Please Help Tend the Garden of Our Ummah 🌿

Assalamu alaikum, I want to speak about something that often hides in the corners of our communities: the wellbeing of our mothers, sisters, daughters, and Muslim women everywhere. I carry wounds-not from Islam, which healed me, but from brothers who learned values that go against the merciful spirit of our deen. These attitudes aren’t from the Qur’an or the Prophet’s ﷺ example; they’re leftovers of systems that have crept into many Muslim societies. I’m not pointing fingers at individuals. I’m asking us to see a pattern we all live inside. The Qur’an and Prophetic teachings call us to mercy, dignity, and the protection and honor of women. When I say my pain comes from within our ummah, I’m holding up a mirror: are we doing our collective duty? What I witness online and around the world pains me: women reduced to looks instead of seen as souls who worship Allah and change the world. Growing up I watched clips-by ordinary men and some who claim knowledge-that spoke about women without mercy, ignoring context and wielding words like weapons. The Prophet ﷺ taught patience and kindness toward women and children, yet sometimes the opposite gets labeled “Islam.” The irony is that the same deen that some paint as harsh is what filled me with peace and saved me. I wouldn’t be here without Islam. So I urge every Muslim woman: learn your deen from Allah’s words and the Prophet’s ﷺ example before you learn it from people. Let me be clear: sexualizing women or saying hijab exists for the “male gaze” is not Islam. Hijab is for Allah. We also live in societies shaped by colonial and other cultural forces that often advantaged men, and too few Muslim men acknowledge that with the same energy they use to denounce wrongs against themselves. The privileges many men have today grew from women’s exclusion, restrictions, and degradation-this is not what Islam intended. In the Prophet’s ﷺ time, women sought knowledge, consulted him, did business, and spoke in community life. Today, many communities barely discuss or condemn sexual and domestic violence. Men move freely in public while women are told their presence is fitna. This inequality is not the Islam of the Prophet ﷺ; it’s structural injustice, and it has pushed some away from the mercy of true Islam. A society shows its character by how it treats its women. If a sister has stepped away from Islam because of injustice, now is not the time to blame her or say “just stand up.” Now is the time for us to stand up and fix root causes. Brothers, you can be hope for this ummah-don’t react with pride or blame; lead with compassion and accountability. Sisters, be the hope you need: heal, and don’t justify harming others because harm was done to you. Allah heals what we’ve endured-so be the mercy you needed. Let’s name our reality and work to break this cycle together. Make dua tonight asking Ash-Shafi (The Healer) for healing for yourself and our ummah. The Prophet ﷺ said that a Muslim who sleeps remembering Allah in a state of purity and wakes to ask Allah for good in this life or the next will have it granted (Sunan Abi Dawud). Go pray. Ask Allah. Be the hope you wish to see.