π What is "Letters from the Soul"?
Letters from the Soul is a book, written by you and curated by the Arriqaaq team, that aims to get to the heart of many muslims across the world.
Whether you are happy or sad, young or old, the book is a forum for anyone to share their feelings of gratitude to Allah, and their experiences. It is a chance to get something off your chest, to put words to thoughts that might be too complicated to speak aloud and share with everyone. This book is to celebrate life with a touch of gratitude towards Allah, to reflect on how blessed we, share our pain and share with others of how beautiful this journey has been.β
We're all alone, but in that, we're all together too.
π― How does it work?
We have posted a series of questions via this website and our social channels. The questions are intended to cover a wide range of issues. If you feel a question speaks to you, please write a letter in response. Every single one will be read.
A selection of these letters and responses will then form a book that will be published by us (for free). The hope is that together the letters will form a mini-compendium of the modern day believer: a resource that can be browsed for comfort when broken hearted or sad, but read for humour and joy, too.
βοΈ Guidelines
1) Phrase your letter starting with either βOh Allahβ¦β, βYa Allahβ¦β or βDear so-and-soβ¦ββ
2) In the subject, or first line of your response, please include the number of the question you are replying to.
3) Please include your first name, age, and country. If you prefer to be completely anonymous, that is completely fine, we would prefer you write under a pseudonym - please state it in your letter.β
4) You may choose to write a line or a page or a poem (a haiku if you please), itβs up to you. Feel free to be creative! If you are more visual and feel a drawing or a photo (of inanimate objects) sums up your thoughts better, thatβs perfect.
5) Narrate to us your story through this letter. Something that connects with you, something that is personal, deep, unique and exquisite. A lot can be said in a few words. We would like to capture that one moment of gratitude (of many) that you've felt towards Allah through these questions.β
6) There is no deadline currently to send us the letter, but we hope to collect a bunch of them over a period of four months to give enough time for people to send us their letters before we start reviewing them for the book.β
A lot can be said in a few words :)
ποΈ How To Submit?
There are a number of ways in which you can submit your letter:
1) Email us at letterfromthesoul@gmail.com
2) Send a message on Tumblr (letterfromthesoul.tumblr.com)
3) Telegram (https://t.me/letterfromthesoul)
Follow our journey on Tumblr!
π Questions
Question #1
What would you say to your younger self, without judgement?β
Question #2
What are you grateful to Allah for the most?
Question #3
What are you thankful to Allah for about your partner?
A little note of gratitude thanking Allah to have blessed you with a righteous partner; describe the little things that make you happy about him/her; Or if you like humour, that one thing which they do that annoys you the most, but you still love it :)β
*You can address this to your best friend too
Question #4
What is that one moment in life that killed you, and you thought you would never overcome it, but you did?β
Question #5
What is pain to you? What is that one suffering which you are going through right now (or have already gone through) which has strengthened your relationship with Allah?β
The best of those in Narrated Musab bin Saad: "His father, Saad bin Abu Waqqas said to the Prophet (peace be upon him): βO Messenger of Allah, which people are most severely tested?" 'He said: The Prophets, then the next best and the next best. A person is tested according to his religious commitment. If he is steadfast in his religious commitment, he will be tested more severely, and if he is frail in his religious commitment, his test will be according to his commitment. Trials will continue to afflict a person until they leave him walking on the earth with no sin on him.β (Sunan Al-Tirmidhi, Sunan Ibn Majah)
Question #6
Which Ayah from the Quran do you feel most connected to emotionally, and why?β
We all have that one moment in life, where we are either struggling or happy, and we open up the Quran and come across this one Ayah that just connects with us so well. Share with us the incident and how the Ayah from the Quran helped you.
Question #7
What single word (or an image) sums up your life, or someone like you?
Question #8
What would you say to your parents? Write a letter to express your gratitude to Allah for blessing you with such a lovely family.β
There are always words which we are shy of to tell our parents, either we are not good at expressing our emotions, too awkward, or may be way too shy. Write your heart out to your father or mother (or may be your grandparents who made a difference in your life)
Question #9
How has technology affected your relationship with Allah, either positively or negatively?
Question #10
What is the world you wish for your significant other?β
Your significant other could be your muslim brothers and sisters too :)
Question #11
What if today was your last day?