To the Man Who Can Have Whatever He Wants

The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: the strong man is not the one who throws others down. The strong man is the one who masters himself when his blood is up.— Bukhari and Muslim

Read that again. Sit with it.

This letter is for you. The man who can walk into almost any room and shift the temperature. The man who can pull a woman with a sentence. The man who can earn money where other men starve. The man other men measure themselves against without admitting it.

You did not land on this page by accident. Allah — the proper name of the One God in Arabic, the same word used by Arab Christians and Jews for the Creator — Allah knows your heart. He sees what no one else sees. The hunger you cannot name. The quiet ache that money does not touch. The success that should have filled you and did not. He sees you. And He guided you here.

A seed has been planted. You will not feel it yet. Seeds do their first work underground.

Now hear me clearly. I am not selling you anything. I am not pulling you. There is an ayah — a verse of the Quran, which is the book Muslims hold to be the literal speech of Allah — that says la ikraha fi'd-din. No compulsion in religion. The Creator Himself refuses to force a heart. Who am I to push one.

This is a brother sitting across from you with the truth on the table.

The Original Posture of the Soul

A Muslim is one who submits. Not to a man. Not to a culture. Not to a politician or a flag. To Allah alone. The word Islam comes from the root s-l-m, which carries both submission and peace. The peace comes through the submission. A man at war with his Creator cannot rest, no matter how soft his sheets are.

Islam is the original posture of the human soul. Every prophet from Adam to Noah to Abraham to Moses to Jesus — peace be upon them all — brought the same core message. Worship the One who made you. Live by His law. Treat His creation with justice. Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the seal. The final messenger sent to complete and clarify what came before.

Restraint Where You Have Capacity

You can get women. Easily. Numbers in your phone you have not opened in months. That is exactly why you must not.

Hear the logic. Anyone can spend what is easy to come by. Any broke man can sleep with whoever will have him. Any insecure man can collect bodies to silence his doubt. That is appetite wearing a costume. The truly powerful man is the one who could, and does not. The man whose nafs — the lower self in Arabic, the part of you that wants what it wants right now — the man whose nafs is on a leash he holds.

Halal means permitted by Allah. Haram means forbidden by Allah. Sex outside of marriage is haram. Allah created pleasure. He forbids it outside the proper container because He knows what it does to a man. A man who spills himself everywhere has nothing left to pour into one woman, four children, a community, an ummah — the global Muslim brotherhood and sisterhood. Discipline here is concentration.

The gentleness of a man who cannot fight is nothing. The gentleness of a lion is mercy.

You can hurt people. Your hands. Your voice. Your money. Your network. You can crush a man and his livelihood by the end of the week if you decide to. So when you choose to be gentle, that gentleness has weight. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the most physically and politically capable man in his city, and he was known for soft speech, for repairing his own sandals, for sitting on the floor with the poor. That is the standard.

Wealth That Purifies

You have money. Or you will. Generosity is sadaqah — voluntary charity — and zakah, the obligatory yearly purification of wealth at two and a half percent of your savings above a minimum threshold. Sadaqah comes from the root meaning truthfulness, the proof of sincere faith. Zakah comes from the root meaning purification and growth. Wealth that does not move purifies nothing and grows nothing in the man who hoards it.

A capable man who gives quietly, who feeds people without posting it, who covers a brother's rent and never tells the room — that man is wealthy in a way the bank cannot measure. Allah promises that what you give does not decrease your wealth. Test Him on it.

Hunger as Sovereignty

You can eat whatever you want, whenever you want. So fast. Sawm — fasting — the deliberate withholding of food, drink, and intimacy from dawn to sunset for the sake of Allah. Ramadan is the prescribed month, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar in which the Quran began to be revealed. The Prophet also fasted Mondays and Thursdays. A man who can buy any meal in the city and chooses hunger for the sake of his Lord is a man whose hungers no longer rule him. That is rare. That is taqwa — God-consciousness, the awareness of Allah that quietly governs your choices when no one is watching.

Restraint where you have capacity is the signature of the noble man. The Arabs called this futuwwa — noble manhood, the chivalry of the strong. It is strength deployed inwardly first.

What They Told You About Islam

Islam does not ask you to throw your mind away. The Quran commands reflection. Afala ta'qilun — will you not use your intellect. Afala tatafakkarun — will you not contemplate. Allah did not give you a mind to put it on a shelf when you walk into the masjid, the place of prostration where Muslims pray. He gave it to you to use. Read. Question. Test the proofs. The Quran invites scrutiny. It does not flee from it.

Islam is not the religion of angry men on the news. The behavior of some Muslims is not the measure of Islam. The measure of Islam is the Quran and the example of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Judge the deen, the way of life, by its source — not by its worst practitioners. You would not judge a science by its dropouts.

Islam is not anti-woman. The Prophet was raised by his mother and his grandfather. His first believer was his wife Khadija, a businesswoman who employed him before she married him. His most beloved wife after her death was Aisha, a scholar whose narrations form a backbone of Islamic law. Islam restored to women rights of inheritance, consent, property, and divorce centuries before the West considered them. Read it for yourself. Do not take my word and do not take CNN's.

Islam is not against pleasure, wealth, beauty, strength, or ambition. It orders them. It places them under Allah and tells you what they are for.

The Path

You learn to say la ilaha illa Allah, Muhammadur Rasulullah. There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger. This sentence is the shahada, the testimony of faith — the door. You say it with understanding and meaning, and you become a Muslim. That simple. That heavy.

You learn to pray. Five times a day. Salah, the prescribed prayer, the structured worship that anchors a Muslim's day in submission. Dawn, midday, afternoon, sunset, night. It is short. It is physical. It is the spine of the deen.

You learn to fast in Ramadan. You give zakah when you have wealth above the threshold. You make Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, once in your life if you are able. These are the five pillars. The frame on which the rest is built.

The rest is character. Sabr — patient endurance. Sidq — truthfulness. Adl — justice. Ihsan — excellence, doing what you do as if you see Allah, knowing that even if you do not see Him, He sees you.

The Man Allah Is Calling You to Be

This is the man Allah is calling you to be. Capable, restrained, generous, gentle where gentleness is rare, fierce where fierceness is needed, fasting his body and feeding his soul, married in the way Allah ordered, raising sons and daughters who will not need therapy to undo him, leaving the world heavier with good than he found it.

Allah knows your heart. He always did. The fact that you read this far is not random. The seed is in the soil now. What you do next is between you and Him.

I will not chase you. I will not flatter you. I will not pretend the path is easy. It will cost you everything you currently use to keep score, and replace it with something heavier and quieter and more real.

You know what to do. The question is whether you will do it before your last breath or after.

Choose.

Stay Close

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