This passage from one of my favorite books, Love & Happiness by Yasmin Mogahed,  speaks true to my spiritual transformation over the last 5 years or so, and is the inspiration for this mix.

I have been through some dark times in my life and I have had to make some very hard decisions. But I’ll tell you what I’ve learned…

Life isn’t supposed to be miserable. It isn’t supposed to be excruciatingly painful. It isn’t supposed to suffocate or drain you.

Are there parts of life that will make you feel this way? Yes. Absolutely. But, why? We must ask why. Why do we go through these things? Is it so that we stay still and bear it stoically? Is it to passively endure and call patience?

Absolutely not.

In fact, we go through misery, pain, and suffocation for the exact opposite reason: To push us towards change. Movement. Growth. Patience is not standing still. Patience is not being passive. Sabr is the endurance necessary to make the change needed to move one step closer to where Allah wants us to be.

God created pain, in both the physical and spiritual world, as a wakeup call. As a motivator and accelerator towards action, movement, and change to alleviate the pain.

When a person has an infection, they feel fever. When a person’s heart is clogged, they experience chest pain, or heart attack. A person can ignore fever or chest pain and call it “patience.” But if this pain is ignored and just numbed long enough, the sickness only increases. Until it actually kills us. Pain is a warning. A smoke alarm for the sleeping soul.

If you feel suffocated, it’s probably because you’re not getting enough oxygen. It works the same spiritually and emotionally as it does physically.

Be brave enough to dig deep, to be honest. And then to take the action and change necessary to save your life.

But, be careful. Never, ever take this action alone. Seek strength and guidance in God. Only then will you never drown or get lost.

Alhamdulillah.

Tracklist

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