01/08/2026
Back in the UK after the most incredible 7 week family adventure. It’s hard to pick just one picture to summarise what it was like, but I picked the one of us inside the pink mosque, because it was all because of Allah SWT’s mercy that we were able to do this trip. There was so much that had to happen , His timing for all of this to align.
I always said that when we had our second child, we’d do shared parental leave and go on a very long trip. So when I fell pregnant, that’s exactly what we started to dream about. I even started an AI consulting side hustle, which allowed me to cover most of this trip’s expenses and again, that would not have been possible without Allah SWT blessing us with rizq.
However, around October last year, Hamza’s job came under threat when a redundancy process started at his work, and we weren’t even sure he’d have a job, let alone shared parental leave. But again, Allah SWT protected his role and we were fine. Then the pregnancy progressed, and that came with its own complications. But the fact that Ayah was born in March 2026, and Dua was starting school in September 2026, meant we had a very small window to travel, once Muslim Tech Fest | 📍LDN 2026 had passed and Ayah had turned three months. So we booked our flights before she was even born.
Then the Middle East war kicked off, and we were flying Qatar Airways. Again, we had no idea if this trip would go ahead, and we didn’t really have any room to reschedule it either. We prayed and hoped for the best, and alhumdillah, things calmed down. In fact, when we landed in Doha, the British government removed the “do not fly to Qatar” recommendation too, and so began the most beautiful trip, alhumdillah.
As I sit and write this on the plane, all I keep thinking about is how grateful I am to Allah SWT. I don’t feel deserving of it, especially as someone who often rushes her prayers and does the bare minimum. But perhaps I live this blessed life because of the barakah of the community work, and the duas of my mother and the community. Alhumdillah x a million
