A Reflection on 2024

To say that 2024 has been a revelation is an understatement. It has been the strangest year of huge, world-changing events juxtaposed with quiet, personal reflections and moments.

The continuation of what began in Gaza in October 2023 with no end in sight has been the final nail in the coffin of what began, for me, at the age of 11, following the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq by the USA. To say that I fully believe and accept that the entire international order of ‘human rights’ and ‘law and order’ has ended, is without question. For those of us who come from backgrounds that have long felt, and continue to experience, the side effects of brutal colonisation, it is a strange place we occupy. I, for one, find it incredibly disconcerting to be surrounded by a majority of people for whom the world seems to start and finish at their front door. Being emotionally connected to people who live thousands of miles away, and yet, are dearer to me than those who live around me physically is a concept that I suspect, the majority of British (read White British) people, will never fathom.

At the end of each year I try to reflect on what my goals were for the year and what I have achieved. I started doing this a few years ago, and it’s been very helpful (courtesy of vision boards and goal setting), to stay on track for the year. Many of my goals this year were material and I am pleased to say that I have been able to acheive them. There are still overarching, larger goals to accomplish, particularly around spiritual and religious growth which I didn’t manage to achieve but they will form part of my goals for 2025 instead.

Working on the inner self is much, much more difficult than ticking off ‘buying X',’ or ‘travelling to Y,’ but I imagine it will be infinitely more rewarding. Whilst I do have a few smaller material goals, I sense already that my orientation in 2025 will be far more spiritually focused insha’Allah, and I hope that it inspires, motivates and guides me to a far greater degree of inner harmony.

I don’t know about you but I find that I am very visually motivated. Using vision boards has been a gamechanger for me - the only tips I would suggest are to keep it simple and focus in on a few core goals. Don’t overwhelm yourself with trying to do 50 new things. Perhaps choose 5 things that you would seriously love to accomplish and find at least one image or word (Pinterest is amazing for this), which speaks to you about that goal. Revisit the vision board every few months throughout the year. It’s possible you may not achieve everything you wanted, but at least you will have started building good foundations for the following year when you can tick it off.

I have used Pinterest for my vision boards - I tend to keep mine marked 'private’ as they are really only for me. But you could make yours public if that helps you. And try to be broad and aspirational in your goals - some will be easier to achieve than others, but 1-2 goals which will stretch and push you out of your comfort zone is no bad thing. By thinking broadly, I mean to think about your holistic self. Do you want a physical/health goal? Something material you would like to buy, develop or make? What about a life goal - maybe academic, or moving into your first property? How about relationships? If you’re not in a relationship and would like to be, how can you work on yourself and put yourself out there to meet people? Or maybe you’d prefer the opposite and to focus on your personal development? Are you religious and do you have religious goals or a spiritual focus you would like to adopt? Stay as openminded as possible and it should get your creativity flowing.

On an entirely different note, despite having been born and raised in the UK and having lived here my entire life, I am really not sure if I want to spend the rest of my life in this country. One of the benefits of having travelled more in the last few years is that the exposure to new people and communities and ways of life, has inspired me to think beyond the shores of the UK. I am not sure where exactly I will end up or when, or even how, to be quite honest, yet I am convinced that at some point I will do so. And whilst there is a strong pull factor, there is also a strong push factor - the anti-Muslim race riots in the summer of 2024 were enough to show me something that I had always known existed albeit not quite so viscerally.

In any event, as many changes and new things as I experienced in 2024, I imagine 2025 will only have further surprises and revelations in store.

Witness to a genocide

This is perhaps the most surreal post I have ever written. As I write, the Israeli government has begun its genocidal onslaught of Gaza. The images and videos and testimonies coming from Gaza are utterly soul destroying as the world sees, for the first time in history, what the genocide of a people looks like in real time.

We do not know how long we will continue to hear from people in Gaza - the Israelis have declared that water, food, electricity and fuel (all of which Israel controls) will be shut off. The people of Gaza will very soon face a complete media blackout, unable to charge their own phones and laptops, with Israel having banned any foreign journalists from entering Gaza.

The disinformation campaigns have already begun to go viral with completely false stories going viral in Western media news outlets and even mentioned by US President Joe Biden in his speech this week, only to be quietly retracted later, with the damage having already been done.

The pain of witnessing an occupied people trying to survive in what was an open air concentration camp and is now an open air death camp - with c.2 million people living on a strip of land a fraction of the size of London (UK), has truly helped me to understand how it was that the Nazis were able to engineer their death and destruction during WWII. There are no words to describe the absolute horror of what I have seen on social media in the last few days, from the half-bodies of dead children, to corpses lying in the street with their limbs cut off, lumps of flesh and blood where once there were living, breathing human beings.

As a Muslim, I am strengthened only by the belief that the corruption that would be spread upon the earth as we move closer to the end of days, was foretold. We were taught of how things would progress and having borne witness to the wars in Iraq and Syria, both of which were foretold, I can only focus on strengthening my iman and praying for the safety of our ummah as we move forward. There is no barrier between the prayer of the one who is opporessed and the One who listens and bayt-al-maqdis is protected by angels who will stand in witness.

That the minor signs of the Final Day are coming to fruition slowly but surely and that the major signs will follow is completely obvious to me. The world of geopolitics is being rearranged and one can only wait to see the justice He has promised.

Words for 2023

I wanted to start 2023 in a way that I haven’t started previous years and that’s by seriously thinking about what I’d like to do and achieve this year. As often happens, I spent some time scrolling through Instagram to see what others had planned for the year and I saw one of my favourite influencers, @Iamascia, mention her ‘word of the year.’

Using the same concept, instead of choosing one word for the year, I decided to focus on a few different themes and identify suitable word for each. My words for 2023 are:

Faith.
Love.
Health.

Faith has always been important to me but I think there is a big difference between ritualistic and habitual faith-based practice that tends to happen over time, compared to a more conscious and deliberate connection with spirituality which connects one’s thoughts, heart and actions.
Love for me is not particularly about receiving but about giving. To allow your thoughts and actions to be guided by love is actually very difficult and as someone with a naturally dry demeanour, this one may be the most difficult of the three. Thoughts can very easily drift and become centred on harshness, sarcasm and reaction rather than taking a step back and allowing the best of yourself to come to the fore.
Health is possibly the most ‘typical’ of many a new year’s resolution but that doesn’t make it any less important. My aim is to focus on health holistically this year, bringing together the physical and mental with a particular emphasis on getting to grips with my PCOS symptoms and practicing healthcare which is gentle, nourishing and compassionate.

These are the thoughts I’m taking into 2023 with me. Share your words for 2023 below or any new year’s resolutions you would like to achieve.