Zaid Shakir

Know that the life of this world is but amusement and diversion and adornment and boasting to one another and competition in increase of wealth and children - like the example of a rain whose [resulting] plant growth pleases the tillers; then it dries and you see it turned yellow; then it becomes [scattered] debris. And in the Hereafter is severe punishment and forgiveness from Allah and approval. And what is the worldly life except for the enjoyment of delusion? (Surah Hadid, 57:20) We are often reminded in the Qur'an that the world around us is filled with distractions that can keep us from realising the true potential of our humanity. The modern world's incessant concentration on material and social pursuits have granted many of us with lots of possessions and ideas, yet we still feel empty inside. Even as Muslims' identity appears galvanised in a response to an endless news cycle, Islamophobia and injustice, this reactive activism to those challenges in itself often paralyses and distracts us from the pr