DAILYREFLECTION
And Allah invites to the Home of Peace and guides whom He wills to a straight path.
You're Looking for Peace in All the Wrong Places
Why That Second Interview Rejection Might Be a Mercy
The Name of Allah You Need When Life Doesn't Make Sense
What If Everything He Does for You Is Actually Good?
Stop Searching for Salam in Things That Can't Give It
Yeah, Allah is perfect. We all know that.
But do you actually believe it when you don't get the job after the second interview? You know that feeling, right? The disappointment hits different after round two. You thought it was yours.
We say Allah is perfect in His essence, perfect in His attributes. But where we really struggle? His plan. His decree. The stuff that happens to us that we think shouldn't have happened.
There's this profound idea from Ibn Al-Qayyim. He said the only way you'll truly understand that Allah is As-Salam, that there's no fault in His plan, is when you genuinely believe that everything He does for you is good for you.
Everything.
He gave this example that stopped me cold: When a surgeon cuts through your flesh with a knife, he's not trying to hurt you. He's trying to get to the problem. To uproot it. To fix what's broken underneath.
That's what Allah does with your life.
Here's the real issue though. We're out here searching for peace in imperfect things and imperfect people.
Think about it. Why do you grind so hard financially? Strip away all the surface reasons and get to the core. You're looking for peace. You think when the money comes, when the promotion hits, when you finally afford that thing, then you'll have it.
Some of us shop for peace. Acquire things, convinced that this will finally bring that inner calm. But Allah already warned us: the acquisition of things destroys you.
And marriage? A lot of us enter thinking it'll give us something it was never designed to provide. We expect peace from another imperfect human when the source is Allah alone. When both people seek Him, there's peace. Without that, you're just two people searching in the wrong place together.
If we don't know As-Salam, we'll spend our whole lives running around looking for salam everywhere else.
We'll chase purification of the heart from a hundred different sources.
Meanwhile, the Source of all peace has been there the whole time.
Reflect On This
How would our reactions change if we truly believed that Allah’s plan carries no flaw?
Share your reflections in the poll at the end of the email.
WATERMELONWATCH
Palestinians gather near tents sheltering displaced people, amid a windstorm, in Gaza City.
Winter storms battered displacement camps, with at least six reported dead and thousands of tents damaged as families faced flooding and cold. Aid teams and neighbors are trying to shore up shelters fast, and the urgent push for new tents and winter supplies is keeping people alive day to day.
Children keep dying even during the ceasefire, with UNICEF reporting more than 100 children killed since early October, including from strikes and unexploded ordnance. At the same time, UNICEF and partners are pressing to expand protection and basic services so children can survive long enough to return to school and routine.
MSF warns that new registration pressures could disrupt lifesaving care, even as hospitals remain overwhelmed and supplies strained. MSF says it is continuing work and supporting a significant share of Gaza’s hospital capacity, a crucial backstop for mothers, newborns, and trauma patients.
QURANCORNER
وَلَا أَنتُمْ عَابِدُونَ مَا أَعْبُدُ
“Nor are you worshippers of what I worship.”
Wa lā antum ʿābidūna mā aʿbud
Affirms that the two paths—Islam and disbelief—are fundamentally different.
Though they may use similar terms, their intentions, beliefs, and realities are not the same.
This verse refutes the idea that "all paths lead to God" faith matters deeply.