We Are Building Something
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ
"Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves."
— Qur'an 13:11 — Surah Ar-Ra'd 13:11
As we move through Caribbean-American Heritage Month, we want to remind you: you are not just honoring a history — you are making one. Every Muslim woman in the diaspora who shows up authentically, who tells her story, who builds with her sisters, is laying a foundation for the generations that come after her.
This ayah is often read as a call to personal responsibility — and it is. But the classical scholars read it as something even larger. Ibn Kathir noted that the 'nafs' referenced here is not only the individual soul but the collective self of a community. Change — real change, lasting change — begins in the interior: in how a people understand themselves, value themselves, and see themselves in relation to Allah. This is why intellectual and spiritual growth is not self-improvement. It is communal liberation.
The Tradition of Muslim Women Building Institutions
Fatima al-Fihri founded the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco in 859 CE — considered the world's oldest continuously operating university. Nana Asma'u, a 19th-century scholar and daughter of Usman dan Fodio in West Africa, built an entire educational movement for Muslim women that stretched across the Sahel. These are our intellectual foremothers. Halaqah Tingz stands in their lineage: a space where diaspora Muslim women build knowledge, build sisterhood, and build a future that belongs to them.
Questions to sit with this Jummah
What has to change in you — not in anyone else — for the community you want to exist to become real?
What knowledge are you holding back that your sisters need? What would it take to share it?
How do you want to be remembered by the generation of Muslim women who come after you?
A few ways to grow this week
Write down one vision for what the Muslim diaspora community could look like in 10 years — then take one small step toward it today
Learn about one Muslim woman builder: Fatima al-Fihri, Nana Asma'u, or Zora Neale Hurston's lesser-known work on Black spirituality
Invite one sister to your our next halaqah who doesn't know she belongs there yet — she does
You are not just a recipient of this tradition. You are a builder of it. May this Jummah fill you with the clarity, courage, and community to keep going. Ameen.
