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If you find darkness in your heart after you’ve sinned, know that in your heart there is light, and only because of this light you felt the darkness. 

Ramadan Kareem everyone, subhanallah, what a beautiful gift we have received from Allah to witness another Ramadan. Take a moment to soak this in. May this month soften our hearts to allow the blessings of Allah to make their way in. May we find the ease we have been desperately seeking and the guidance we have been praying for. May every one of our tears and every one of our prayers reach the Heavens and in return we reap the rewards of trying our best to spiritually connect to our Creator. May we be overwhelmed by the infinite love of Allah, the time spent with our loved ones over Iftar and may Allah protect those who are oppressed. May we truly come together as an Ummah, to hold compassion for one another and truly welcome each other with no judgment, may our hardships allow us to extend our mercy onto others, knowing that they too have faced their own battles. May this Ramadan truly change us, Ameen. 

Recently I came across a question that I would like to share with you all:

What use is armour anyway, when the worst critic is in your own head?

I want you to take a moment to reflect upon this question, put pause on this episode if needed. In Ramadan, we are reminded of how the Shaytaan is locked up and so we realize it is our responsibility to try our best to work on our nafs and take accountability of our actions.

I dont want to share this reminder to overwhelm you with the feeling of  you are not a good Muslim if you’ve experienced anger or any sort of shortcoming for the past few days of Ramadan. Instead I want you to realize that the shame you are still carrying, the shame that is preventing you from performing various acts of worship may be coming from our own limiting beliefs. 

In my own personal experience,  a few months ago, I felt an immense amount of shame dusting off my Quran, physically dusting it off. And in that moment I could have chosen to drown in that shame and have the Quran continue to collect dust or I could thank  Allah for planting this desire in my heart to connect to His words.

And so in this episode I sit down with Dr. Saadia Mian, author of The Crowning Venture, to discuss her own personal journey of connecting with the Quran. How she had gone from initially wanting to learn Arabic to instead memorizing the Quran, mashallah. It was honestly meant to be for me to cross paths with her book and it’s truly what pushed me to find my own way to connect with the Quran.

In this conversation we speak of our own personal experiences of how we opened our hearts to the Quran, our bouts with imposter syndrome when it comes to our faith and how the Quran can truly transform us. 

This episode is tailored to anyone who wants to start their journey of connecting to the Quran, to anyone who is struggling with shame or guilt, and to those who are looking for a space where they are not overwhelmed with the notion that they are not good enough for Allah’s mercy or guidance. 

Enjoy and follow the pod on Instagram:
@unsweetenedandunfiltered

Follow Dr. Saadia Mian on Instagram:
@saadiamianmd

Purchase 'The Crowing Venture" here:
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Check out Dr. Saadia's website and courses:
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