Umm Zakiyyah

In Male Supremacy 101, Umm Zakiyyah shares personal anecdotes from her life, as well as spiritual reflections, as she compares male supremacy to divine supremacy from an Islamic perspective, with shocking revelations: Male supremacists are upset with Allah and resentful of women. Also, they hate feminism more than they love Islam, and they fear feminism more than they fear Allah. "You can be Muslim or you can be married. But you can't be both," Umm Zakiyyah says. "This is the sinking realization that settled on me as I considered the personal implications of acquiescing to the imam's perspective on the husband's 'right' to the final say in a woman's understanding of religious matters that directly affected the health of her soul."

"From my earliest memories of childhood, anxious people-pleasing defined my existence," Umm Zakiyyah says. "It wasn't until my late thirties that I began to even process the meaning of self-care. After that, it took several more years for me to understand the meaning and necessity of self-love. But it wasn't until after my second divorce, when I was in my forties, that the concept of feeling emotionally safe held any meaning or significance for me at all." In this personal testimony, which is part memoir, part self-help, Umm Zakiyyah, internationally acclaimed author of If I Should Speak, His Other Wife, and Before You Become His Garment in Marriage, shares ten reasons why prioritizing being "feminine" as defined by the male gaze not only causes long-term harm to the woman herself, but also makes the experience of true, deeply felt love impossible. When this performative womanhood comes at the price of a woman's authenticity, it is a sign that the woman does not feel emotionally safe in her relationship. She says, "So often as women, we spend so much of our lives auditioning and performing for a man's heart, wondering if he'll be the one to finally choose us. It is only after years of this exhaustive tap dancing that we come to realize we should have focused on winning our own hearts and choosing our own selves."

This book is the Arabic translation of Before You Become His Garment in Marriage: Do's and Don'ts for Muslim Women by Umm Zakiyyah.في هذا الكتاب الصادر في الوقت المناسب تنهل أم زكية, وهي كاتبة معروفة عالميًا ومرشدة روحية وممارسة معتمدة للعلاج التحويلي السريع (RTT), من خبراتها الشخصية والروحية والمهنية لتقدم النصح للنساء المسلمات اللاتي يشرعن في الزواج أو يتطلعن إلى هذه الرابطة والرفقة الروحية سواءً لأول مرة في حياتهن أو بعد طلاق. كما تشارك بتفاصيل عقد زواجها الذي أعدته لنفسها ولبنتها أيضًا.يتناول الكتاب موضوعات عدة منها الإقرار بجروحنا العاطفية قبل الزواج, والتعرف على مكامن الخطر في شخصياتنا, والصدق في الاعتراف بعدم وجود توافق مع الزوج المحتمل, وفهم تأثير الطاقة الذكورية, وجمال الاستكانة إلى روحك الأنثوية. تقول أم زكية لقد منّ الله عليّ أن قدر لي أن أمضي معظم حياتي كامرأة راشدة أمًا وزوجة. وقد منّ عليّ كذلك من واسع بركاته أن خضت تجربتي الزواج والطلاق مرتين.لا تختلف التجارب التي خضتها عن تلك التي خاضتها الكثير من النسوة؛ فقد مررت بتجربة أن رغبت بالزواج من شخصٍ معين دون أن يُكتب لرغبتي تلك أن تتحقق، ومررت بتجربة أن أراد أحدهم الزواج مني، ولكن ذلك لم يحدث. كما خضت تجربة الخطوبة مع أحدهم، وفسخها لاحقًا. فضلاً عن أنني فسخت عقد زواجٍ بعد توقيعه، وذلك قبل أن يتم الدخول الشرعي.إنّ الكتاب الذي بين يديكِ هو حصيلة جهدٍ بذلتهُ على مدار أكثر من عشرين عامًا حول موضوع الحب والزواج عند المرأة المسلمة. يحتوي هذا الكتاب على مقتطفات من البحث والدراسة الروحية التي أجريتها حول نفس الموضوع، إلى جانب تضمنه لجزئيات تتحدث عن تجربتي الشخصية، والكثير من الملاحظات التي لم أبخل بذكرها في طيات الكتاب. علاوةً على ذلك، يتضمن كتابي هذا مقتطفات مأخوذة من كتابٍ آخرٍ لي بعنوان تقبلي أنوثتك الروحية (بالإنجليزية Embrace Your Spiritual Feminine)، والمقتطفات المذكورة تتناسب مع موضوع هذا الكتاب، وهي مذكورة وفق ما تقتضيه الحاجة.

An American high school student was given the homework assignment to interview someone from a different faith, and he chose Muslims. Here are his questions and Umm Zakiyyah's answers.

A collection of spiritual reflections about the trials and triumphs of the human soul during its brief sojourn on earth, taken from the journal of Umm Zakiyyah.

"There's no racism in Islam," many Muslims claim. Yet anti-Black racism remains a defining trait of the cultures of Arabs and South Asians, who form the majority of Muslim immigrants to the United States. In this collection of essays, Umm Zakiyyah, internationally acclaimed author of The Abuse of Forgiveness and No One Taught Me the Human Side of Islam, speaks honestly about her own experiences with anti-Black racism amongst Muslims, which include a high school teacher saying that Black people in America could never be Muslim and a fellow MSA member saying, "Nobody cares about Black Muslims." She also speaks frankly about victim culture and self-hate amongst African-Americans and other minorities, as well as spiritual abuse and the emotional wounding it has caused so many believing souls, hers included. Placing heavy emphasis on self-honesty and self-correction instead of victimhood and casting blame, this book shifts the dialogue about racism, bigotry, and spiritual abuse to one of personal accountability and healing.

They said they could backbite her in public because she was "misbehaving in public." They said her mental illness was a "Western invention." They said all her problems were because she's an American convert who couldn't get her life together.In this groundbreaking book about living with mental illness as an American Muslim, internationally acclaimed author Umm Zakiyyah shares the true story of Sakinah "The Muslim Hippie" who thought she'd found a faith family and loving community after converting to Islam. However, as she lived for years with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, her manic-depressive states led her to be ostracized, confused, and ultimately rejected and alone.Spoken in the voice of Sakinah herself, this story gives a glimpse into the life of one Muslim woman as she finds her way from the darkness of uncertainty to become a passionate mental health advocate, whose blogs regularly appear on patheos.com and whose insightful perspective has been shared in The Mighty and Teen Vogue.