Love. It is the reason there is something instead of nothing. It is from the soil of love that all of existence blossoms into being.

You do not need cell towers to reach God, you just need to plug into your heart because “He is with you wherever you are” (57:4), from the closest atom to the farthest star.

You are a palace of hidden gems and the greatest treasure you could ever find is already within you. Gold will melt, money will burn, but you carry the everlasting and mysterious breath of God inside of you and that can never be taken away.

We do not worship God because God needs it, we worship God because we need it. Prayer is not you reaching out for God, it is you responding to God, who first reached out to you.

As the ninth-century Persian mystic Imam Junaid said, “A Muslim is like the earth; even if impurities are thrown on it, it will blossom into a green pasture.” We are called to be like a date tree, so rooted in the love of God that when people throw stones at you, you reply with fruits that taste sweet. Do not live your life in reaction to what people have done to you, but live your life in gratitude for all that God has done for you.

It suddenly became clear to me that the whole purpose of faith is not to be “good enough” before we begin on the path to God, but to come with all our deficiencies to God, knowing that only He can fill in our gaps through His mercy.

The hole we carry inside, that we so desperately long to fill, comes from the experience of once being unified with all of existence. After all, how can you long for oneness if you have only ever been a separate body? How can you long for perfection if you have never experienced it? How can you long for an all-encompassing love if you have never tasted it?

You do not own yourself to dictate what price you are worthy of being sold. Stop pricing Allah’s merchandise.

God gave every single one of us unique abilities and talents, and based on what He gave to us, He will evaluate us. God does not grade us on a curve, He compares us to ourselves. Our work on Earth is to receive and cultivate the gifts given to us by God for the benefit of the entire creation. As Pablo Picasso said, “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.