By maryam abdul-kareemThis is a powerful TEDx Talk about Baltimore’s community – one that you don’t hear a lot about, but you should know their story. Baltimore is home to so many amazing souls who put in work every day to heal the wounds of their beloved city. It’s a city that has been assaulted by systemic…
By maryam abdul-kareemEquality is arguably the most misused and overused word. Equality assumes that everyone starts from the same place with the same barriers and requires the same help or supports; therefore, denotes that everyone should be treated equally. But treating everyone equally is not always fair. How often, if ever, have you met a person who…
By maryam abdul-kareemAs an indecisive person, I often find myself pondering what to do next or wondering which route is the most beneficial one. To be honest, it takes me a good 20 minutes to order food from a menu. Like I said: super indecisive. However, there is a silver lining to this uncertainty. It pushes one…
By maryam abdul-kareemIs celebrating Thanksgiving really harmless? I know a lot of people celebrate Thanksgiving, including Muslims, because how can being grateful and spending time with family ever be wrong, right? Well, when a holiday is rooted in the oppression and extermination of a people and culture, I personally think that no matter what you call it,…
By maryam abdul-kareem“No. I won’t blow you up,” is a response I had to give more times than I care to admit. I spent my high school years in a small southern town with small southern town values, some good and some not so good. Many people were super nice, some super racist (which is probably the…
By maryam abdul-kareemDevastation in Dominica Hurricane Maria brought destruction and devastation to Dominica, an island in the Caribbean. The population is in dire need of help and is calling on us to send aid and support. They are without food, water, electricity and medical supplies (see list below). You can donate here. Homes have been destroyed, leaving some…
By maryam abdul-kareemIn our busy lives — not the Netflix and chill life but the other one, you know, the work, school, kid’s life — we often forget to check on the ones we love. A quick call or text to just to say “I love you” or ask “How are you?” I get it, life gets…
By maryam abdul-kareemThere’s a bustling silence roaring through my ears The sound of quiet intoxicates my mind The serenity of silence speaks and I am thinking These rumbling thoughts send contemplation screaming through my mind I am up A pensive roaring drumming through my mind A beating brain of blood flow There’s a bustling silence roaring through my ears…
By maryam abdul-kareemWe’ve all been there. Those moments, days, weeks or even months when your brain reminds you of how flawed you are as a human being. As soon as you deal with one mistake another creeps up and the little voice inside your head inserts doubt and fear into every thought, every action. Negative thinking seeps…
By maryam abdul-kareemI’ve imagined a land where Love can breathe, so inhale me these lovely dreams. Painted into reality, images only Love can see. I love Love for Love’s sake. I love Love for Allah’s sake. I love on maximum Pour wholeheartedly into whatever my Lord degrees to be I am the lover of Love It is…
By maryam abdul-kareemIn the spirit of embracing the last few days of Ramadan and just in being a good Muslim in general here is a worthy cause you can get down with: Building the Leaders of Tomorrow. “Help support our youth from across the country with scholarships as they follow their dreams to attend a Quran and…
By maryam abdul-kareemIn this beautiful month of Ramadan in which the Qur’an was revealed to our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), we fast. Yes, we fast from food and drink but also from worldly desires, indecent behavior (such as wasting food and eating excessively), bad language etc. It is a month in which we increase our good deeds,…
By maryam abdul-kareemMoon was born on Earth in the age of darkness, six trillion years after her brother, Sun. Sun, born during the age of light, was blaringly domineering. He convinced himself he was greater than his illumination-challenged sister. When Moon was very small, Sun told her that she was made from the darkness around them and…
By maryam abdul-kareemMuslim Girl writer, spoken word artist and Baddie extraordinaire, Hanan Issa, talks about identity; what it means to be a Hijabi, to be Muslim, to be Welsh. To battle and embrace the dualities of identity. In a world that is decreasingly black and white, Hanan talks about the colorful reality of living “on the boundaries of a…
By maryam abdul-kareemWhen we look back at how we got the calluses on our hands and the sores on our feet, we’ll remember the mountains we climbed and how we conquered defeat. We were tired and damn near dying but we were strong and alive. It’s the hardest thing we ever had to do — Living. Falling….
