Wellness or Worship? Islam’s Ancient Blueprint for Modern Self-Improvement

In recent years the world has grown enamoured with the language of wellness. Scroll through your feed or browse through a bookstore and with certainty you will encounter endless exhortations in fasting intermittently, waking up before dawn, practicing gratitude, eating clean and the decluttering of your life. These ideas are

The Hidden Pulse of Dubai: An Unspoken Currency of Sacrifice.

At first glance, Dubai feels like the future incarnate but stay long enough and you learn of the sacrifice that keeps its skyline standing. Upon returning from Dubai, my fingers lay restless on the keyboard, twitching with a desire to muster order into the chaos of Dubai's dissociative

Surah Al-Buruj and Gaza: Faith through Fire

Surah Al-Buruj, the eighty fifth chapter of the Qur’an, is a surah that does not just simply speak to our notions of logic and reason but rather reverberates through the chambers of our hearts. A short, striking passage that tells the story of believers thrown into a fiery pit,

The Brothers Karamazov: Moral Consciousness and Islamic Resonance in a Secular Age

Assalaamualaikum, I recently finished reading Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. A work that is often praised for its depth and philosophical ambition. There are novels that entertain, and then there are novels that interrogate. Dostoevsky’s final work does the latter, and it does so relentlessly. I was affected

A Passage to Bosnia: The Unexpected Heart of the Balkans

Bosnia is not a country you stumble into. You arrive with some notion, however faint or romantic, of where you’re going. Perhaps the lingering images of the Srebrenica Genocide, fractured war stories from GCSE history or just a scenic desktop wallpaper with the bridge in Mostar - at least

Fighting The Indoctrination of a Western Upbringing.

One minute you're making plans to get food and go bowling with a friend, the next you're cancelling them because he's broken his ankle. The way this world runs on a certainty only known by its Designer, a reality in the hands of only

Roma, Non Peracta…

As many of you know, I am currently undertaking a gap year in order to pursue some passion projects and attempting to figure out what I want to do, and who I wish to be in life - God, I sound like such a back-packing hippie. Amongst my other endeavours,

Ramadan Reflections and The Fadhl of Allah

Assalaamualaikum and welcome back to The Issa Ishaq Blog... Some of you may have noticed an ignominious length of time has passed since I last wrote a piece for the blog. My lack of engagement, should at least be explained and furthermore followed by a commitment to frequent my keyboard

Haute Couture: Hypocrisy & Hubris

The Met Gala has seemingly sewn itself into the hem of liberal duplicity, walking the fine line between lunacy and à la mode. Ball gowns, bouffants and, recently, burgers have graced the gawking eyes of journalists and gym bros alike. All this kerfuffle, and for what? Mildly talented teens, washed

Orientalism; Muslims Remain Shackled by a Colonialistic Apparition of Duality and Oppression

Encumbered by power. Emancipated by thought. To think. That is what frees us from the bondage of our oppressors. From Confucius to Machiavelli; from Al-Farabi to Dickens, the greatest thinkers have led the greatest battles. But their thoughts weren’t the sole obtainers of their notoriety and nomination, it was

Western Society: An Obscure Cult of Death

From the moment of our conception, this 'great' western society, in which we find ourselves, is hell-bent on ushering in our mortal expiration, in dismantling our very understanding of life and its indomitable value. The most marginalised group of people in modern society are not the colourful ones,

The Death of Mainstream Media - A Triumph for Independent Thought

When was the last time you turned on the television to watch the evening news? Or perused the daily paper's ostensibly axiomatic headlines? The whirring of the legacy media machine has come to a seductive standstill - but what rendered asunder this conglomerate leviathan and what has delectably