Hope Ablaze

by Sarah Mughal Rana

Pity was simply the inability to do anything about someone else’s pain. It reminded me that we were helpless against

Friendships are scary. You invest your hopes in a person but very rarely do you see a return.

We were patterns, cycles waiting to be repeated, reincarnations of each other, just different souls replacing skin and bones.

Islam was not a religion of uniformity. It didn’t matter if you were black, brown, or white Muslim—it was an ummah. A religion of mercy.

But Amma was my Amma, and my Baba had no right to judge her actions.

But that’s the truth of racism, it makes you fear the things that make us different.

was funny how Americans thought they were saving the world when really it was the world who needed saving from them.

But when you blindly believed your government was fundamentally just, then its people would overlook the unjustness of their own actions.

“I survived. I want my children to survive too.”

“The first creation by God was the pen,” he answered, “because words hold the greatest power. We can think, speak, and write, that’s why the tongue is the sharpest sword to exist. The pen is not a tool. And the words are not actions. The writer is simply the conduit for justice. Don’t fight that truth. Become it.”

Throughout history, people tried to decide what was good for us. They had light skin and claimed to be the paragon of justice without considering that our religion was already morally praiseworthy.

He would bring me to the United States, chasing the dream of liberty, but I wondered, if a land gluttonized with so many promises would eventually vomit?

we couldn’t vote for the people we liked, we voted for who we thought was the less evil option.