Assalamu alaikum warahmatullah,
How are you doing? (Please do respond in the comments, don’t leave me hanging!)
I am as well as I can be, Alhamdulillah.
I’ve been distracted with my health and healing over the last couple of months. Bouncing from the GP to Urgent Care to A&E. Getting scans, blood tests, being poked and prodded. Advocating for myself after being dismissed and offered various painkillers (hard drugs in my opinion) to take home and see what happens.
Your girl has spent the last few months running in circles, searching for answers and trying to understand what’s happening in her body.
This fixation carried me into Ramadan, stealing my focus for most of the first half of it. I wish I could tell you I found the answers I was looking for.
The best of the doctors I saw, earnestly looked me in the eye and told me they didn’t know exactly what was happening or why. Your symptoms are too erratic and we can’t pin it down to one thing. Diagnostics aren’t giving us any more clarity.
Subhan Allah.
Speaking to my Dad (may Allah preserve our parents and have mercy on them as they did on us when we were young), I asked him to make dua for me. He told me he would, but reminded me to “raise my little hands” and make sincere dua for myself.
One of my mentors called me to check in and reminded me to be aware of, and grateful for Allah’s love and mercy during a test or challenging time. This is happening while I'm reading my good friend Aliyah’s new book, The Power of Dua. If you don't have it yet, do yourself a favour and get it.
This book reinforced my trust and sense of certainty that my duas are heard by As-Samee’ and will be answered by Al-Mujeeb.
The Why Me series and Quran 30 for 30 by Yaqeen Institute as well as Sh. Ammar’s series on the names of Allah—which I loved with all of my heart—were all keeping me company this Ramadan and seemed to all be bringing the same message home.
In my previous life as a freelance designer I learned that when you are working with teams and organizations, you are given a contact like a project manager who gives you the brief and communicates with you throughout the project. The issue was that sometimes that person wasn’t the decision maker, they didn’t have the authority to sign off on designs. It meant they had to relay everything to a third party and it complicated the entire process unnecessarily.
Did You Know I Offer Weekly Women’s Support Groups?
There are both weekday evening and weekend groups to join, with 5 spaces available per meeting. The 90-minute sessions meet online and can fill up pretty quickly. Come check them out!
The lesson I learned the hard way was: To find the person in charge, the one with the final say, and go straight to them.
This is the same lesson, coming to me via a handful of different messengers, and it echoes the idea I just shared above.
Plus I was in Ramadan, there’s no better time to reconnect with Allah than in the blessed month. I had been distracted by so many things and my connection was gradually declining in quality over the years.
Being unwell forced me to slow down and recalibrate.
Resources:
The Power of Dua by Aliyah Umm Raiyaan: Amazon
Ramadan Series: Why Me? by Yaqeen Institute: Youtube
Quran 30 for 30 S5 by Yaqeen Institute: Youtube
Allah’s Beautiful Names by Al-Maghrib Institute: Youtube
Introducing Low-Cost Mentoring Sessions
I’ve added more affordable mentoring slots for ladies who are facing financial constraints and want to get the support they need. Sessions are limited and are booked on a first-come-first-serve basis.
If these sessions are still out of reach, check out the weekly support group sessions.
As always, jazakum Allah khair for being here and I look forward to sharing more.
Assalamu alaikum warahmatullah
Sumayah
[Episode 12] Hospitals, Health & Healing: Post Ramadan Thoughts