The prophets are like different rivers throughout time that all pointed to the same ocean of unity.

Allah's mercy accepts us as we are, but He loves us too much to let us stay the same.

Although it is true that what we sow in this life we reap in the next, if we reduce the existence of the Afterlife to just punishment and reward, we will miss the soul of the message. Heaven and Hell are not only physical manifestations, they are also states of being that reflect what it feels like for the spirit to be close to or distant from the Divine. In essence, Heaven and Hell are like mirrors that reflect back to us our soul’s relationship with God.

We are called not to just read the Qur’an—but to become a manifestation of its message. We are called to be a mercy to all the creations of God, by bringing light where there is darkness, feeding the hungry, forgiving those who wrong us, taking care of the orphans, being generous to the needy, being kind to our parents, and through sincere worship becoming a vessel of God’s unconditional love for the entire world.

The Qur’an is not a destination or wall—it is a window. It does not call us to it, but rather calls us to look through it and toward the mysterious essence of God that animates everything in existence.

Just as clouds cannot affect the presence and power of the sun’s light, but can alter our experience of the intensity of the light, sin can veil our perception of our inner goodness, but it cannot change it.

Your blessings, your trials and triumphs, your journey of falling and rising, your gifts and talents—they are all connected. Your true calling is held in the arms of your deepest wounds. God only breaks you to remake you, because breakdowns come before breakthroughs. Everything that God has written into your path was meant to prepare you for this exact moment. God wants you to come as you are, not as you think you should be.

When Allah makes us aware of a sin we committed, He is not punishing us, but rather inviting us toward His presence. In this way, the moment we are drawn to sincere repentance, we are in effect unveiling the forgiveness that Allah has already written for us to experience. Someone asked the great eighth-century mystic Rabia Al-Adawiyya, “I have sinned much; if I repent, will Allah forgive me?” She profoundly replied, “It is the opposite; if Allah forgives you, you are capable of repentance.

Words have power, which is why Imam Ali says, “Speak only when your words are more beautiful than the silence.” After all, everything in existence sprouted from the vibration of the divinely uttered word “Be! And it is” (36:82). So remember, your tongue is like a knife; it can either kill like the sword of a samurai or save like the scalpel of a surgeon.