that drives us. It is the heart. The mind is a slave to the heart. So check the condition of the heart.

You never have to be scared of the trials but of standing alone in the trials without shelter (Allah’s help).

I think writers can respond by writing about the refugee crisis, by looking at problems faced by migrants, by trying hard to portray them as the human beings that they are.

That they chose the path of the mind suggests that there is on it something more worthwhile than a circuitous route to the good things that the good-looking get just by showing up

It’s not like the world is becoming hardcore, Richard Dawkins-atheist, but people are looking to sort of synthesize science – people love science, especially the millennials.

Transitioning to being an unemployed film actor is different, but it’s fun and I’ve been looking forward to it for a while.

Look at the Afghans, during the time of the Soviet invasion. They were among the poorest Muslims in the world, yet they were sustained by their faith in God, and God alone.

I had an uncle who, looking back, was probably not the most-educated physician around but he carried it off so well.

At my concerts most of the chicks are looking for liberation, they think I’m gonna show ’em how to do it.

Live fast, die young, leave a good looking corpse.