Review: Ramadan Reflections by Aliyah Umm Raiyaan
I first met Aliyah Umm Raiyaan after attending an Islamic lecture she led during my university days, and I still remember the profound effect her story, her life, had on myself and everyone else in that lecture room. So, when I came to review this title and interview Umm Raiyaan, I knew that there would be more to this Ramadan journal than ticking off pretty boxes and colouring in how many glasses of water you’ve drunk during the night.
Ramadan Reflections is memoir meets guided journal. There are thirty chapters to match thirty days of Ramadan and each one explores life lessons, your practical and spiritual journey towards Allah SWT and gives you the tools to strengthen these qualities to ensure your akhirah (afterlife). At the end of each chapter, there are dua invitations and journaling sections that prompt you to ask yourself questions reflecting upon the aforementioned topic.
It encourages you to pay attention to the lessons of your past. It invites you to live mindfully and with presence in your present. It will assist you in planning an akhirah-focused future.
One aspect of this book that certainly sets it apart is the vulnerability and relatability that absolutely jumps off the page. From discussing the hardships of reverting after 1999 to her implementation of self-love after a divorce, Umm Raiyaan has made this journal a safe space for people from all backgrounds and life experiences. There is an earnest approach in relaying every bit of knowledge and a deep emphasis on Allah’s love that isn’t hidden by cold academic jargon. Beautiful, relevant quotations from the Quran and Sunnah, from prominent figures and Prophets are dime a dozen throughout. I had to stop myself from highlighting every single one, particularly ones from Ibn al-Qayyim that read like poetry — Qayyim also happens to be Umm Raiyaan’s favourite scholar from the past.
When I asked Umm Raiyaan what she wanted this book to achieve, she told me:
Everything is possible with Allah. I want [people] to know that it’s okay to be human in their quest to be a better Muslim. I want them to know their solution to everything is through their relationship with Allah. I want them to learn that this dunya is — although very real in the sense that we’re living it, passing through it, experiencing it — temporary. It will end, and there’s something more amazing to look forward to and work for.
Whilst also being practical and interactive in its approach, Ramadan Reflections has a voice of empathy and understanding that urges you to look at your life experiences in the past and present and approach them from a point of patience, acceptance and tawakkul (having the ultimate trust in Allah’s plan). The thirty different chapters made for an extensive list of spiritual themes to contemplate and allowed an insight into what it could feel like to be free from the superficial and temporary shackles of this world.
Umm Raiyaan’s inclusion of highlighting certain social issues, like domestic violence and the struggles of being a revert, is a characteristic that I deeply admired about this book, and this is something that carries throughout all of her work. As the founder of Solace UK, a charity focused on providing a range of services for revert sisters in difficulty, and Honest Tea Talk, a podcast where Muslim women discuss the issues that impact them specifically, it’s apparent that Umm Raiyaan doesn’t shy away from talking about the difficult things in life. Addressing important topics that are sometimes glossed over is a part of what makes this part-memoir, part guided-journal so nuanced and engaging.
Considering this title was written in less than a year, Umm Raiyaan has certainly done the genre of Islamic literature justice with Ramadan Reflections. This book is informative, accessible, empathetic, and healing. I would highly recommend everyone to pick this up and take from it all the wondrous lessons and enlightenment it has to offer.
By Asia Khatun