The Millennial Muslimah

                In a “modern society” we’ve come into what we call the “Millennial Generation”.  Millennial’s are a generation that was born in the early 1980’s to the early 2000’s. We are generally marked by our increased knowledge in communications, media, and digital technologies. There is an increase in a liberal approach to politics, economics and the concern on the effects our fast and high demand lifestyles have on the environment. Everything revolves around e-commerce and social media where “insta-fame” has become the means to many millennials career choices and success. We seek to change what our forefathers failed to with our passion to serve a purpose and make a difference. I find all of this quite amazing, but unfortunately the down side of this, is we are a generation that is more lost than ever. We all want to be noticed and the numbers of Instagram followers we have, make us feel important. With everything being  accessed  by our fingertips one would think our world would seek a more selfless and meaningful life, but instead many of us are being sucked into a self-righteous, self-absorbed society that allows our nafs (ego) to rule over our rhoo (soul, spiritual self).  We’ve become consumers; sheep to the corporations who want to tell us how to act, what to wear, and how to look. Our millennial generation has the highest atheist statistics than ever before which is leading our generation to find purpose and servitude elsewhere. Many of us alter our beautiful faith to simulate to society to be “cool” without considering the repercussions. Although I believe positive will manifest from this generation, we may find many of our fellow Muslim sisters wondering where they belong and what they believe in. The beauty of this dunya is more tangible than ever and our Muslim sisters are finding more comfort in the recognition of their peers rather than the pleasure of our deen. As an ex YouTuber of almost five years, all of this comes from my personal journey. After years of simply trying to be a part of this “Muslim Hijabi Blogger Community”, I was finally able to see beyond the dunya it offered.  I than made the choice to find ways to please Allah subhana wa ta ala and avoid becoming just another product of my society.

 Social media today is dripping with beautiful people, talented artist and individuals sharing their lives. Men and women alike become famous with hundreds of thousands of people following them. People want to know what their wearing, what kind of makeup they use, what their eating and doing with their families on the weekends. It’s almost as if these individuals have become the new age famous. They are accessible to their “fans”, and can offer a more personal connection. Because of this, people are now looking to YouTube and Instagram personalities for their role models. Multibillion dollar industries have seen the influence these “normal individuals” have on their “following”. They send millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise out monthly so they will promote their products to increase sales. If a famous YouTuber advertises something, that product may be sold out within hours or days. We ignorantly create a society of consumers. Our Millennial generation unfortunately thrives on attention and the feeling of importance not realizing we may not be as positive of an influence as we had hoped. Many of us will say it’s not our intention to be popular, and certainly not a role model. But unquestionably this is what occurs. We unintentionally create jealousy and despair to hundreds or thousands of girls who desire our life and what we have. So at times may create a society of ungratefulness, doubt and confusion. We try to convey that we don’t care about our sponsorships and or our “subscriber” count, to deem ourselves noble and humble simultaneously, but deep down we do. We try to show kindness while enduring hateful comments. For most young women who become a part of this lifestyle, they only end up falling deep into it, where it becomes their life, their career, their purpose. They numb themselves from others opinions and build a wall to shield their emotions. No matter how we try to rectify our intentions and who we are as individuals it is extremely difficult for people to leave their insta-fame. We may have clarity one day and the next be offered to advertise for a company that seems “glamorous”. We are creatures of desire and this allows us to manipulate our thoughts into believing that what we are doing is good, justified and will produce no harm to ourselves and those around us. In many respects, Millennial’s find themselves in between a rock and a hard place. On one hand we want to be independent, empowering and self-expressive, but we also want to be better human beings, to create change, peace and unity. One creates arrogance and keeps us from taking criticism or advice and the other creates humbleness. We must choose or become hypocrites to our beliefs and what we aspire to promote. So we give in to this world, and justify it as blessings from Allah subhana wa ta ala. I mean surely Allah subhana wa ta ala would not give a sister all this success of the dunya as a test? Ibn Al Qayyim stated that “This dunya is like a shadow, run after it and you will never be able to catch it, turn your back against it and it has no choice but to follow you”. There is no doubt that loving what you do is a blessing. There is no question that earning money that allows your family the luxuries of this life is a gift, but to what extent do we see them as blessings because of halal means, or test due to possible neglect of our fundamental beliefs? Alhumdulillah for everything Allah bestows upon us of good. We must never feel regret and pain for the blessings we receive, but we must reflect on how we got there.

Almost five years ago I started my YouTube channel. I had converted to Islam a year prior and loved watching sisters on there. They made me feel like I could still practice Islam whilst being me; the transitional me from jahaliya into belief and servitude to our Creator.  To this day I still thank many of these sisters, as they helped to inspire my journey to hijab. I could play with different styles of hijab, and have “fun” with my new style. Over the years I even grew friendships with many of the sisters, and find them, for the most part to be kind and sincere. We all have our own journey through this life and my experiences pre Islam up to this point has led me away from the ”glamorous” life of YouTube. When I fell low in imaan my channel grew fast, but when I would pick myself back up and feel closer to Allah, my channel would progress slowly. I used to concern myself with why my channel wasn’t growing, if people liked me or my content. I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t being “blessed” in the way I wanted. I found myself discouraged, with a loss in confidence. It’s not until my last few months on YouTube that I realized it was all a blessing in disguise. Allah had something different planned for me. Im still not sure what it is, or when it may come but I can feel it alhumdulillah.

 We as sisters need to find a way to encourage our each other to come back to Islam, to see the beauty in our deen over dunya.

To be continued…