With the summer arriving and the sun shining almost every day, it suddenly felt like the perfect time to write about this. Ash-shams.. The sun. A creation that has been on my mind for a while now. A reflection that has become incredibly dear to me... all because of one simple du’a I made. I want to take y’all back to Ramadan 2025. A Ramadan where I found myself constantly looking at the sun. Every time it appeared, I looked at it. I admired it. I reflected on it.

Until one day i asked Allah for something: “Ya Allah... make me like the sun.”

And guys... All I can say is... LIFE CHANGED..

Surah ash-shams. The surah named after the sun.. A surah that revolves around one thing: Choice.

The choice to purify the soul. Or the choice to corrupt it. And that made me wonder. Why would Allah (swt) begin this surah by swearing upon His creation... when the entire surah is leading us towards the choice that we have? Why call it Ash-Shams? What was Allah trying to show me?

And somehow... Allah answered those questions simply by making me look at the sun.

I looked at the sun. I watched it closely. And SubhanAllah... I saw so, so much. I saw a creation I was first jealous of. A creation that shines without the need to be seen. A creation that gives warmth without expecting anything in return. A creation that transforms everything around it simply by moving in accordance with the will of Allah.

Just look at what follows... Flowers begin to bloom. Trees grow. Fruit ripens. Life appears wherever its light reaches. It never asks to be noticed, yet everything around it bears witness to its presence.

I kept looking at it... trying to understand what made it so beautiful. And then I realized something. The beauty of the sun was never found in its light. It was found in its complete surrender to Allah. It wasn't trying to prove itself. It simply was as Allah created it to be.

And that was when everything clicked.

Allah swears by the sun. The moon. The day. The night. The sky. The earth... and after drawing our attention to all of His creation, He brings us back to the soul.

My soul.

Your soul.

Our souls.

That was the moment I stopped looking at the sun... and started looking at myself.

Or rather... I looked at us. I saw THE creation Allah (swt) honoured. The creation He breathed His ruh into. The creation He entrusted with something that makes our story unlike the story of the sun. Unlike every other creation (besides the jinns), we were given the ability to choose whether we return to that same surrender...

And guys MY JEALOUSY FOR THE SUN IMMEDIATELY LEFT. Because I finally understood my du’a. For the first time, I realized I had never really been longing for the sun itself. I had been longing for the peace I saw within it. The peace of a creation that never resists its Creator. A peace my own soul had been created for all along. Not because I had to become something new... but because I had forgotten the state Allah created my soul to .

I thought I was asking Allah to make me like the sun. Instead... Allah was showing me the sun He had already placed within my soul.

“There is a sun within every person” ~ Rumi

The sun shines.. and my soul was created to shine too!!! The sun is still shining.. and so is OUR soul. The only reason we can’t always see it.. is because of the clouds. Fear. Pride. Attachment. Desires. The constant noice of this dunya. They are all just clouds

None of them destroy the light Allah placed within us. They simply cover it.

And when those clouds begin to disappear... you don't have to try to become a source of goodness. You simply are one. Just like the sun never tries to bring life, your soul naturally begins to leave behind beautiful effects wherever Allah allows it to reach

“As we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same” ~ Marianne Williamson

So the question was never, “How do I become like the sun?” The real question became: What has been covering the light Allah already placed within my soul?

And you know what: maybe that is why Allah begins this surah with the sun. Not only so that we admire it... But so that (through it) we recognize ourselves.

But that leaves us with one final question. If the clouds are covering the light... How do we remove them?

For me... that question led to another surah. Surah Al-Qamar. The surah about the Moon. A surah that completely changed the way I understood surrender…. and how to return to that light.

But that is a reflection for another day, In sha Allah.

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A little personal note... <3

Almost a year after making this du’a, one of my regular customers (a non-Muslim woman) gave me this little sun. She knew nothing about my du’a. But Allah knew.

Maybe to her it was just a small gift.
To me...
It was a beautiful reminder that Allah hears every sincere du’a.

Before I continue, I want to say that this is purely my personal reflection on what I learned from the Prophet Suleiman (as). Every prophet carries his own lessons, wisdom, and depth, but there was something about the way Suleiman (as) spoke to Allah that stayed with me. Something about the wording of his du’a… the way he asked… it kept repeating itself in my mind for days.

Rabbi-ghfir lī wa hab lī mulkan lā yanbaghī li-aḥadin min baʿdī, innaka anta al-Wahhāb

“My Lord, forgive me and grant me a kingdom unlike any other after me. Indeed, You are The Bestower.” - Surah Sad (38:35)

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One day I kept reading this dua again and again… until I closed my eyes and tried to truly feel the words. And SubhanAllah… after that moment something inside of me changed.

In those few seconds it felt like I finally understood something. Everything suddenly made sense, because in that moment I placed myself in the position of the Prophet and I saw something so beautiful…

I saw a Prophet who began with tawbah. With repentance.

With returning back to Allah.

“Rabbi-ghfir lī”
“My Lord, forgive me.”

But what touched me about this was what came after that.

Instead of making himself small after his tawbah… instead of remaining trapped in guilt… he immediately asked Allah (swt) for something far beyond our “normal” way of thinking.

He asked for a kingdom.

A kingdom that nobody else would ever have.

And he did not ask from arrogance or entitlement… he asked from trust and certainty. Unwavering certainty. Certainty because he KNEWWWW who his Rabb was…

He knew Allah’s Names. He knew His Attributes. He knew what Allah was capable of. He knew that Allah was Al-Ghaffar. The Most Forgiving. But most importantly, he knew that Allah was Al-Wahhab… The Bestower. The One who gives with love, ease and without limits. The One who gives without expecting anything in return.

He knew this so deeply. He felt it so deeply.

And in that one moment when I closed my eyes… I felt it too.

Unwavering certainty.

And the result? Allah (swt) gave him exactly what he asked for. He gave him a kingdom unlike any other. The ability to speak with animals, authority over the jinn and even control over the wind by Allah’s permission.

In summary: He give him a kingdom filled with wisdom, power and justice.

But that is not even the part that impacted me the most. The best part and the most beautiful thing about this du’a to me is this: he didn’t shrink Allah with his mind, but he also didn’t shrink HIMSELF!!!!!!

And I think that is something many of us need to learn to undo… shrinking ourselves.

Many of us have slowly started shrinking ourselves and calling it humility. We started believing that humility means keeping ourselves small. That after tawbah we should not ask for “too much.—> As if guilt is supposed to become a permanent part of who we are. As if wanting big things automatically means we are too attached to the dunya.

And of course… this dunya is not our final destination. We all know that. We live for the akhirah. But somewhere along the way, many of us started confusing detachment with disengagement.

But when I look at the Prophet Suleiman (as), I see the complete opposite.

I see a Prophet who understood that Allah did not place him on this earth just to exist until death reached him. He understood that Allah could use him for something greater. That what Allah gave him could become a means of justice, guidance, impact and goodness.

His kingdom was not simply dunya. It was responsibility. It was an amanah.

And that is what humility truly is. Not making yourself smaller.
Not pretending you are incapable of greatness. But recognizing that whatever Allah places within you is meant to be used for Him.

As long as Allah keeps us here, there is still something meant to come through us into this world. More goodness to spread. More people to benefit. More growth we still need to reach..

Because why would Allah place dreams, ambition, ideas and talents inside our hearts if the purpose was only to suppress them? Why would He give us the ability to impact others if we were never meant to use it?

Show up.. Not by losing yourself in it but also not by shrinking yourself out of fear of dunya attachment.

And you know what:

Maybe that is what we need to learn this Arafah. To ask like Suleiman (as). With tawbah. With trust. With certainty. Not only asking Allah for comfort, but asking Him for purpose. Asking Him to use us for something good. Asking Him to make our existence meaningful. Asking Him to make us a source of goodness and change.

Be the change

Because you were given a gift. The ability to ask. The ability to dream. The ability to become exceptional through Allah’s permission.

So don’t overlook it.

Ask with certainty.

Ask Al-Wahhab

This reflection was also inspired by our sister in deen, . JazakkaAllahoe Khairan:

@manifestingmuslimahWhen we reflect upon ourselves with honesty, we can keep ourselves tethered to Allah 💚 #manifestingmuslimah #muslimtiktok #muslimtok #revertmuslim #muslimrevert

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I want to cry.

I want to cry out of joy…
to cry because of what I see.

I see waves,
reflections,
colors…
like paintings unfolding before me.

I cannot look away.
I cannot comprehend it.

What I see before me…
It is beyond understanding.

How has Allah honored me like this?
Honored me to witness this…
to experience this…
to see this?

How has Allah honored me so deeply…
above what I even see before me?

I cry…
I cry out of joy.

I cry because I paused…
and finally saw myself.

I see something within me.
Maybe… I see what Allah sees in me.

And that is the choice.

The choice to choose Allah.
The choice to see His rahma.

That is what makes me beautiful.
Something beyond understanding…
something free.

No wonder Rumi said
that we carry a whole universe within us.

We are more than what we see.

We are servants of Allah.

We are free.

Kun - كُنْ

Indeed, We have dignified the children of Adam, carried them on land and sea, granted them good and lawful provisions, and privileged them far above many of Our creatures. ~ (Surah Al-Isra 17:70)

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