“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.”

In any nation, the hypocrites do not become apparent except during times of fitnah (severe tests and hardships).

This is the one and only reason why I was created. And this is the most essential realization, as it defines everything else I do or believe. It defines all things around me, and everything I experience in life.

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.

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.

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:

You have writers that write about crazy characters, but that doesn’t mean the writer himself is crazy.

Very conscious of the fact that an effort was being made to destroy my mind, because I was deprived of books, deprived of any means of writing, deprived of human companionship. You never know how much you need it until you’re deprived of it.

What’s better? Dogs or broomsticks? I mean will the world really ever know?

When men call women ambitious they mean pushy.

The word courage comes from the same stem as the French word Coeur, meaning “heart.” Thus just as one’s heart, by pumping blood to one’s arms, legs, and brain enables all the other physical organs to function.

I always find it more difficult to say the things I mean than the things I don’t.

The truth is we’re all searching. We’re all looking for guidance, for mentors, and I’m by no means someone to follow.

He means to succeed, and a man who has centuries before him can afford to wait and to go slow.