As Salaam Alaikum My Siblings,

Pray everyone had an enjoyable and delicious Thanksgiving. Every moment of our lives should be one of "thanks be to Allah" (Al Hamdulillaahi). We repeat this reminder on our tongues at least seventeen times a day throughout our prayers.

Gratitude is very important in Al-Islam. Allah says: "But if you count the favors of Allah, never will you be able to number them." When we reflect, there's PLENTY that we should be grateful for, both the tangibles and intangibles. Gratitude is an awesome attitude to have: as they say, "attitude determines your altitude."

I remember once having a conversation with my late wife about gratitude and she said, "there was a person who always was complaining about having no shoes, until he saw someone without any feet." Immediately the person stopped complaining. Our Prophet said "don't compare yourself with someone who has more than you but to the person who has less." This serves to help us develop in our character a deeper sense of awareness to be more thankful for what we are given.

We're happy that Allah helped you make it through the semester.👍 I bet you are thankful, right? We beseech you to take full advantage of your LONG break and follow Samaiyah’s advise from last week's newsletter, “Enjoy your break! I look forward to seeing a more relaxed, rejuvenated version of you in the Spring."

We encourage you, if you don't already have the Calm app (or something similar), to download it and begin RELAXING YOURSELF!!!

Imam Waheed