ON INTENTIONS...

The Prophet Muhammad, may peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Actions are according to intentions, and everyone will get what was intended.” (Narrated by Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, found in Bukhari & Muslim). Most of the time, our intentions are kept between our Lord and us. But being on a public platform and sharing what I hope to be words of inspiration, motivation and encouragement that all resonate from the Qur’an and the Sunnah, I want you to know my intentions. And so I thought it apt to begin this blog with this post.

On the authority of Abu Sa’eed al-Khudree (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say, “Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then [let him change it] with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of faith.” [Muslim]

I’m sure you have all heard this hadith on numerous occasions, I have, so much so that I’ve pretty much memorised it. But up until recently I didn’t give it as much thought as it deserves. And when I did, my perception of the work I was doing, this blog, my Instagram, it all changed. This hadith inspired me to really give my all to NAYMA, and I’ll explain why soon. We are witness to our beautiful religion being slandered on a daily basis and some of us experience times of absolute doubt in our faith. There was a time when I was there, I was confused and I was beginning to wonder if I really believed. So I learnt more. I read more. I watched hours and hours of videos on YouTube. And through this, I realised, Allah (glory be to Him, the Exalted) sent the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) down with the most incredible way of life. Calling Islam a religion does it no justice. It is truly a way of life. And if we follow in the footsteps of our Prophet, we will lead lives full of peace, tranquillity and purpose.

I believe that everything we do in life should serve a purpose, especially the work we do. So how did that hadith inspire me? I realised that through my lettering and design work I am using my hand to change an evil. I am sharing the words of Allah and our Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on a public platform with the aim to share the beauty of Islam with the world. I want to change the way the world sees Islam. It is not a violent religion. It is not a religion that promotes hatred. It is so far from what the media portrays it to be.

The more that I learn about Islam, about Allah the Exalted, about our beloved Rasul (may peace and blessings be upon him) and all the companions and tabi’oon (may Allah be pleased with them) the more I fall in love with them. And I want you to fall in love with them too. I know that I have only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to knowledge of this deen, but I want to share what little I do know with you.

I believe that Allah has blessed every single one of us with a unique talent. Sometimes we figure out what that talent is at a very young age, sometimes only later on in life. But it is our duty to Him to utilise this talent for His sake. So that when we stand up in front of Him on the Day of Judgement, and when He asks us what we did with the talents He blessed us with, we can confidently tell Him that we used them for His sake. We used them to bring people to the Truth, to bring them closer to Him, to remind ourselves and other people of Him, to encourage our brothers and sisters to aim for the highest position in Paradise so we can be with Allah the Exalted and our Prophet Muhammad, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.

I sincerely pray that Allah the Exalted will use every single one of us for His sake through the talent He has given us and that He will re-unite us all together with Him, our Rasul and the righteous companions and tabi’oon in Jannah, ameen.

For me, I want to change the world, one hand-lettered verse at a time. And I want you to join me on this journey.

Love,
Naeema