Showing results by author "Umm Zakiyyah" in All Categories

Sex, intimacy, and love remain taboo topics in many Muslim circles today. Some believe such intimate subjects should not be discussed at all, and others see no need for restrictions being placed on either their discussion or practice. Let’s Talk About Sex and Muslim Love is a collection of some of the most widely read essays and reflections written by Umm Zakiyyah, internationally acclaimed author of If I Should Speak and His Other Wife, as she directly confronts the taboo while offering a refreshing perspective that balances frank honesty with religious sensitivity. The essays include ...

In Male Supremacy 101, Umm Zakiyyah shares personal anecdotes from her life, as well as spiritual reflections, as she compares male supremacy to divine supremacy from an Islamic perspective, with shocking revelations: Male supremacists are upset with Allah and resentful of women. Also, they hate feminism more than they love Islam, and they fear feminism more than they fear Allah. “You can be Muslim or you can be married. But you can’t be both,” Umm Zakiyyah says. “This is the sinking realization that settled on me as I considered the personal implications of acquiescing to the ...

This three-book edition of His Other Wife—Umm Zakiyyah’s popular online series turned novel—is a story about love and betrayal, faith and personal crisis, and withstanding deep emotional wounds. Jacob is a successful businessman and college professor, and his wife Deanna is a renowned marriage counselor and author. Together they are their Muslim community’s power couple. Aliyah is Deanna’s recently divorced best friend who has just accepted a position at the college where Jacob works—and who is the unwilling recipient of Deanna’s constant unsolicited relationship advice, ...

This book is a collection of fifty bittersweet lessons that Umm Zakiyyah learned the hard way on her journey of life and love. She says, “These are lessons that I often had to learn and re-learn over and over—even after Allah had already gifted me with soul-nourishing, blessed solitude in my life.” In this book, the “quiet part” includes personal truths she learned from two emotions that Muslim women are often shamed away from: joy and rage. She says, “Most of these truths were gleaned from lessons that ‘the fire of experience’ taught me—most especially after I chose to ...

The author promises to revolutionize story telling in this powerful story about three college students, one Christian and the others Muslim, who find themselves unlikely roommates at a small, private American university. Tamika, the main character of this novel, is a sophomore in college who dreams of becoming a famous singer. After a fight with her roommate, she is forced to move out of her room and ends up living with two Muslims, one who is religious, while the other is becoming discontented with the religion. Tamika is immediately drawn to Durrah, the latter, who shares her love for ...

From the author of the internationally acclaimed novel If I Should Speak comes the anxiously awaited sequel. In this deft second book, Umm Zakiyyah again takes us through the lives of Tamika and those who brush her life. Now Muslim, Tamika must face her Christian mother who instilled in her a love for Christ and made church the heartbeat of the family. Torn between her dedication to Islam, the longing of her soul, and her mother, the longing of her heart--her "lifeline," Tamika struggles to find peace somewhere in between. But she finds that something must give. A story of faith, ...

As a private conversation between Jacob and friends about polygamy is leaked on social media, Deanna is publicly humiliated, and Aliyah is publicly maligned. Now Jacob is forced to face the painful realities of his marriage while Aliyah is forced to face the confusing reality of her heart. Meanwhile, these uncomfortable events trigger each character’s deepest emotional wounds and challenge them to confront parts of themselves they had buried long ago. This three-book edition of His Other Wife—Umm Zakiyyah’s popular online series turned novel—is a story about love and betrayal, faith...

Faith turns to shame, confidence to doubt, and conviction to rebellion. Inaya was only nine when her mother converted to Islam and moved the family to Saudi Arabia. Now, at sixteen years old, Inaya returns to America and decides to remove her Muslim clothes and hide her religion at school. ...And she hopes to get the attention of a boy she likes. But she has no idea how to hide this double life from her mother, and from everyone who admires her strong faith.

Maryam, the main character of this short novel, is the daughter of strict Pakistani-American parents who decide to bend their rules to help a divorced American convert to Islam, whose free-spirited daughter Samira is in need of "good Muslim" friends. Maryam, along with her African-American friend Latifah, tries to find common ground with Samira, but when Samira convinces Maryam to disobey their parents, Maryam is worried they may have gone too far.

Footsteps, the third in Umm Zakiyyah’s internationally acclaimed If I Should Speak trilogy, is a story that stands on its own in both impact and inspiration. At the heart of the novel are Ismael and his wife Sarah. Married for twenty-six years and having accepted Islam on a journey they took together, Ismael and Sarah have what every marriage couple hopes to achieve. Stability, dedication, and a comfortable life. But as the story unfolds, the hairline fractures in their marriage become visible, and the fractures become splintering cracks as Sarah discovers a detrimental secret her husband...

Our hearts are filled with so much hope as we walk our personal paths in this world. At times we are enjoying tremendous blessings that fill us with happiness and contentment. Other times we are facing difficult trials that leave us feeling disappointed, emotionally broken, and on the brink of despair. In this timely book, internationally acclaimed author Umm Zakiyyah, asks her own struggling soul this provocative question, “What did you expect?” as she seeks to make sense of some of the most painful and confusing trials that we face in this world. Sometimes we respond with patience, ...

Jacob and Aliyah hope to treasure their newfound connection in private while he and Deanna seek legal counsel in settling their marital disputes. Meanwhile, Deanna must face the pain of buried childhood trauma, and Aliyah worries about an Arab friend’s secret relationship that her parents don’t approve of. This three-book edition of His Other Wife—Umm Zakiyyah’s popular online series turned novel—is a story about love and betrayal, faith and personal crisis, and withstanding deep emotional wounds.

In this 4th Anniversary Edition of I’m Divorced Now, Umm Zakiyyah offers what she calls “a positive reframe of life and soul” as she looks at the dissolution of her marriage four years ago through the lens of embracing soul-nourishing solitude instead of heartbreak and healing. With an added Prologue and Epilogue to capture this new positive outlook on her life today, we are blessed to see the beginning of her healing journey as laying the path to a life of gratitude and joy. On August 30, 2020, internationally acclaimed author and speaker, Umm Zakiyyah, parted from her second soul ...

In this novel, internationally acclaimed author of If I Should Speak, A Voice, and Footsteps introduces us to the heart, mind, and life of Renee Morris, the narrator of this reflective tale. Told in three parts, Renee's story tells of a stringent childhood in her father's church and her ultimate submission to the religion of her nature in young adulthood. As Renee embraces Islam wholeheartedly, the spiritual tranquility of her initial conversion begins to wane as she faces the often painful realities of navigating the terrains of the Muslim experience itself. At times humorous and at times ...

“From my earliest memories of childhood, anxious people-pleasing defined my existence,” Umm Zakiyyah says. “It wasn’t until my late thirties that I began to even process the meaning of self-care. After that, it took several more years for me to understand the meaning and necessity of self-love. But it wasn’t until after my second divorce, when I was in my forties, that the concept of feeling emotionally safe held any meaning or significance for me at all.” In this personal testimony, which is part memoir, part self-help, Umm Zakiyyah, internationally acclaimed author of If I ...

In this timely book, Umm Zakiyyah, internationally acclaimed author, soul-care mentor, and RTT therapy practitioner, draws on her personal, spiritual, and professional experience to offer advice to Muslim women embarking on marriage or hoping for this soul companionship, whether for the first time or after divorce. She also shares details of her own marriage contract, which she has prepared for herself and her daughter. Topics include acknowledging your own emotional wounding before marriage, recognizing red flags in yourself, being honest about incompatibility, understanding the power of ...

Short Story 1: Jessica, an American convert to Islam, attends a dinner party, and the hostess’s underhanded scheme and troublesome comments spur Jessica’s decision to give up being Muslim. Short Story 2: An American college student converts to Islam and makes the decision to wear all black and cover her face. But she faces opposition from where she least expects—from fellow Muslims themselves.

Spiritual dehydration. This is what Umm Zakiyyah says is at the root of the soul feeling overburdened by the obligation of Salaah, the five foundational prayers of the Muslim. “When I was struggling to hold on to my faith,” she says. “I used to dread when it was time to pray. Just mustering the strength to perform ablution and stand for Salaah felt so overwhelming... So, whenever I found myself standing (or sitting) for prayer, my heart wasn’t really in it, and deep inside, I felt spiritually empty.” In this book of personal and spiritual prose, Umm Zakiyyah, internationally ...

An American college student converts to Islam and makes the decision to wear all black and cover her face. But she faces opposition from where she least expects, from Muslims.

Her mother was raped. This is how Melanie was born. For years, the sight of Melanie's face reminded her mother of the sexual assault, so Melanie herself was verbally and physically abused through childhood. But Melanie's obligation was to love and honor her mother, she told herself. This is what Melanie believed as a Christian, and it's what she believed even more so after converting to Islam. In the Qur'an, God commanded, "Reverence the wombs that bore you." But what if those wombs broke you, and incited deep emotional trauma? What then? In this groundbreaking book about healing from ...