Alhamdulillah - In My Late Twenties, I Stopped Fighting Life
Assalamu alaikum. I used to think peace came from having everything under control. If I worked harder, loved better, or figured everything out, maybe life would finally cooperate. Spoiler: it didn’t. No matter how much I planned, life just kept moving. For a long time I took it personally. I thought I’d done something wrong. Turns out I was learning that control isn’t the same as peace. After a few heartbreaks, panic attacks, and too many nights staring at the ceiling, I began to see that life isn’t something to fight. Maybe it’s something to walk alongside. That’s when things changed. My iman stopped being some project I had to chase. It became a quiet presence inside me - patient, steady, not loud or showy, just a calm reminder. And qadr - the thing I used to fight against - felt like it was saying, “Come along at your own pace. No matter the turns, I’ll guide you.” That hit me. For the first time I stopped forcing outcomes and just started moving forward. Endings stopped feeling scary. They became signs that something existed, mattered, and fulfilled its purpose. Even pain started feeling like a teacher. Faith walks within me. Destiny walks beside me. I’m just walking - not rushing, not resisting - at my own pace. If you’re in your twenties and everything feels messy, please hear this: you’re not lost, you’re becoming. You don’t have to rush your growth or have all the answers. Stay open, keep your dua, and trust Allah. Life has a strange way of taking you where you need to be - sometimes through chaos, sometimes through peace - but eventually toward understanding. Remember that phase when it felt like a test you never studied for? I lived there for years. I tried to get it right, plan the perfect path, hold onto people who weren’t holding back, fix things that weren’t mine to fix. Life humbled me. No matter how tight I gripped, it said, “Nice try.” For the longest time I thought that meant I was failing. I wasn’t - I was becoming. Between heartbreak, silence, and late-night conversations with my own heart, I realized I don’t have to fight everything or understand everything. I just have to keep walking, make dua, and trust Allah’s plan. Faith stopped being a search and became a calm companion. Destiny - the thing I used to curse - felt like it told me, “Follow me, but at your pace.” That shift changed me. Now I don’t rush life or resist it. I let it unfold - messy, beautiful, unexpected. Endings don’t scare me. They mean something mattered and fulfilled its role. We don’t figure it out perfectly, but we figure it out in our own way. From childhood to your early twenties you change so much. Childhood becomes comfort; your twenties are when you start really living. Friends, love, family, work - some of it will build you, some of it will break you, but all of it will teach you. Be a little silly, make mistakes, stay curious, stay kind, and above all keep your deen intact. Change is inevitable; growth is a choice - choose it. By your late twenties you’ll see you’ve grown not because life got easier but because you became calmer. Faith walks within me. Destiny walks beside me. I walk forward - not perfectly, not without fear, but honestly. If you’re feeling lost or unsure - breathe, make dua, and know you’re not behind. You’re becoming. Life has its rhythm - let it play. If anyone needs to talk, I’m here. Jazāk Allāhu khayran.