Last year, I went out for an Eid party. My phone battery was pretty low, so it died sometime during the party. As the party came to an end and it was time to go home, I figured I had a problem. The weather was not the best and I had my little sister with me, but I couldn't pay for a a bus ride, nor could I order an Uber as I only used my Apple wallet on my phone to pay for things. The only option was to call a roadside taxi to take us home. We hurried under the rain and found a taxi that took us straight home. I rushed upstairs to get a tenner which I paid the driver, and came back upstairs to settle down after a long, tiring day. It didn't take me long to realise I had lost my phone. I realised I most likely had dropped it in the taxi. I ran back downstairs and tried running after the taxi, but it was long gone. I couldn't even call the phone. It felt like my life was crumbling.

 I didn't realise how something as small as my phone could hold such big importance in my life. My business, important contacts, so many important information that I would never get back if I  truly lost my phone that day were gone, just like that. I panicked so much that I jumped on the next bus and was wandering around the area where I called the taxi until it got dark. I spoke to taxi drivers all around that area, my eyes were chasing every single taxi that passed by me in attempt to find him. I felt like I was losing my mind. I got back home and called every taxi company, the police, everyone I could, but all to no avail. There was a very small chance I would find that same taxi in the whole city, or my phone. The emptiness that came with not having any device to communicate, do my work, business, listen to Quran, set my alarm for Fajr, and all the various activities I use it for including both my Ibaadah and wordly activities, etc,  is unexplainable. I needed to calm my mind down, and silence all the endless possibilities that ran through my mind. I opened an English Quran and started reading Surah An-Naml. I got to verse 88, and read 'You will see the mountains and think they are firmly fixed, but they will float away like clouds: this is the handiwork of God who has perfected all things. He is fully aware of what you do' (27:88). It struck me immediately. The Quran had just spoken to me. This problem stood like a mountain before me, blocking everything else from my sight, casting a huge shadow upon me, displacing me into darkness and grief. In reality, it will float away as light, and easy as clouds float in the bright sky. I visualised this mountain in front of me floating away as though it were a cloud in the sky, just as the Qur'an had told me it would. I hugged the Qur'an tight and slept very early as I would rather be asleep than be in reality in that moment. 

I woke up the next morning and ran back to the place I hired the taxi, as I was speaking to one of the taxi drivers in hopes of finding the taxi I took the day before, I turned back and saw a a man in a taxi waving something at me. It was my phone! He found it the day before, but couldn't find a way to reach me. I thanked him very much, and I thanked Allah, the One who made him bring it back to me. It felt like the happiest day of my life. Everyone there was happy for me. And just like that, that huge mountain that I thought was firmly fixed,  that mountain which weighed heavily on me the day before, floated away like a cloud and left no traces behind. 

Your problems will float away like clouds! That mountain weighing heavily on you, is not a mountain in reality. Open your eyes, and see that If Allah wills, then that mountain will float away like a cloud. Believe in Him, Trust Him. Trust that He is on your side. When has He not come through for you? When has ease not followed your hardship? Maybe your problem is not losing a phone, maybe yours is even way bigger. The foundation is the same. Your problems will float away like clouds. Ramadan Mubarak!

sara ali SubhanAllah sister Sara, I’m so glad that my reflection resonated with you in some way🥹. It makes me so happy that it brought you some relief, thanks to Allah, the most subtle, the most kind in all that He does. He guides us to what we need to hear, what we need to see. Even I needed to read this, I forgot I wrote this. It is a reminder to me too, that every problem in reality is light. May Allah be with you, my dear sister, I’ll put you in my duas. Ramadan Mubarak!❤️

This summer we went on a two-week road trip, visiting six National Parks and driving through ten states. We saw all kinds of mountains - the sharp, craggy walls of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, Montana's rolling foothills, Yellowstone's stately peaks and canyons, the pine-dusted Porcupine Mountains in Michigan's upper Peninsula, the striated, unworldly pinnacles and spires in South Dakota. 

Gazing up at earth's looming monuments, you get the sense that the everything around you moves - the sun, the leaves, the grass, the clouds, the river - everything except the mountains. 12,000-ft peaks look like antique paintings in the distance, faded, stationary backdrops to human life. 

This ayah came to mind: 
'Now you see the mountains, thinking they are firmly fixed, but they are travelling ˹just˺ like clouds. ˹That is˺ the design of Allah, Who has perfected everything. Surely He is All-Aware of what you do.'

Through our limited human perspective, we see the mountains as immoveable. Yet if we were to watch a time-lapse video over thousands of years, we'd see these huge geological structures billowing up and shape-shifting like clouds. Even in human time, they are constantly moving in imperceptible ways, hot rock squeezed and churned at their deep roots, rocks and cracks shifting and expanding each second, the giant plates of continents pressing and surging against each other with tremendous force.

This is God's way in this world - His perfect design. Everything in this life moves and drifts with purpose, but not according to our time schedules. What we perceive as impossible, unchangeable, and permanent, is in fact shifting every second, shaped by change currents that we may not see or understand. This verse can bring much hope to those who are working and striving for change but cannot see much movement on the ground. 

Zooming into the personal scale, it can also be a source of hope or caution, for Allah is all-aware of what you do. We may think that we are steady and secure in our current circumstances, yet daily shifts in our attitudes and habits may be leading us to an earthquake, or the frustrating, permanent situations in our lives may be moving in new, hopeful directions. We cannot perceive those small adjustments but they are happening every second according to Allah's plan.

SubhanaAllah! We were just discussing mountains on a walk outside today and how people say they discover them yet they’ve been there for only Allah Knows how long and could tell stories we cannot imagine! SubhanaAllah!