Assalamu Alaikum my dear friend

Some lessons don’t arrive with fireworks—they return like a quiet echo. Lately, one keeps visiting me on my morning walks: life isn’t a straight line. It’s a series of slips and returns.

For a long stretch I stayed away from news and social media. Then the genocide in Palestine began, and I couldn’t look away. I didn’t jump into social platforms, but I did start watching more YouTube “updates.” Slowly, almost without noticing, my time, focus, and energy were leaking. I wasn’t as productive. I wasn’t as present.

So I called it by its name. Then I began a news-and-YouTube fast again. Alhamdulillah, the fog lifted; my routines returned. Not perfectly—but steadily.

I’m sharing this because it’s real. You can plan, optimize, and discipline yourself—and still slip. That’s not failure; that’s being human. What matters is that you recognize the slide and return, more committed than before.

Our deen quietly trains us to return, and begin again - every time.. Right after salah—one of the highest moments of our day—the first words on our tongue are astaghfirullah, again and again. Even at our best, we come back to Allah subuhanawut’ala with humility and need.

Allah subuhanawuta’la tells us, “Indeed, with hardship comes ease.” (94:6) I read that as a promise stitched into the fabric of our struggles—the door back is always near. Ease is not miles away after the pain; some of it is with the pain.

And the Prophet ﷺ taught that the most beloved deeds to Allah are those done consistently, even if small. Some days you have a page of Qur’an in you; some days, a single ayah said slowly. Some days you walk for thirty minutes; some days you stretch for three. The point isn’t perfection—the point is to return.

If you slipped this week, here are a few gentle, real examples of “beginning again”:

• Missed Fajr? Tighten your bedtime, set two alarms, and pray Duha with intention. Start tonight.
  
• Fell into a YouTube loop? Take a 24-hour reset, remove the shortcut, and replace ten minutes with Surah Al-Mulk.
  
• Spoke sharply to your spouse or child? Repair within the hour. A sincere apology is a beautiful sunnah of strength.
  

And when you’re ready, choose the hard thing on purpose. If focus is your struggle, make focus your practice. If clarity is your struggle, sit with the blank page and ask the question that scares you. If consistency is your struggle, lower the bar and show up anyway.

Here are a few rules I lean on when the wheels wobble:

— Name it, then narrow it. Not “I’m failing,” but “I’m over-consuming news/YouTube.” Narrow the fix: one week off those inputs; if needed, one small window for updates.

— One hard minute more. When you want to quit—reading, writing, memorizing—add sixty seconds. Leave on your terms, not your craving’s.

 — Replace the scroll with a feed for your soul. Swap ten minutes of videos for Qur’an, dhikr, or one page of a good book. Don’t just remove; rebuild.

— Friction beats willpower. Sign out, remove shortcuts, block sites during work hours, keep your phone in another room. Make distraction costly and intention easy.

 — Close the day by returning. A few moments of istighfar, and a quiet du‘a for the Ummah—especially Palestine—so you sleep with a softened heart.

You won’t win every day. You don’t have to. Your job is to return—again and again—until returning becomes who you are.

May Allah subuhanawut’ala make us people who rise after we fall, who seek Him after we stray, and who keep walking—steady, sincere—toward what pleases Him.

With love and gratitude,
Rushdhi

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