Put Your Salah First

Whenever I travel, particularly to other countries, observing Salah during the journey can become much harder than usual. Think 19 hour flights, lack of wudu facilities and clean toilets near by. Here’s what I’ve noticed. When I observe the prayers even in the midst of all other inconveniences, my problems start to leave – almost immediately.

My health tends to play up a lot when I travel but I’ve noticed that after observing Salah, my health consequences become almost halved and eventually not even an issue any more. Literally physical health consequences that almost vanish after Salah. Don’t ask me how because I have no idea how that works. But I do know that when you put Allah first – even when it’s difficult, He’ll put you first.

If you chase the world, you’ll never have it. But if you chase Allah, He’ll put the world in front of you. It’s a strange concept – the more practising I became, the more the luxuries of this world opened up to me. Where as before I was lusting over the latest designer ‘it’ bag in Vogue, now it simply doesn’t matter. That doesn’t mean you can’t possess luxury items, it means that your heart isn’t attached to those things. It means that you’ll still be happy with or without it.

I vividly remembering sitting in a Saudi Arabian flight when a woman and her husband sat in front of us. Noticing her Miu Miu bag (which was the ‘it’ bag at the time), I instantly thought ‘woah that must cost a fortune’. Through out the flight, I noticed how her husband just couldn’t keep his eyes to himself, constantly starring at other women besides him- despite sitting right next to his wife. That’s when I thought of the worthlessness of appearances and outwardly numbers.

-What does being in a 7 year marriage mean if you can’t be completely open, vulnerable and madly in love with each other? What does fashionably accessorising your abaya mean if your constantly comparing yourself to the woman next to you? Who cares about the designer bag swinging on your arm if you splashed out months of savings yet can’t even secure a future for yourself?

That doesn’t mean you can’t have it all. You can have it all but see this world for what it is. When you put Allah first, you may have several worldly luxurious opportunities coming your way – keep detached to it and focus on what truly matters.

 Express Your Gratitude To Allah

“If you are grateful, I will surely give you more and more” (Ibrahim 14:7).

Gratitude is a powerful way to change your life and alter your destiny. The above ayah has to be one of my favourite ayahs and one that I keep coming back to over and over again. If you want to attract more opportunities in your life, more precious moments of deep love and happiness, express deep gratitude to Allah.

Gratitude to Allah can be expressed verbally (i.e. alhumdulillah or saying out loud thank you Allah for…) or written in your journal or phone. For me, more than anything gratitude is a feeling. It’s the feeling of happiness after you’ve connected with the people you love. It’s the feeling of unspeakable joy because you realise how much you have to be grateful for. It’s the feeling of overwhelm and tears flickering in your eyes as your observe the beauty of this life.  

 Feel Worthy

Maybe it’s that time of the month or you’ve had a really rough day and all you want to do is shut down from the world. So you quickly change into your trusted pyjamas, hide under the duvet and begin to sulk over everything. It’s the ‘poor me’ attitude ruminating over everything that could possibly go wrong.

“Nobody will ever want you. You’ll never find your dream man – he doesn’t exist. Who do you think you are? They’re all laughing at you. Stop dreaming big. Stop having hope for yourself. Forget it – You’ll end up like the rest of them. You’ll always have money problems – just like everybody else around you. You’ll always be struggling. You’ll never loose the excess weight – besides what difference does it make? You’re still not naturally pretty. You’ll never be loved. Why do you have to be so desperate for? You say the dumbest of things. Eurghh you look so fat. ‘

Girl, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

It’s when your inner mean girl is raging. It’s when you feel awful as though you’ve dug yourself into a pitch dark hole with no way out. It hurts. It’s so painful to sit through and listen to these awful thoughts.

It’s even more heartbreaking that some women actually believe those thoughts.

Some women actually go through life feeling unlovable, ugly, stupid, not pretty enough, boring, daft, destined to fail, lonely, depressed, anxious – none of which are your truth.

If you want more opportunities flowing in to your life, you’ve got to feel worthy.

You’ve got to feel confident and sensual way before you see defined abs in the mirror. You’ve got to feel loved and attractive long before you marry your dream man. You’ve got to feel like a world-class entrepreneur before you get your first client.

So the million dollar question: how do you feel worthy?

-Change the way you speak to yourself. Every time a mean girl thought pops up, gently acknowledge her sneaky comments and flip it around. Find the most depressing and hurtful thoughts and flip it around. For example your inner mean girl may say ‘Nobody’s ever going to marry you’. Every time that thought pops us, flip that around to ‘I’m going to be hottest wife out there!’ 😉 Keep on going until that negative thought holds no power over you.

-Cultivate unwavering belief in yourself. As a former overly-polite, wishy-washy kind of girl, let me tell you something. If you don’t 100% belief in yourself and your dreams, neither will anybody else. Have no doubt that you are worthy of your wildest, most-passionate dreams. Dreams that seem impossible for all the women around you, doesn’t mean your life will be the same. Darling, you don’t have to be like the rest of them. And you won’t be.

There you have it. 3 ways to attract more abundance, love and opportunity into your life. Whenever I feel like I’m lacking or constrained with my resources, I check in on these 3 ways. Do I need more kushu in my salah? Is there a particular sin that is preventing the rizq from Allah entering my life? Do I feel worthy of this goal? Am I expressing my gratitude to Allah for what I already have? When I make those adjustments, my wildest dreams come true. Dreams that I never thought were possible for me. And I want the same and better for you too.

P.s. If you’d like one to one support on manifesting your wildest dreams, creating  abundance and happiness in your life, click here for more coaching packages and programs. I can’t wait to hear from you x