reignite the spark

I recently picked up a short audio course on basic Mandarin to prepare myself for some upcoming adventures (in shaa Allah!).

As a translator, there is always this feeling when I start studying a new language - all of a sudden that language takes over my mind.

I'm repeating phrases that I've learned, turning the words over and over in my head. I want to hear it and read it and speak it as much as I can. I want to dive in and be fully immersed.

And this sensation that I am having, getting swept up in learning Chinese, recalls another time in my life when I felt that very same feeling.

It was 2014, when I first started studying Islam and took my shahada.

I remember those days - All I wanted was to sit in my room and read books on Islam, to talk to my friends about Islam, to watch hijab tutorials on YouTube and dream about the day that I would wear that beautiful cloth on my head.

I ate, breathed, slept, dreamed, and lived Islam every minute of the day. It was always at the forefront of my mind.

And now, I wonder when I lost that.

Yes, I'm still passionate about my deen. Yes, I still desire more knowledge.

But it's not ever-present, all consuming like it used to be. Often I find myself distracted, caught up in mundane affairs of this dunya. Forgetting that this dunya really means nothing, and is only the means to an end.

So I'd like to try to rekindle that flame that I once had. And I think I will start, just like I originally did, with seeking more knowledge in shaa Allah.

What will you do today to reignite the spark of Islam in your heart?

Ashley