Give $2 a night for 30 nights to charities worldwide and receive a physical Ramadan Journal to support your Ramadan journey.

Start My Ramadan Challenge

^{*Zakat Eligible}

Let me tell you about a kid who grew up in a household of scholars but wanted absolutely nothing to do with knowledge.

His whole family? Deep into hadith and fiqh.

Him? Playing with pigeons and practicing his singing.

That kid was Imam Malik.

Yes, that Imam Malik. The one who would eventually become the Imam of Medina. The one the Prophet ﷺ prophesied about when he said people would travel the world seeking knowledge, but the most knowledgeable would be the scholar of Medina.

But before all that? Malik wore earrings, spent his days with pigeons, and was set on becoming a singer.

His mother saw what he couldn't see yet. She didn't lecture him about wasting his potential. Instead, she dressed him in the clothes of a scholar, a proper thobe and turban, and sent him to Rabi'ah, one of Medina's most prominent teachers.

She didn't tell him to memorize hadith or master fiqh. She said, "Learn from his manners before his knowledge."

For two years, young Malik sat with Rabi'ah.

She was planting seeds he couldn't see growing yet.

At one point, he told her flat-out: "I want to be a singer."

Her response? "You don't have the looks of a singer."

SubhanAllah. She wasn't being cruel—she was redirecting him, protecting him from a path that wouldn't suit him.

But the real turning point came when young Malik was sitting with his father and brother. His dad asked them both a question. His brother got it right. Malik got it wrong.

His father looked at him and said: "Your pigeons made you too busy to seek knowledge."

That was it. Dismissive. Almost writing him off. Like, "You're not like your brother. You're the one wasting time."

Malik said, "I got angry.I wanted to prove my dad wrong. I wanted to show I wasn't a loser."

And that's when he dedicated himself to knowledge. Out of spite at first. But that fire—however it started—transformed him into one of the greatest scholars in Islamic history.

Here's the lesson: never judge someone's beginning. The kid playing with pigeons became the Imam of Medina. The one wearing earrings became the man who wouldn't even discuss hadith while walking because he held it in such reverence.

Everyone's on a journey. Some people take longer to find their path. Some need a wake-up call. Some need to get angry first.

But Allah sees what you don't. And transformation can happen at any moment. Even to the kid who just wants to sing.

So maybe don't write off the person who seems distracted, unfocused, or headed the wrong way. Maybe they're one moment away from becoming who they're supposed to be.

Even if right now, they're just playing with pigeons.

Who in our lives needs patient cultivation rather than pressure?

^{Share your reflections in the poll at the end of the email.}

“Those who are heedless of their prayer”

Alladhīna hum ʿan ṣalātihim sāhūn