Salaam Friends,
How are we finding your hearts on this second Friday of Ramadān?
It feels almost frightening to say ‘second Friday’ because where has the time gone?!
A du'ā for barakah (blessing) in your life
Āmīn Ya Rabb.
Last week, we asked you which ṣalāh feels the most different this Ramadān because this month creates optimal conditions for worship. And mā shā Allāh, judging by your responses, it’s the Fajr salāh!
Last week’s poll
Perhaps it helps that no one wants to risk missing suhoor (hey, motivation comes in many forms😏) but we’ll take all the inspo!
May this spill into our lives post-Ramadān too 💛.
This month, Minara is really thinking about how spirituality looks so different for everyone.
Particularly in Ramadān.
Perhaps there are nights in this blessed month when the Qur’ān remains closed longer than we intended, when everyone else seems to be soaring while we are - not sinking - but maybe just floating!
This is a month that promises elevation and yet some of us feel stalled, spiritually winded and uncertain whether our small acts even count. It really can feel like we’re behind.
Last week we mentioned we would be looking into a special surah this week…
🌤️Surah Ad-Duhā.
Why this surah you ask? Why is it so special?
Well because it was revealed into a stretch of silence where even the noble Prophet ﷺ experienced the pang of waiting.
Have I done something wrong?
And Allāh said: “Your Lord has not forsaken you nor has He become displeased.”
So this newsletter is dedicated to the one who feels behind this Ramadān, for the one who's floating (or sinking!), and for the one who is showing up anyway in all of their small imperfect ways.
Here's to believing that Allāh will still make it count. Āmīn
A Descent of Comfort: Surah Ad-Duhā.
When revelation paused and Angel Jibrā’īl did not come for a period (different reasons have been provided in the ahādith), the Prophet ﷺ was taunted by the disbelievers of Makkah with the claim that Allāh had forsaken him.
Have I done something wrong?
Yes, this is what the Prophet ﷺ thought. As all human beings do, the Prophet ﷺ felt a great sadness.
And Allāh’s answer?
The beautiful surah of Ad-Duḥā: The Morning Hours
Surah Ad-Duḥā: The Morning Hour
Allāh responded not with rebuke, but with reassurance: “Your Lord has neither forsaken you, nor become displeased.”
SubḥānAllāh, shall we sit with this āyah for a moment? Read it once and then read it again. Let its comfort wash over you.
How can we apply this to our own lives? Well, things that appear stagnant—(in this case, revelation) but in our lives, clarity or emotional ease—are not signs of Divine anger because the reassurance is explicit.
There is no abandonment and there is no غضب (ghadab or anger).
The Prophet ﷺ himself experienced a moment where reassurance was needed. Communication was not coming from Allāh and this felt personal. If the best of creation was reminded that he was not abandoned, then our own moments of stillness are not proof of displeasure either.
And even the wording is intimate. Allāh does not simply say, ‘I am not angry.’ He says, ‘your Lord’, affirming relationship before addressing fear.
Allāh’s relationship with us is always, always rooted in mercy.
Allāh then shifts the lens from the present discomfort to a wider horizon.
“The Hereafter is better for you than the present life. And of course, your Lord will give you so much that you will be pleased.”
Look at the conditions of the promise here: open-ended, expansive and deliberately generous. If something feels incomplete now, then know this is not the final chapter. It is just a little part of a larger one.
Then the surah turns to proof of past mercies:
Did He not shelter you as an orphan?
Did He not guide you when you were unaware?
Did He not enrich you when you were in need?
Clearly, comfort in this surah is rooted in evidence. It teaches us to look back. It teaches us to trace the pattern. It teaches us that the One who sustained us before has not changed.
Again, subḥānAllāh!
But the joy of this surah does not stop here. Why? Because the reassurance Allāh provides is not passive.
How you ask?
Well see how the surah turns outward: do not oppress the orphans; do not scold the beggar; speak of your Lord’s bounty. Spiritual comfort is meant to produce gentleness, and gratitude must become action.
Actions really do speak louder than words.
Finally let’s end with the beginning: “By the morning brightness.”
Allāh opens the surah with an oath by the morning light وَالضُّحَىٰ - the hour when light has fully emerged and clarity replaces the uncertainty of dawn - and by the peaceful night وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَىٰ - two states that alternate, just as spiritual states do.
Just as day does not arrive to shame the night, nor night to extinguish the promise of day, each phase exists within a deliberate rhythm synchronised by Allāh.
Night always gives way to morning with certainty. In the same way, spiritual heaviness is not permanent. With every sunrise comes renewed possibility: to return, to recalibrate, to grow.
The lesson for us? That light always comes. And in the context of this month, we just have to do the best we can knowing that Allāh will open our hearts and that this stage of feeling stuck is just that - a temporary stage and a little part of a much larger chapter.
Tafsīr insights drawn from Ma‘ārif al-Qur’ān by Mufti Muhammad Shafi‘ رحمه الله.
Lessons from Ad-Duhā
⚔️ A Little Challenge
(No not the duelling kind!)
If you have already committed Surah Ad-Duḥā to memory, challenge yourself to recite it in at least one ṣalāh this week but this time, with understanding.
Let the words reassure you as they were meant to.
And if you haven’t memorised it yet… well, perhaps this is your sign?? Eleven āyāt. A few minutes a day. In shā Allāh, by next week, who knows… it could be yours!
Can you recite Surah Ad-Duhā without looking?
That’s it from us friends.
Request for prayers for the Minara team in this wonderful month.
Love and du’as,
The Minara Team
