Muslim Life Hackers
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Muslim Life Hackers
Scandals in Our Community and Your Inner Voice
In this episode of the Muslim Life Hackers podcast, host Mifrah Mahroof discusses the importance of intuition in navigating community scandals. Mifrah explores how intuition acts as a powerful tool for personal growth, protection from harmful situations, and better decision-making. She also offers practical tips on how to develop and trust your instincts, seeking both spiritual guidance and professional help.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:45 Addressing Community Scandals
01:35 Personal Experience with a Scandal
04:04 The Power of Intuition
08:27 Strengthening Intuition and Seeking Guidance
10:15 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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🏖️ This episode is sponsored by Sisters Explore, a company I founded to offer guided small-group travel for Muslim women to connect, explore, and enjoy faith-centered journeys. Learn more at http://www.sisters-explore.com
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Hey, Asalamu Alaikum and welcome to the Muslim Life Hackers podcast. I'm your host Mifrah Mahroof and as you may notice, today's episode has no video. So I sat down and tried to get the video set up and then I was going through my scarves and I found Multiple scarves had like, toddler stains, oil stains, so when she eats food, my two year old touches my scarf, and then I just didn't get around to sorting that out, and here I am, just sitting outside, I was like, you know what, let me not keep delaying it, because sometimes I just want to share something with you, and when I don't get that video set up, I just never get around to it, and that idea goes, and those thoughts go, so, um, I hope that you still stick around, even though it's not video and actually let me know what you think. Alright, so in today's episode, I want to speak to you about scandals in the community. And the reason why I bring this up is really to not speak about these issues themselves, because I think that there's already a lot of discussions on this, especially by people who are leaders in the community, and I'm not here to talk about that. But I am here to share some reflections that I have on what's been happening, and one thing I have noticed and not being spoken about much is the power of intuition. So the power of intuition as a way to protect ourselves from falling into these scandals really. This isn't about victim blaming or freeing the guilty of blame, but as you know, in this podcast, I talk about personal growth, taking back our power, how we can show up as better individuals and how we can learn lessons from all the things that happen around us. Why I decided to speak about this is because recently there was a scandal that came out about a brother in the UK who scammed people for money. And I actually crossed paths with this individual. So I didn't meet him face to face or anything because as you know, I'm here in Australia and he's there in UK. But I did speak to him We actually had him on our podcast, but not recently in the last year. So this was like back in 2015 when me and my co host Maheen were running the show and we just were looking for like Muslims doing really cool things. One thing that I do reflect when I look back at this experience and what I noticed was that I always felt that there was something off, right? I can never put words to it. And it's not that person wasn't rude in his interaction, or there's nothing I can fault in his character, right? And the thing is, I still, and also my co host as well, we both still had this thing that we just felt off. We just felt like, we don't want to get too close or associate with his work. And you might be thinking at this stage, Oh, well, Mifrah, if you felt that way, why did you invite him onto your podcast? So to be fair, we didn't actually know too much about his work then, but this kind of our feeling came as a result of the interactions that we had, seeing his work online and also, getting that chance to speak to him and all the things that happen in the background in putting together an interview. There's a lot of interaction that goes back and forth. Although this was all virtual, we still felt that. something was off. And so the funny thing was, I thought I was being judgmental, perhaps I couldn't give the brother an excuse. That's what I was telling myself, you know, give him an excuse. Maybe he's just different. Maybe his marketing style was more like a, you know, I appeal to the hustle bros and he's speaking to a different type of generation that I don't understand, right? I got no clue, but as Muslims were taught, okay, give excuses. So, excuses it was, And once this news came out, I started asking other people in person about how they felt about this individual. So, I asked a number of people, men and women, and they also mentioned that something was off. So the lesson here is, especially as women, we have powerful intuition. Intuition means that gut feeling, it's a quiet voice in the background, and when you don't listen to it, you feel like your body starts to rebel, like maybe you can't bring yourself to taking action, you feel like you have a bad feeling about messaging someone, so then when you start, your fingers are like resisting. So if I were to think about intuition as a person, intuition would be someone who's sitting, in a gathering, and you have all the loud people talking, talking, talking, and taking over the conversation, but intuition just, like, sits in the background, and they listen, and then after that, when they start speaking, there's like, wisdom that comes out of them. They don't push their opinions on you, and they just remind you and they leave it at that, right? so it's not some force that you get pushed to doing something, unless, I mean, I have heard in situations in which people's situation became like, really dire, like maybe they're in a dangerous situation and their intuition had to like act very loudly, perhaps in war times and stuff, Allahualam. And it also reminds me about this podcast I was listening to, in which they were talking about the Hunter Gatherer Society, and they would say that when the men would go out to hunt women who were looking after, you know, the children of everyone, we would feel if danger is close by. So we just sense it. And so whilst men have this too, even in Islam, there is this thing about sixth sense, it's called firasa, right? I really believe that it comes more naturally to women. So I remember even when I was pregnant with my daughter, how powerful the intuition was. After all, it's such a special time when an angel comes to visit your womb and breathes the soul into you. I had the intuition and I remember during that time, I researching into crypto and it's like completely random. This is a story for another time, but that was an interesting one. So this whole concept of following your intuition, it might be a foreign thing, especially if you've been told your entire life to ignore it. So you've been told, oh, don't listen to what you say. Just listen to what I say because I'm important or I'm the religious person here. I'm right. I know more. And so, we might find ourselves just ignoring our lives, right? But I truly believe that being in touch with your intuition is amongst the first lines of defense against getting involved in scandals and not just scandals, it's also things like having a friend who's two faced in your life. Maybe there's that friend in your life and you have an intuition or you're around people that you feel that something is off and it's not just once, right? It's like consistently something is off and then later on, in your life, you get burnt by them and you find that they were really like bad people. And I've heard these stories many times from friends in which, they would tell me about, hey, I had a bad experience with this group of friends. And when I would ask them, oh, did you ever have a feeling that something was off? And they'll be like, yeah, I did. And I was like, why didn't you listen to it? And it's more like, oh, I should give excuses to them and stuff. And I get that. And I think it's a fine line to tread and, um, thinking about if I should listen, um, listening to that and also asking Allah SWT guidance as well, praying Istikharah. And seeking that guidance so that you can be guided to the right path, right? Because I'm not for like, oh, I don't feel like doing that, or I don't feel that person is good, and then you just like cut it off. Human interaction is complex, but what I am saying here is, put some thought or some weight into your intuition, actually listen to it, like, think about it like a small child, you know? They're pointing towards some, something on the ground, like maybe this or like a snake, and they're pointing, and they don't have the words, they're pointing, at least take it into consideration. that my intuition is telling me this. What is it? Maybe I need to ask people about the character of these people. Maybe I need to do some more research and connect with other people. Speaking about connection, I think that these scandals and things happen when we're so disconnected. We don't get to like speak to people face to face and have these honest conversations like, what do you think about the character of so and so? Have you seen any misconduct? Or seeing if they also feel something is off, right? I think that if many people feel something is off, then that's also a reinforcement of what you're feeling as well, like in this situation that I tell you. Okay, how do I get started, with being more in touch with my intuition? I would say definitely to be aware that it exists, and that's one thing, and the other thing is also start to clean and purify your heart vision, like through repentance to Allah SWT, your Adkar. So think about it like glass that's filled with dirt, and clean it, that's definitely important. And in addition to that, I would also suggest that you address your negative beliefs and your traumas too, and that can be done through professional help. Because the thing is, we all have things from our childhood that we are unaware of, and we have to seek out the help for that and we don't have to live with that. Someone might have a belief that, my feelings don't matter or I'm not important, I'm not worthy, I'm not enough. And so they take this abuse or they take these bad situations of bad friends and people taking advantage of them because of that belief they have about themselves. So that would require some professional help to help you overcome because it's, there is a way to overcome that. You don't have to feel like you're stuck with that. You can read all the books and stuff and definitely they help, but getting someone to help you would make such a difference as well. So, doing the spiritual part, the adhkar, the repentance to Allah SWT, asking him for guidance and seeing what comes up, getting the professional help. And then I would suggest that you start with the little things, like the little decisions, even coming down to what you want to wear for that day, or even if you're driving around and you're in a neighborhood that you know, but you're so used to using your GPS, maybe turn that GPS off and actually listen to your intuition to guide you back. So that's some things you can, start if you're totally off it, totally not used to listening to that intuition or at least giving it some importance in your life. And yeah, that's all I have to say in today's episode. I hope you enjoy it and I hope the background sound wasn't too bad. I'm not in my office recording this. I thought, hey, let me just like sit outside, in the nice air and see if that changes content. In addition to that, I would also say connect with people in your And just have those friends in your life who you can ask for advice as well. Because definitely, even in our deen, it's not just me, Allah SWT, and that's it. We also have people around us and we should ask people advice, as well. And, yeah, that's about it. And that's all I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed this episode and take care and I will speak to you soon.
