​THE RELIGION THAT WAS STOLEN FROM YOU

Today is the first day of Ramadan.

And I want to talk about something that might make some of you uncomfortable.

I want to talk about religion.

Not the religion that hurt you. Not the religion that was used to manipulate you, control you, shame you, and finally silence you.

I want to talk about the religion that was stolen from you before you even had a chance to know it.

You deserve better. You have always deserved better.

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THE WOUND IS REAL

Let’s be honest about something first.

The pain is real.

People have been genuinely wounded by religion. Abused by it. Gaslit by it. Used as pawns in other people’s political and institutional games while being told it was God’s will.

I’m not here to minimize that.

If you walked away from religion because it broke something in you, I understand. And I’m not going to sit here and tell you that you were wrong to leave.

But I *am* going to ask you a harder question.

Did you leave religion? Or did you leave *a corrupted version* of it?

Because there’s a difference. And that difference matters more than almost anything I could say to you today.

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THE BANDAGE

Here’s what I see happening, and I say this with love.

A whole generation or two or three has decided: “I’m not religious, I’m spiritual.”

And I get it. I really do. That move makes sense. You’re trying to keep the light and throw away the cage. You want the depth without the dogma. The connection without the corruption.

But here’s what I want you to sit with.

That phrase—*I’m spiritual but not religious*—is a bandage.

It’s a real bandage. It covers a real wound. And for a season, a bandage is exactly what you need.

But a bandage is not a destination. You can’t live on a bandage forever. At some point, the wound either heals or it doesn’t.

And here’s the thing about trying to be spiritual without any form, without any tradition, without any community, without any practice that connects you to something larger than your own preferences:

It tends to stay vague. It tends to shrink. It tends to disappear, slowly and quietly.

Until one day you realize the fire has gone out and you don’t quite know when it happened or why it happened. And you find yourself saying things like, “Nobody really knows anything.”

And yet the hunger and the yearning never go away. That’s a clue for you.

RELIGION SPRINGS FROM SPIRIT

There is a real misunderstanding between religion and spirituality that needs to be cleared up.

Religion is a vessel for spirit.

A vessel gives something formless a place to live, a way to move, a means to reach you. At its best, that’s what religion has always been.

Religion doesn’t create spirit.

Spirit creates religion.

Religion is what happens when human beings—across every culture, every era, every corner of the earth—try to respond to the overwhelming mystery and majesty of the sacred. They try to give it shape, try to pass it on, try to build a container strong enough to carry something that can never be fully contained.

That’s what religion *is*, at its root.

It is the human species’ most ancient and most serious attempt to stay connected to the Source of everything.

The mystics knew this. The prophets knew this. The great poets and sages and saints of every tradition knew this.

Religion begins in spirit. And at its best, it ends in spirit. Everything in between—the practice, the ritual, the community, the law, the story—all of it is meant to be a path back to that original Source.

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WHAT TOXIC RELIGION DOES

So what goes wrong?

What turns something that sacred into something so destructive?

People who crave control use religion to extend their control over others.

They have no understanding of spirit.

In their hands, religion is cut off from spirit and becomes a toxic version of itself in one catastrophic stroke. A zombie religion, you might say, that operates a headless and heartless religion.

Toxic religion keeps the shell. It elevates the authority and institutional power. It drains the language and hardens the rituals. It hollows out the interior. It replaces the search for truth with the demand for compliance to dogma. It replaces the cultivation of the community with the management of behavior. It replaces the living Creator with a set of rules that conveniently serves whoever is holding the rulebook.

And it uses the name of the Creator to do all of it, so that many come to believe anything associated with this name must be toxic and abusive.

That is the deepest betrayal. Not just of you. Not just of the tradition. But of the sacred itself.

Toxic religion doesn’t just hurt people. It obscures the divine. It puts a dark curtain between you and your Creator.

Now you can’t feel any of it. You can’t understand any of it. You can’t find any value in it.

No wonder people cut their losses and walk away. No wonder people run. No wonder people look down on it and pity the people who are still in it.

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WHAT NOBLE RELIGION DOES

This might be the hardest thing to believe, but…

Noble religion is still available despite the abuses of toxic religion.

Your noble religion is there waiting for you to free it from the cage of toxic religion.

Noble religion does things toxic religion will never do.

Noble religion has always done these things, in every tradition, in every age, for those willing to do the real work.

Noble religion restores your agency.

It says: “You are not a passive recipient of someone else’s salvation. You are a traveler. You have a path. And you are responsible for walking it.”

Noble religion builds real community.

Not the community of conformity, where everyone must look the same and think the same and silence the same doubts. But the community of the journey, where people hold each other accountable, challenge each other to grow, and refuse to let each other shrink into smallness.

Noble religion keeps the search alive.

The search for truth. The search for goodness. The search for beauty. That ancient, restless, irrepressible human hunger to *know*—not just to believe, but to *know*—what this life is all about and what lies beyond it.

Toxic religion gives you a cage and makes you starve inside it.

Noble religion gives you a compass, a path, and a magical lunchbox that always has food in it, made just for you.

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RAMADAN

Today is the first day of Ramadan.

And Ramadan, for me, is one of the clearest examples of what noble religion looks like when it’s actually working.

Think about what this practice asks of you.

It asks you to voluntarily give up something: food, drink, comfort, and distraction. Not because you are being punished, but because you are being invited. Invited to feel the hunger that’s always there beneath the surface. The hunger that no food can fill. The longing that no distraction can quiet.

It asks you to slow down enough to actually hear yourself think. To hear your own soul.

It gathers an entire community, across nations, cultures, languages, into a shared rhythm. A shared practice. A shared remembrance.

And it ends in a feast. In gratitude. In celebration.

That is religion doing what it is supposed to do. Connecting you to yourself, to each other, and to the One who made you.

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LIVING RELIGION

So here is what I want to leave you with today.

If religion hurt you, I see you. That wound is real, and it deserves to be addressed, treated, and healed.

So don’t let the people who corrupted something sacred have the final word. Don’t hand them that victory.

The religion that was stolen from you—the living, breathing, soul-nourishing, community-building, truth-seeking, goodness-honoring, beauty-admiring kind—still exists. It is still here. It has always been here, even when it was buried under centuries of abuse and rot.

You deserve better. You deserve to have your noble religion restored to you. It is your inheritance. It is your birthright.

Ramadan Mubarak.

Now let’s go find it.

—Rahim

MY BOOKS FOR RAMADAN

The Storm We Cannot Avoid

We are all living in a hurricane of disruptions and possibilities right now.

We are all confronted with political polarization, technological upheaval, climate change, and social movements reshaping our communities.

As the political winds and cultural landslides rage through our daily lives and around the world in every country, it might seem easy to close our eyes. It might seem like the right thing to do to look away while the storm passes.

But if we do that, we rob ourselves of the gifts of this moment.

The crises of our lives have the potential to open us and expand us.

Why should we turn such a gift away? Why should we take such a gift back to the post office and “return to sender”?

Embracing the Gift of Crisis

Don’t turn away from this. Don’t look away. Bear witness. Meet this moment.

See what you are being asked to see. It will stretch and expand your sight.

Feel what you are being asked to feel. It will expand your ability to feel the concerns and needs of others.

Understand what you are being asked to understand. It will increase your knowledge.

It may not be easy. It may not be comfortable. But growth never is.

The whole point of growth is to take you beyond your current understanding into a new larger way of understanding. Even if the steps to get there are difficult.

The Three-Layered Vision

So don’t look away. Learn to keep all your eyes open.

And to truly meet this moment requires more than simply looking—it demands seeing with fullness and depth and layers. This is what I mean by keeping all eyes open: developing three distinct ways of seeing that are layered together to reveal a fuller picture.

The first eye sees what’s happening in front of you. If the trees are on fire, you see the trees on fire. If a man and a woman on the street are hungry, you see the man and the woman and the hunger. This eye sees exactly what is happening. With this eye, you name what is happening.

The second eye sees the connections between what’s happening and what happened before. It sees cause and effect. It sees cruelty causing harm. It sees greed causing injustice. It sees the paths that brought us here. And by extension, it sees other paths that can take us elsewhere.

The third eye sees the spiritual background behind what’s happening. It sees what is not easily seen and not usually talked about. This is where the mysterious reasons and purposes of spirit operate—the patterns that connect seemingly random events, the opportunities for growth embedded in difficulty, the deeper meanings that transcend surface appearances. The third eye reminds us that life has dimensions beyond what our physical eyes perceive.

The Danger of Closing Our Eyes

When you refuse to see what’s in front of you and name what’s in front of you, you block all your eyes.

When you block your first eye, you also block your second and third eye. You make yourself blind. This is how and why some people don’t see and can’t feel for the suffering of others.

Keeping your first eye open and working properly is what allows you to start opening and using your other eyes.

A Practice for Seeing Clearly

When something happens, walk through it with all your eyes. Whether it surprises you, disappoints you, shocks you, or devastates you, walk through it with these questions.

First eye: what’s happening? What am I being told to see? What am I being told not to see? What is actually happening in front of my eyes?

Second eye: what caused this to happen? What are all the factors and connections that led up to this outcome? What could have led to a different outcome?

Third eye: what is the wisdom behind all this? What are we being shown and taught here from a higher spiritual point of view?

For instance, when facing a sudden job loss:

Your first eye acknowledges the situation: “I’ve lost my source of income.”

Your second eye examines connections: “This happened because of rapid industry changes and economic upheavals. I can look for ways to update my skills and diversify my income.”

Your third eye might recognize: “This disruption is creating space for me to pursue work more aligned with my purpose.”

The Benefits of Layered Seeing

If you develop the layers of your seeing in this way:

* you can meet your personal challenges more thoughtfully

* you can address the concerns and suffering of others more graciously.

Practice keeping all three eyes working and engaged at all times.

There are possibilities hidden inside this hurricane of disruptions.

Learn to see them and act on them.

By keeping all three eyes open—seeing what is happening, understanding connections, and perceiving deeper meanings—you’ll find yourself not just weathering the storm, but discovering new paths through it for yourself and others.

—Rahim

[Note: I use the phrase “third eye” to make a point about the layered nature of our seeing. It does not refer to any of the popular notions of a “third eye” drawn from ancient or modern metaphysics.]

Ramadan Mubarak!

The blessed month of Ramadan is here! Are you ready for this special time of reflection and renewal? This Ramadan could become your most meaningful yet, so I'm excited to share two resources that can help make that happen.

🌙 REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE: Your Daily Ramadan Reader

​Remember Who You Are was created as a companion for spiritual journeys like Ramadan. It contains 28 short easy-to-read chapters, each highlighting a spiritual verse from the Quran and offering a reflection to help you internalize that verse in your daily life.

You can read one chapter in the morning every day of Ramadan, reflect on it throughout the day, and possibly again in the evening. By the time you reach Eid, you will have been on a journey, exploring all the treasures you carry inside yourself and seeing your world in a whole new way.

What a dear reader says about Remember Who You Are:

This book is a treasure. It is empowering, uplifting and reminds us of the immense value our lives have. It also provides excellent advice about how to channel our energy and faculties in the right ways. It is a reminder on what is the best way for a human being to live his/her life and a beautiful expression of some key principles of Islam. This book brought me much comfort and inspiration. It is also practical and its advice can be immediately implemented to live a more expansive and true life.

​Order Remember Who You Are here and get copies for yourself, your family, your friends, and for Eid gifts today.

[Note: the new updated cover is only available on the paperback and ebook on Amazon.]
​

✍️ MY RAMADAN JOURNAL: Your Daily Ramadan Writing Companion

Reading nourishes the mind with new ideas, while writing helps us internalize them more deeply.

​My Ramadan Journal offers a dedicated space for your Ramadan experience:

• Made for kids and adults (kids-at-heart) ages 7 - 107.

• Record moments of insight and inspiration

• Track your spiritual growth throughout the month

• Preserve the clarity that often comes during this blessed time

• Create a meaningful record you can revisit in years to come

What a dear reader says about it:

This is a great journal with a lot of room to write down thoughts of self reflection during Ramadan. Clean design. Great for adults and kids. Going to get some for friends!

​Order My Ramadan Journal here and get copies for yourself, your family, your friends, and for Eid gifts today.

Ramadan offers us a precious opportunity to reset our spiritual compass, strengthen our connection with the Creator, and rediscover our true nature.

​Remember Who You Are and My Ramadan Journal can be valuable companions on this meaningful journey.

Wishing you a blessed and enriching Ramadan,

Rahim

Note:
These two books are sold on every Amazon site around the world. Search for them under my name.

Direct link for UK Customers:
Remember Who You Are
My Ramadan Journal

P.S. If you know someone who might benefit from these Ramadan resources, please share this email with them. Sharing beneficial knowledge with others (especially during Ramadan) is itself a beautiful act of service.

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1

I was not ready for this.

My spiritual father died on Tuesday, February 4, 2025.

His Highness the Aga Khan died on Tuesday, February 4, 2025.

Mawlana Shah Karim, the Imam of my time, died on Tuesday, February 4, 2025.

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[His Highness the Aga Khan, born Prince Karim al-Husseini, was the 49th hereditary Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, a community of approximately 15 million people worldwide. In Ismaili tradition, the Imam is believed to be divinely appointed and is both spiritual guide and interpreter of Islamic faith for his time.]

​

The message showed up on my phone. A few paragraphs.

No, no, what?

I read it 3 times and just stared at it with my mouth open.

Then I started crying.

No, no, what is happening.

I went to the homepage of the official website of the Ismaili community.

There it was. The same verbiage. A bright picture of the Imam with dates ending in 2025.

More tears came.

My chest got heavy. My arms and legs got heavy. I sat in my chair and sobbed.


2

I don’t know if you know this, but I have a long history with the Imam.

I have loved him. I have adored him. I have wrestled with him. I have struggled with him. I even tried to ignore him.

Still, he came looking for me.

Again and again.

I’ve heard his voice in my head, as if he was in the room with me.

That’s what brought me back.

He called me.

I answered.

Again and again.

He is the father I never had.

He is the friend I never had.

He is the guide I never had.

He is the light I never had.

​

[Unlike other Muslim traditions where an imam is simply a prayer leader, the Ismaili Imam holds a unique position of spiritual authority, providing guidance for both spiritual and worldly matters. This creates a profound spiritual bond between the Imam and his followers, even if they have never met him personally. He is with each one of his followers spiritually, if not physically.]

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​

I dreamed about working directly with him one day. I went to study in London to get closer to making that happen.

But then life happened and it didn’t work out.

Writing and teaching became my way of serving the Imam. It became my way of fulfilling his aspirations.​

3

I wrote about him in the preface of my book, Remember Who You Are, in 2017:

I am thankful to my teacher, His Highness the Aga Khan IV. When I was a young man, I used to read all your speeches in search of hidden treasures. Two passages from two different speeches stood out for me:

“As the demands on his time increase, every Muslim will find it more and more difficult to seek for himself the answer to the fundamental question of how he should live his life for it to be truly Muslim. It is men such as you who will have to bring forth the answers. Answers which will have to be practical and realistic in the world of today and tomorrow.” (1976)

“What the Muslim world needs today, I suggest, is more of those innovative architects that can navigate between the twin dangers of slavishly copying the architecture of the past and of foolishly ignoring its rich legacy. It needs those who can thoroughly internalize the collective wisdom of bygone generations, the eternal Message and ethic with which we live, and then reinforce them in the language of tomorrow.” (1989)

When I read those words, I knew I wanted to be a part of this movement and to make contributions toward this effort. I wanted to dig deep into the wisdom of Islam and bring forth practical answers in the language of tomorrow. This inspired me to continue my lifelong studies into religion, spirituality, mythology, and psychology.

After I finished college, you supported me in studying Islamic Studies and Humanities at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. And then you continued to support me as I got my Master’s degree in Religion from the University of Oxford. Even more years would still have to pass before I could thoroughly internalize and integrate everything I had learned.

I am happy to report, dear teacher, that this book, Remember Who You Are, is the first fruit of the seed you planted in me years ago. And there is so much more to come, inshallah.

Thank you for everything you have done for me. Thank you for your leadership, your teachings, your guidance, your patronage, and your loving blessings. You have made a profound difference in my life. May the peace and blessings of God be upon the Prophet Muhammad and his family.

This is the role the Imam has played in my life.

He is a luminous fixture in the landscape of my inner world.

4

On Tuesday February 4, 2025, Mawlana Shah Karim passed away. For over 50 years, he’s been that fixture in my life. And then he passes away.

I lost my father.

I lost my friend.

I lost my guide.

I lost my light.

​
A million memories come rushing back to me. The earliest memories of seeing his picture. The earliest memories of seeing him physically in a large encampment in Pakistan where he was giving an audience (didar) to his followers. Then again many years later in America. Listening to his voice. Seeing him on video.

​

When I was a grad student at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, he even came once to meet the students. And there he was, standing in our classroom, asking us to use our education to make a difference.

​

A lifetime of memories. Like standing under a waterfall. So much that you can hardly contain it. It overfills the mind. It overfills the heart. Lost under the currents.

What can you do? There is no relief from this. So you just sit with it and try to give up the need to resolve it anytime soon. There is nothing to resolve.

This deep grief is only matched by a deep gratitude.

5

I wish I could have known him personally. In the last years of his life, he was quite ill. We were never told what it was.

Still, I wish I could have made him some soup or a sandwich or told him Knock Knock jokes to make him laugh.

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Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Interrupting cow.
Interrupting co—
Moo!

​

More laughter. More tears.

How do you measure a life?

How do you measure the impact of a life?

​

He was a world figure conversing with other world figures, moving every conversation toward a more humanitarian direction. He built schools. He built hospitals. He championed pluralism.

He impacted millions over seven decades.

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He is a light by which I walked. He sent me to grad school, to London, to Oxford. He impacted my one life in a million ways.

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He is with his grandfather now, Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah.

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He is with his ancestors now, the long line of Imams that stretches from him all the way back to Mawlana Ali over one thousand four hundred years ago.

6

But the story doesn’t end here.

​

There is a plot twist.

Every Imam, before his death, appoints the next Imam.

In Ismaili Islam, there is always a living Imam in the world to guide his followers and all of humanity.

Before Mawlana Shah Karim died, he appointed one of his sons to be the next Imam.

[The Qur’an states: “He will provide for you a light by which you shall walk.” (57:28)]​

The Light never leaves the world. It passes from one Imam to another so that the world is never left without that Light.

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[In Ismaili tradition, the institution of Imamat continues through hereditary succession, with each Imam designating his successor from among his male progeny before death. This ensures the community is never without living spiritual guidance. The chain of succession has remained unbroken since the time of Prophet Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, the first Imam.]

​

On Wednesday February 5, 2025, the Will of the Imam was unsealed and it stated that his son Shah Rahim will be the next Imam.

It might take me a minute or a month or a year, but I will take all the time I need to mourn the passing of Shah Karim and to celebrate the coming of Shah Rahim.

I go to the official website and there is a bright picture of the new Imam, Shah Rahim, with the words “Mawlana Hazar Imam,” indicating that he is now the Present Imam of our time.

​

I look into his eyes.

And all I can think is:

He is now my spiritual father.

What was in his father is now in him.

​

He came looking for me.

Again and again.

He is not leaving without me.

He is not leaving without us.

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I see him.

I recognize him: Imam of my time.

And I see behind him his father and his great grandfather and all the Imams, all the way back to Imam Ali.

This is the rope of Imamat.

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[The Qur'an states: "And hold fast to the rope of Allah, all together, and do not become divided" (3:103). In Ismaili interpretation, this rope represents the unbroken line of living Imams.]

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I thank Allah for the rope of Imamat.

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One Imam after another offering humanity a rope to pull themselves higher and higher into the celestial realms through prayer, contemplation, kindness, generosity, and doing good in the world.

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It’s a beautiful vision, isn’t it?

​

That’s what brings us back.

​

Yesterday I lost a father.

Today I gained a father.

In 24 hours.

​

I was not ready for this.

​
—Rahim

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[Read this slowly to yourself, once or twice a day, over the next few days.

You need to speak the truth over yourself before the truth can get activated and start working in your life.

You need to warm up the clay before you can lay the foundation. - RS]

I am a spiritual being, even though I don’t exactly know what that means.

I am a spiritual being, even though I sometimes forget to look up from my phone long enough to appreciate what I already have.

I am a spiritual being, even though I’ve spent years chasing promotions instead of my own personal growth and unfolding.

I am a spiritual being, even though I haven’t prayed sincerely and deeply in a long time.

I am a spiritual being, even though I’m afraid to look too long in the mirror some days, worried about how harshly I will judge myself.

I am a spiritual being, even though I sometimes snap at the people in my life when I’m tired and immediately regret it.

I am a spiritual being, even though I often measure my worth by the number of cities I’ve visited in my photographs and passport.

I am a spiritual being, even though I sometimes get too wrapped up in my troubles to think about helping somebody else with their troubles.

I am a spiritual being, even though I’ve walked briskly past unhoused people, pretending not to see them, walking even faster if they start saying something.

I am a spiritual being, even though I struggle to forgive myself for mistakes and missteps I made decades ago.

I am a spiritual being, even though I often feel like an imposter.

I am a spiritual being, even though I sometimes wonder if anyone is really listening or really cares when I pray for help.

I am a spiritual being, even though I’ve chosen comfort over courage more times than I can count.

I am a spiritual being, even though I often feel lost in a world that seems to value everything but spirit.

I am a spiritual being, even though I sometimes doubt there’s any meaning to all this suffering.

I am a spiritual being, even though I’ve stayed in relationships where I neglected my values because I was afraid of being alone.

I am a spiritual being, even though I sometimes make my anxious thoughts feel more heavy and real than the divine presence that is always waiting patiently for me to notice it.

I am a spiritual being, even though I struggle to accept and enjoy any gifts when they are freely given.

I am a spiritual being, even though I often choose distraction over exploring the depths of my own heart.

I am a spiritual being, even though I sometimes forget that everyone else is too.

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2024 was a bitter pickle. Inshallah, 2025 will bring out the best in many of us.

As the forces of inequality and disunity are getting more and more time on the world’s stage, my vision and prayer for you and me and all of us in 2025 is:

May you be a lighthouse!

Here are five focus areas in 2025 to maintain the integrity and resilience of our light in a challenging world:

1. Be a Decent Human Being

At the center of who you are, you know your core values. You know what it means to be a decent human being.

Political forces, economic pressures, media propaganda will try their hardest to get you to swap out your core values for theirs.

Don’t do it.

Remember who you are.

Write down your core values as if your life depends on it—because it does. Read your core values daily and weekly if it helps you. Read it with your family if it helps get everyone on the same page.

In the whirlwind of local, national, and global events, everything depends on remembering who you are.

Make sure that everything you do aligns with your core values. Let your humane values inform every decision you make for your family, what you say and do at work, what you say and do in your community, how you vote, what you support, what you resist, etc.

Stay vigilant about the small compromises that tend to erode integrity and equality over time.

We can change the world by increasing the number of decent human beings in the world.

Make sure you are one of them. Make sure you stay one of them.

2. Serve Local and Global Communities

Nobody does anything by themselves. We are all supported by many other people who make what we do possible.

Get more involved with your family, neighbors, and local communities. Support whatever needs support on a local level with your local allies.

Learn about what is happening globally. Research what is happening in Palestine, Sudan, and Congo. Go beyond what the mainstream media says about it. I mean really research it like you were writing a college research paper about it, looking at the issues from all angles.

Support movements for the people who are being oppressed. Donate. Advocate. Amplify their voices.

We’re all connected. What happens to a family on the other side of the world is connected to your family. If the tables were turned and it was your family undergoing oppression, you would want people from anywhere and everywhere to advocate for you.

3. Redefine Abundance

There are no riches more valuable than time and health with your family. Draw your sense of success from your time with your family.

Talk together. Make meals together. Dine together. Play games together. Sing together. Laugh together.

This is it.

If you have this, you won.

If you don’t have this, go get it.

There are 8 billion+ people in this world. Everybody could use somebody in their life. A friend. An uncle. An auntie. A big sister. A big brother. Chosen families. Extended families. Get plugged in. On a spiritual level, we’re all one family anyway.

Unsubscribe from the rat race. Know that you are not a rat. Know that you are not born to race with rats. :)

Seriously, though, you don’t need to travel to every country on earth to be interesting. You don’t need that expensive car. You don’t need a bigger house. You don’t need so many of the things you think you need to feel fulfilled.

Connect and create and draw your sense of abundance from that.

4. Lean on Divinity

You are a spiritual being whose foundation is the Creator of all spiritual beings.

Whether you call that Creator by the name of Allah, God, Source, Love, Life, etc, call on that Creator as often as you possibly can.

Keep the remembrance of your Creator in the center of your heart, in the back of your mind, and on the tip of your tongue at all times.

Engage in prayer, meditation, contemplation, reading scriptures, reading spiritual poetry.

Use writing as prayer, writing as contemplation, writing as a response to scripture. Write your own prayers, meditations, and poetry. (I’ve done this my whole life).

Ask for guidance. Ask for strength. Ask for wisdom. Ask for help. And give thanks for everything.

The regular practice of maintaining this connection with your Creator is what will give you the peace, strength, courage, and inspiration you need in calm and turbulent times.

5. Imagine a Better World

As a decent human being, if you could redesign how society operates, what would you change?

How would you address the inequality? Between women and men? Between people of different skin colors? Between people of different income levels and access to opportunities? Between human settlements and animal habitats? Between the healthy and the sick? Between the young and old?

Until we start imagining a better world, a better world cannot appear. It first has to be imagined. That’s the first requirement. Then it has to be worked. That’s the second requirement.

It doesn’t even need to be a complete overhaul if you don’t want it to be. What would you tweak and adjust? What would you update and upgrade?

Take a few minutes today to write down 3 inequalities you've personally witnessed in your community. Then imagine specific solutions for each one.

Start a journal dedicated to your “better world” ideas

Form a small discussion group in your community to share these visions.

Create art, writing, or other creative works that depict your imagined better world.

Connect with organizations already working toward similar visions.

Go through this thought process. Write out, draw out, map out what a more equal society might look like.

(Send me your ideas. I will take the top 10 ideas and share them in a future post.)

It is not someone else’s responsibility to imagine and build a better world. It is ours. And if enough of us start imagining a better world, we will begin to think and act and organize in ways to draw it closer to us.

This is my new year vision and prayer for all of us:

May you be a lighthouse!

By focusing on these five areas, you can be a lighthouse in the storm, joining millions of other lighthouses, to usher in a more equal and decent and united world.

Happy New Year to you and your families.

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Spirituality is
remembrance
of Who made you,
of Who cares for you,
and of Who accompanies you.

Spirituality is
remembrance
of who you are,
of who you have always been,
and of who you will always be.

Spirituality is
remembrance
of who we are,
of what we mean to each other,
and of what we can do together.

Anything that calls itself
“religion” or “spirituality”
but avoids this remembrance
and keeps you forgetful
is not religion or spirituality.

It’s trying to sell you something else.
Don’t buy it.
Be discerning.
Go for the real thing.

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There is something we all want.

There is something we are all looking for:

A piece of bread, a quiet room, a pair of jeans made just for us.

Fingers intertwined, an old song, soft touches in the night.

These things come. And these things go.

And now we’re looking again, wanting, wanting…

We don’t have the words for how much…this wanting.

Our hands are not the hands of a child anymore.

They have become someone else’s hands.

Our thoughts are not the thoughts we thought in our youth.

They have come down to us filtered by a thousand other minds.

Our feelings, so many feelings. They were never ours to begin with.

They move in a new direction every second that passes, like jellyfish.

We have changed over and over again, and yet…

And yet there is something in us that has not.

We pass by a mirror and catch a glimpse of our face.

And we stop and stare into our own eyes.

(Is it still rude to stare if you’re staring at yourself,

Looking for all the places God might’ve left his fingerprints?)

Who is it that is looking out through your beautiful eyes?

It’s that same one that looks out with baby eyes from the crib…

From kid’s eyes from the school bus…

From grown eyes from the coffeeshop window.

That one doesn’t come. That one doesn’t go.

That one doesn’t become anything else.

That one always is.

So much stability. So much quiet confidence.

Like it was the truth or something.

Could it be that what you’re looking for, you already are?

Could it be that what you’re wanting, you already have?

Instead of looking out and searching anxiously,

Could you rest in the one who says “I am”?

As you grew and grew and outgrew yourself—

From child to kid to teenager to adult to elder—

This “I am” has given you your sameness over the years.

Even in your dreams, even in the most delirious of your delusions,

It’s the part of you you can’t shake off.

This is the being that you are.

This is the being that you’ve always been.

This is the being that you will always be.

Welcome to the end of searching and the beginning of finding.

Welcome to the end of looking and the beginning of seeing.

Your restless breathless wanting has brought you here.

It kept you dissatisfied with everything that you are not

So that you might keep reaching for what you really are.

Blessed are you and the One who made you.

Blessed is your wanting and the One who put it in you.

—Rahim

In the name of Allah,
Being of all beings,
Artist of all artists,
Teacher of all teachers,
Lord of all the worlds,
The Caring, the Compassionate,
God above all else,
Friend like no other—
I offer this humble work
In service, friendship, and love for you,
And I ask in the names
Of the high ambassadors of God—
Muhammad and Ali, Mary and Fatima,
Moses and Shekinah, Jesus and the Holy Spirit,
Peace be upon them all—
That this work may help the people of God
Remember that they are the people of God—
Through your will and blessing alone.
Thank you, Allah, for making me
What you have made me.
Thank you, Allah, for giving me
What you have given me.
Thank you, Allah, for helping me to give
What you have given me to give.
All greatness, all glory, and all praise belong to you.
Here I am, Allah,
At your service,
Here I am.

—Rahim Snow