Aqeelah

Psychology says: The stories you tell yourself become part of your reality. Allah says: “I am as My servant thinks of Me.” The lesson: Think well of Allah and He will change the story your are living. Psychology says: Keep your distance. Set firm boundaries. Protect your peace. Allah says: “Cooperate with one another in righteousness and piety.” The lesson: We were not created for radical individualism. Self-isolation, indifference, self-absorption lead to misery, and nothing more. Psychology says: Listen to your heart. Trust yourself. Avoid people who try to tell you how to live. The Prophet ﷺ teaches: “The religion is sincere advice.” The lesson: Islam does not teach us to make our feelings the final authority. It teaches us to remain humble enough to accept sincere advice, even when it hurts our ego. The final takeaway: Psychology can teach us how to understand ourselves. The Quran and the Sunnah teach us who we are, whom we belong to, and what we are ultimately living for. Aqeelahwrites

Top ten things a wife wants from her husband: 1. Love 2. Leadership 3. Stability, Security 4. A genuine smile 5. Undivided attention 6. Engaged conversation 7. Warmth and affection 8. Guidance 9. Masculinity 10. Provision and Protection from the world Top ten things a husband wants from his wife: 1. Peace 2. Respect 3. Loyalty 4. A genuine smile 5. Undivided attention 6. Engaged conversation 7. Warmth and affection 8. Cooperation and support 9. Femininity 10. Being his soft place to land after the world takes its toll UmmKhalid

Every new language you learn: - delays dementia by 4-5 years - changes your brain structure - improves your ability to learn other skills - increases your earning potential - expands your social world - deepens your appreciation for your native language - lets you see your culture from the outside - and, quite literally, changes how you experience the world . #languagelearning isn't just a hobby. It's a lifelong project for life-optimization. Aqeelahwrites

My kids' favourite bookstores: Asmo Busy books Bookids Mom&Me Lakids A genuine recommendation - not an ad.

If #learning were a movie, the primary protagonist would be the student. The student is the one who moves the plot, navigates the setting, confronts the antagonists - confusion, distraction, procrastination, forgetting - all the things that stifle learning. The teacher, meanwhile, works largely behind the scenes. They design the setting, provide the right tools, model effective strategies, give feedback, and guide the student away from wrong turns. But the teacher CANNOT do the learning for them. It's the student who still has to think, plan, practise, struggle, make mistakes, retrieve, reflect, and act. The teacher does an enormous amount of work for the learning process. But the work of learning belongs to the learner. Aqeelahwrites

#reflection Time machines are real. Just keep a diary, and you can travel back in time to meet your younger self whenever you want. And not just meet her on the surface, but really see her: see her hopeful and lost, confident and insecure, full of convictions one day and drowning in confusion the next. You get to see her fears, her dreams, her doubts, her little obsessions, and all the things she was still trying to make sense of. That version of you is so vivid, so alive, that you can recognize her like the back of your hand. All the while, she has no idea of who you are. You get to enjoy that strange, exclusive anonymity as you study her under a sophisticated microscope. She is living her life for the first time. You are reading it for the second and figuring out how to do better moving forward. Aqeelahwrites

If our childer grow up as readers, 80% of the education job is already done. Reading is a meta-skill that enables all other skills. History requires reading. Biology requires reading. Mathematics requires reading as it gets increasingly sophisticated. The child who reads voraciously can figure out everything else. The child who doesn't will struggle with everything. A reminder to myself and to all other parents: read to your kids, for your kids, with your kids. Aqeelahwrites

Good day begins with : "What does Allah want me to do today?" Good character begins with "How would the Prophet sollallohu alayhi wasallam act in this situation?" Good family begins with: "How can I serve my family for Allah's sake today?" Good life begins with: "What will matter when I stand before Allah?" Aqeelahwrites

Everything outside of Islam is unhappiness. Everything within Islam is happiness. #lessonslearned

#remindertomyself Nothing you study in life is more intricate, more brilliant, more rigorous, more valuable, more intellectually-stimulating, more intellectually-challenging, more intellectually-invigorating than the Qur'an. The more you study the book, the more you learn to contemplate. The more you contemplate it, the more convinced you become that it is the book of God. If you still can't understand its depth, maybe you haven't explored it deeply enough. Aqeelahwrites

School should be a kind of place: #learning - where children love going; - where they learn from intellectually-challenging teachers; - where kids can have one-on-one tutoring tailored to their individual needs; - where kids are challenged at the level where they learn quickly but struggle just the right amount; - that teaches life skills beyond just facts, say like public speaking, financial literacy, and critical thinking; - that teaches kids how to learn, think and remember well; - that helps children discover what they genuinely love doing. And, perhaps, most importantly, it should be a kind of place that helps kids grow into a mature person who feels ready to start a big life sooner (not after +10 years of schooling). Aqeelahwrites

Today, a cool person is someone who is - disgustingly well-read, - frighteningly articulate, - mentally juicy, - relentlessly curious, - wildly alive to ideas, - deeply connected to their roots, - highly aware of their "why." The old idea of cool is slowly fading. Being rich, privileged, impeccably dressed with the latest gadgets in hand no longer makes a person interesting. People who stand out have depth - they have something to say, something to teach, and something of value to offer others. A new status symbol: brains. Aqeelahwrites

#favoriteayaat Allah taught His Prophet sollallohu alayhi wasallam, and through him, all of us, to ask for an increase in only one thing: knowledge. Not a longer life. Not more wealth. Not more children. Not more provision. Not more followers. Not more comfort. Instead, He said: "My Lord, increase me in knowledge." (TAHA 114) That alone should reshape the way we make du'a. Because knowledge is what teaches us how to use wealth, raise children, manage provision, navigate hardship, and stay grounded in every blessing and every trial. With knowledge, even trials can become a blessing. Without knowledge, even gifts can become a test. Aqeelahwrites

So much of what happens in your 20s shapes the trajectory of your life In your 20s, you step into higher education. If you study only to get into university, your knowledge serves only that goal. But if you pursue knowledge with a higher purpose that extends beyond the university admission, it will continue to benefit you long after you graduate. In your 20s, you feel the urge to become financially independent. If your priority is a paycheck, you can certainly find one. But if your priority is building - skills, relationships, and a stable future - your life will be built on those foundations. In your 20s, you long to find love. If you seek it from people alone, you may get what you want. But if you seek the love of Allah first - by obeying His commands, by remembering Him constantly, by resisting sin for His sake, you will earn both His love and the love of people. Your 20s are not about getting what you want, but rather about becoming the kind of person who deserves what is worth having. Aqeelahwrites

Deliberate practice beats daily practice In #languagelearning, consistency alone isn't enough. If you speak every day while repeating the same grammar mistakes, mispronouncing the same sounds, and choosing the wrong words, you're not getting better at English - you’re getting better at speaking it incorrectly. That's why deliberate practice matters. Instead of trying to improve everything at once, you isolate one specific weakness - say, the th sound, article usage, or sentence stress. You give it your full attention, get feedback, make corrections, and repeat until the improvement sticks. Then you move on to the next weakness. That's how you climb the ladder - one deliberate step at a time. Aqeelahwrites

Teacher or Influencer? Many English teachers today wear two hats - they teach in the classroom while building an online presence on the side, reaching learners both in person and from afar. As rewarding as that can be, balancing the two isn't easy. In fact, I don't think this is a matter of balance at all. Because becoming a better teacher is the foundation of becoming a worthwhile influencer. First, you should invest in your craft by - reading books - researching on #teaching - taking courses - joining workshops - watching webinars. - sharpening your English every single day. First, create real value for real students in real classrooms. Only then you can expand your reach online - not to chase status or sell courses, but to teach more people. When you have to choose, always choose becoming a better teacher, not a better marketer. Because great teachers naturally earn influence. Aqeelahwrites

It's Ibn Sina, not Avicenna. It's Amir Temur, not Tamerlane. It's Ibn Rushd, not Averroes. It's al-Khwarizmi, not Algoritmi. They latinized or westernized the names of some of the most prolific Muslim scholars. To the point that those versions have now come to overshadow their original identities. I can imagine that would sound wrong and icky to those same people if they were alive today. Please, just cut it out. It's not like we call Shakespeare "Sheykh Zubair." #justsaying

What Is Happiness… (As described by those who have memorized the Qur'an) Happiness is having your own memories and stories attached to every surah. Happiness is feeling nervous every time you're about to recite your memorization to your teacher. Happiness is finding yourself revising the Qur'an even in your dreams. Happiness is going through countless hardships on this journey, yet still being able to say, "If I had to go back, I would choose this path all over again." Happiness is beginning your day with the Qur'an and ending it with the Qur'an. Happiness is having to buy a new muṣḥaf because the old one has worn out from constant use. Happiness is having the Qur'an as part of your life. … Collected from the reflections of those who have memorized the Qur'an. May Allah bless us, too, with the honor of being among the people of the Qur'an. https://t.me/futuhatt

The CIA released a "Reading Improvement course" that had been hidden from the public since 1955. Here's arguably the most effective reading strategy from it, applicable both for reading independently and preparing for an exam. Scan: Quickly scan the introductory paragraph, subtitles, key sentences, key words, summary. Decide on the author's plan. Question: Turn the title or key sentences into questions. Anticipate: Before reading, try to answer these questions mentally. Read: Read the entire selection and look for the author's ideas to answer your questions. Recite: Close the book or article. Tell yourself in your own words what you have learned. Write notes on material that must be remembered. Review: Later, to make your knowledge stick, review the gist of the article or chapter, again in your own words. Aqeelahwrites

If you woke up healthy and have enough sustenance for the day, If your mother is alive and still makes duaa for your well-being, If you can think, if you can love, if you can give, then you have the whole world and everything precious within it. #reminder