“Are you high maintenance?,” she asked over lunch through a relatively rowdy group. It’s a question that’s sat with me for the last three weeks. I answered as honestly as…

Reemo Bobeemo. Nineteen years between us. On my way home from Uni, I’d go to my uncle’s to see her, walk in and singsong Hiii-iiii. It became her first word….

I’m on holidays as of Monday COB so hopeful I have more time to write over the coming two weeks, inshAllah. We went for a hike and a picnic, then…

“Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be.” -Rumi This was originally published in 2012, and I revisit it…

He had a natural green thumb, and then worked hard to enrich his knowledge. He’s the one who was the first to learn that I thought Mr. Peanut made peanuts…

She asked me if I’d ignored it. I responded honestly that that wasn’t it. But because I hadn’t considered the question before she posed it, I couldn’t quite put my…

The primary difference is that we respond to managers, but we follow leaders. A leader is someone we like, and trust, because whose following someone they’re not down with, or…

I got lucky enough to spend some of yesterday with two of my favourite girls ❤️ Heading into this new year, some du3aas for us all – Allahuma inni astakheeruka…

The past year has been full of beginnings for me, after a decade of challenge; this photo was taken on my birthday when I was surrounded by my family, and…

I first wrote and published this piece in 2011, and it is my favourite one to recycle annually, so welcome this 2022 edition. The driver behind this piece is simply…

Why did You allow famine? Why did You permit the rape and abuse of innocents? Why did You build rooms inside of which creation might plan and later execute genocide?…

She’s really a sight during Autumn, isn’t she? For some time, I’ve been trying to figure out how to be a better Muslim. What more can I do, in which…

My baby sister is in town, but I dislike all of the photos we took together, so instead you’re getting a photo she took of me, in my usual state…

Two great losses in the span of six days. Neither expected. One with whom I grew up, and the other whom I had hoped to watch grow into an extraordinary…

You can’t love a friend enough to do their work for them. You can’t love a friend enough to heal them on their behalf. And you most certainly can’t care…

That’s not a smile that had been showing itself for quite a while, such is the power of Vitamin D. Please consider this a cautionary tale for everyone, but especially…

Until today. The robin landed unusually close as I stood outside, and she** didn’t fly away when I approached. Rather, she hopped along, signaling an inability to fly. Injured foot,…

I’m not discussing small missteps rooted in the best of intentions, or coming from a place of love and landing heavily. As shitty as these moments are, they exist because…

I believe this filter might be called Jaundiced. Also, it has been three months since I sliced and diced my hair. Like, how short was it, if this is three…

I’m standing in a building around which there is nothing. The coffee is as absolute shit as the food. The windows don’t open, and there is banging construction. How am…

Look at my smile. I’m back in the office one day a week, and I’m excited. I’m interrupting everyone’s work to chat because 1) it’s Ramadan and every Muslim needs…

A friend sent me a tweet which read “when […] someone makes us uncomfortable and we choose to be polite instead of honest, all we’re doing is holding onto all…

A two and a half hour walk to cover all things missed over the last month or so of secrets sharing, when J-Canary said “I have come to accept that…

“The rules for happiness: have something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for.” -Kant, who always could. I have always loved Kant; the only reason I refused…

We love this shirt, yeah? It’s my favourite new piece and it works as well with jeans or dressier straight-legged pants. But that’s not why we’re here… Shaytaan told God…

Preamble: This piece sets aside the trauma of abuse committed by narcissistic parents, and partners. Manipulation and harm wholly intended to in fact erode the abused individual’s worth so that…

The first time I ever articulated it was in Uni. I remember it so clearly, because it remains a rule by which I live – “Give them your ulcer.” Even…

“Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” -Desmond Tutu That’s Therese on the left, and her…

Taken during an evening walk full of belly-laughs, and nothing but peace and calm in a world that feels as though it has been turned on its head (for me…

So often it’s asked, What advice would you give your younger self? No doubt an important question, because it should indicate an evolution of self; but here’s a more interesting…

2015, November 18 was when it had last happened, moments before I took this photo on a Ferris wheel in London’s Marylebone neighbourhood. And only once before, in 2009 while…

My heart fell apart and stitched herself together over the years. the incense(d) heart is a reflection of loves lost, and those which continue to keep me. It may be…

Wake-up came naturally, and without an alarm somewhere between 6 and 7. With coffee in hand, I was, by the time we left, snowshoeing 6 km before my workday began….

From Montreal, he and his girlfriend were on The Lake for two weeks in this corner mint-coloured cabin. I called him George Katsopolis, though his name was in fact Jeremy….

This scene on the lake, it has as much energy and socializing as I am willing or open to engaging. I promised a friend that I would write this second…

I have been sat on this a while now, and so it is with great excitement that I share it. My publisher has asked for a second book of poetry, and it…

I snowshoe around this lake daily. Clearing my head, forcing me to move, fresh air, peace and quiet, the reasons are endless. One of the houses dropping back onto the…

In her right arm, she had wrapped an empty plastic bottle and was carrying it around like a baby. I had met and fallen in love with this little Maasai…

“& they lived happily ever after” is where most love stories end, but I will always hold true to my belief that this is precisely where meaningful love stories begin….

Editorial caveat: What follows about me comes with zero judgement regarding the choices of others. I am for everyone’s love affair, no matter the flavour they need to remain in…