[not in reference to the Christmas song]

And just what did you find yourself… so afraid of? To what did you look to, for escape?

While walking through the Earth, taking your seat at places atop which

Your name had been writ: did it feel true? What did you think you had been running from,

And to what do you reckon you had been… running to?

Peace. A fine word, it. No longer attaching one’s worth to what the next man might think. Though

it still matters to you, maybe. Under the surface; beneath the skin. But you are far more,

I promise you, than what… various fictions may ask, of you. To be cartoonish and smooth;

Easily… amenable, or super suave. But your value here, far more than being some mere accessory;

far more than being merely surface-based, or bodily and sexual: it is intellectual. Emotional.

Spiritual. Beautiful. Far more — within every single cell that facilitates you —

than you could ever know. The shells of things matter, yes, of course they do. “Allah is Beautiful and

He loves Beauty.” And He made you beautiful – in Mind, Heart, Body, and Soul – and True.

Any single man, or woman, or cat or dog, might disagree. But Truth remains Truth, objectively.

I want to

Let go of whatever holds… false convictions… for me: decorated conceptualisations of Past, or of Future, or of Other People and

Places. Realities outside of my own. I am grateful for whatever, by Allah’s permission, brought me right here.

Our Value, here, is holistic, and it simply cannot be eroded by any fellow, flawed and dependent, aspect of creation. It is, by God’s grace,

Eternal. Unwavering. Intrinsic. And I promise you: for whatever your own trials and tribulations may be, you are strong enough.

Intelligent enough. Capable enough. [And if you’re a woman: downright gorgeous enough!] Important – to all the right people – enough. With Qadr, you will struggle and strive;

Walk, with due effort,

effortlessly, right into whatever is Yours: has been Written for you, and has always been.

If you can only find it within yourself, to sink, with peace, into what and who

Your Creator – Rabbul ‘Aalameen – has ordained for your life, and the billions of things He has chosen, in Grand Design, — to come together to form

You.

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With Salaam, Sadia, 2021.