Yasmin Mogahed

Give. Even when you know you can get nothing back.

For a wound to heal, you have to clean it out. Again, and again, and again. And this cleaning process stings. The cleaning of a wound hurts. Yes. Healing takes so much work. So much persistence. And so much patience. But every process has an end and an appointed term. Your healing will come... And like all created things, your worldly pain will die.

Never lose hope. Stay close to Allah and when you mess up, go back to Him. Never, ever stop going back to Him. Repent often. Cry to Allah. And hold on tight-with your life-to His remembrance and to prayer. If you do this, you may get wet, but insha Allah never drown in this ocean of dunya.

If you want the love of the people, stop running after it. The more you chase it, the more it escapes you. Love doesn't come from the people. It comes from God.

I know you feel worn and tired. I know you're tired of failing. Rest, but don't stop. You can do this. You got this. _x000D_ Not because you're strong, but because He's your strength.

Everything we do is motivated by love. Even fear and hate are born of love. So be careful what you love.

Happiness, sadness, loss and gain all pass away. What they do to us is what remains.

Be grateful for every single person who was part of your story.The ones that hurt you. The ones that helped you. Because they all taught you.

The poison leaves bit by bit, not all at once. Be patient. You are healing.

Break in the hands of God, He'll unbreak you. Break in the hands of people, you'll remain forever broken. Break to no one, your heart will remain hard.

If you want to kill something, neglect it. It happens in both good and bad. Neglect a relationship, it dies. Neglect your iman, it dies. But the same principal applies when you want to kill something like a thought or a desire. Neglect it, it dies.

I'm not here to be on display. And my body is not for public consumption. I will not be reduced to an object, or a pair of legs to sell shoes. I'm a soul, a mind, a servant of God. My worth is defined by the beauty of my soul, my heart, my moral character. So I won't worship your beauty standards, and I don't submit to your fashion sense. My submission is to something higher.

We often wonder why God gives and takes, constricts and expands. What we forget is that human beings understand things by their opposites. Without dark, we can’t understand light. Without hardship, we wouldn’t *experience* ease. Without the existence of deprivation and loss, we couldn’t grasp the need for gratitude or the virtue of patience. And without separation, we wouldn’t taste the sweetness of reunion. Glory be to the one who gives—even when He takes.

Loss; is the returning of what never actually belonged to us in the first place.

If you allow dunya to own your heart, like the ocean that owns the boat, it will take over. You will sink down to the depths of the sea. You will touch the ocean floor.

There are internal chains and external chains. All the external chains in the world won't enslave you, if you are free inside. And all the external 'freedom' in the world won't liberate you, if you are chained inside. _x000D_ Let go. And you'll know Freedom.

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

Don’t despair if your heart has been through a lot of trauma. Sometimes that’s how beautiful hearts are remade: they are shattered first.

Don't worry about what the people say. Sometimes they'll praise you. Sometimes they'll condemn you. All these things all fade away. And in the end, Allah takes care of everything. Perfectly.

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

Stop trying to make this life into what it cannot and never was intended to be: jennah. Only then will it stop breaking your heart.