Finding yourself as a Muslimah in the 21st Century

I say that this is a task because having got it sorted out on time really does determine what a Muslimah’s life moving forward, would look like.

Daily, we would discover new things about our person. About who and what we are.This process never ends.

The importance of finding oneself, and of knowing who and what we are as Muslimah’s more so in the 21st century world full of Islamophobia, cannot be emphasised enough in this space.

There is a need for the Muslimah to find out who exactly she is, and what exactly she stands for. Read about the Muslimah here

There are many different personality types and we may fit in more than one of them.

We just need to know, ‘where do I fit best?’

Why then exactly, is it important for us to find ourselves, especially as Muslimah’s?

Finding oneself leads to making more informed choices in every aspect of our lives. It leads to settling for all the right things and handling situations the best way possible.

And these are traits that a Muslimah ought to possess, as we are basically a part of the callers to our Deen.

Imagine that you do not know that you are prone to losing your cool during heated arguments. You may end up in a really messy cat-fight in case you engaged in a heated argument.

Imagine that you do not know that you have a talent of painting? This ends up un-nurtured and undiscovered, leading to a loss of opportunity.

How may we find ourselves as Muslimah’s?

The steps below are definitely not exhaustive, but they should surely jumpstart your journey to the goal In Shaa Allah.

1. Pray: Forget the sound of cliché in this point. Still, pray. Pray because you and I know that there has yet to come a situation that Allah cannot handle.

And finding yourself really is a situation.

Ask Allah, al-Hadi, the Guide, to guide you to exactly whom you are, what you are and what your limits are.

2. Pay Attention: Be ready to pay very close attention to your likes and dislikes. What you are good at, and nurture it. If you do not like a thing, you cannot bully it into you.

Nonetheless, try new things and broaden your horizons.

3. Listen: In as much as paying attention to yourself is key, you would need to step out of your own realisations, and listen to what people have to say about your person(Muslimah).

Find genuine people, who have your best interest at heart. Talk with them and listen to them, and their observations about your person.

Bearing in mind that this is feedback on you, that you’re going to work on.

4. Acknowledge your weaknesses: Although we live in a perfectionist world today, there still is much room for people to admit their weaknesses and work on them. Only a few people take the chance. No one is flawless.

There actually is no ‘superhuman’. So remember that finding yourself, also entails fishing your weaknesses out, embracing them, and then working on them.

At the end of the day, we want to find our person. During this journey, we should be brave enough to push out whatever traits Allah will not find pretty on us, out the window.

We should ensure that whatever it is that we find is in line with our person, equally falls within the limits of our Deen.

Assalaamu alaikum.

You may find me on:

LinkedIn : Azizat Ayodele Boateng.

Facebook : Azizat Boateng.

Instagram : @ayo_dele27.

Email : azizatboateng@gmail.com

• I’m most active on Instagram. Email works anytime.

Jazaakumullaahu Khayran.