Letters for Living #55
Helping you move from surviving to living with purpose.
As-salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh, dear beautiful souls,
Bismillah.
It’s been a few weeks since I last sat down to write to you.
And perhaps that in itself is part of today's reflection.
Because life happens.
We make plans. We have ideas about how things are going to unfold. We place things into little boxes in our minds and think, this is how it’s going to be.
And then life takes us somewhere completely different.
Sometimes gently.
Sometimes not so gently.
And I think one of the hardest things for us to accept is just how uncertain life really is.
We can have a plan today and tomorrow something changes.
A person changes.
A door closes.
Money disappears.
An opportunity doesn't work out.
Something we were relying on suddenly isn't there anymore.
And when that happens, we can realise just how much of our sense of safety was attached to that particular thing.
Because when the means fail us, we can hit rock bottom very quickly.
Perhaps you've experienced that feeling.
Where you feel like you've been trying so hard to get yourself back up.
You take one step forward...
and then something else happens.
You try again...
and another door closes.
You tell yourself, I'll get through this.
But then tomorrow brings another challenge, and eventually you begin wondering:
"Am I ever going to get out of this?"
"How much more can I take?"
"What if things never change?"
And that is where hopelessness can begin to creep in.
You feel stuck.
You feel alone.
You feel like you've exhausted every option.
And sometimes, if we're honest, we begin believing that because we cannot see a way out, there must not be one.
But that is where we forget something very important.
We are looking at the situation from our limited view.
Allah is not.
Think about Musa عليه السلام.
Imagine standing there with the sea in front of you and Fir'awn and his army behind you.
Where do you go?
There appears to be nowhere.
His people were terrified. They believed they were about to be overtaken.
But Musa عليه السلام responded:
"No! Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me."
And then Allah opened a path where there appeared to be no path at all.
The sea parted.
The impossible became possible.
And I think there is something profoundly comforting in that story.
Because sometimes Allah allows us to reach a place where we can no longer rely on what we can see.
Not because He has abandoned us.
But because we are being reminded that what we can see is not the whole story.
We put so much faith in the means.
The job.
The money.
The person.
The opportunity.
The plan.
The connection.
The thing we believe will finally make everything okay.
And there is nothing wrong with using the means.
We are supposed to take action.
We are supposed to plan.
We are supposed to work.
But the means were never meant to become our source.
Because the moment we believe that the means are what will save us, we become terrified when those means disappear.
And perhaps this is where surrender becomes so powerful.
Surrender isn't saying, "I'm not going to do anything."
It is saying:
"Ya Allah, I will do what I can. But I know that the outcome was never in my hands."
And sometimes there comes a point where you've genuinely done everything you know how to do.
You've tried.
You've planned.
You've asked.
You've knocked.
And the doors are still closed.
Perhaps that is the moment when instead of doing more...
you need to become still.
To breathe.
To say:
"Ya Allah, I don't know what to do anymore. I hand this over to You."
And then trust.
Allah reminds us that He is closer to us than our jugular vein.
So when you feel alone...
You're not alone.
When you feel like nobody understands...
Allah knows.
When you cannot see the way forward...
Allah can.
And when everything you've been relying on suddenly shifts...
remember that the Source has not shifted.
Allah remains.
And perhaps that is the anchor we need.
This is actually what we've been exploring inside our community over the past few weeks.
We began with our 30 Days of Stillness, because sometimes the answer isn't found in doing more.
And now we've moved into 30 Days of Returning.
Returning to Allah.
Returning to the Source.
Returning to what we already know but sometimes forget.
And we're doing this through the Names of Allah—invoking them, reflecting upon them, embodying them, and learning to live from them.
Because when we remember Allah as Ar-Razzaq, the Provider, we begin to loosen our attachment to the means.
When we remember Him as Al-Fattah, the Opener, we remember that a closed door does not mean there is no way forward.
When we remember Him as Ar-Rahim, the Most Merciful, we remember that even in the moments we don't understand, we are not forgotten.
If you'd like to join us on this journey of returning, I'll leave the link below.
30 days of returning challenge
And perhaps this is also where emotional support can become important.
Because sometimes knowing all of this intellectually doesn't mean our body knows how to surrender.
You can know that Allah is in control and still feel terrified.
You can know that Allah provides and still feel the fear of not having enough.
You can know that you are not alone and still feel incredibly lonely.
That doesn't make you a failure.
It simply means there may be deeper emotional patterns that need your attention.
And this is one of the reasons I continue to do the work I do.
Not just to help you understand what you're feeling, but to help you gently get to the roots of the patterns that keep you feeling stuck.
I currently have two spaces available for one-on-one emotional healing sessions.
If you feel that this is something you need support with, you're welcome to reach out to me.
And if one-on-one work isn't where you are right now, I also have self-paced masterclasses and courses available, which you can explore at your own pace.
You can find everything here:
A Closing Reflection
If you're in a season right now where you genuinely don't know how you're going to get through it...
I want you to remember something.
This is not forever.
The situation may feel permanent because you're standing in the middle of it.
But you have lived through things before that you once thought you would never survive.
And somehow...
you did.
So perhaps you don't need to know how everything will work out.
Perhaps you only need enough faith for the next step.
And if you don't even know what that step is yet...
be still.
Breathe.
Turn back to Allah.
Tell Him honestly:
"Ya Allah, I don't know the way. But You do."
And then take comfort in knowing that the One who opened the sea for Musa عليه السلام does not need you to see the entire path before He can lead you through it.
Sometimes the greatest test isn't whether we can fix the situation.
Sometimes it's whether we can trust the One who can.
With sincerity and du'a,
Nazia