The Heart of Islam is a Woman
Extremists hijacked Islam. This is our invitation to take it back...to something far older, far wiser, and far more primordial.
The most effective way to fight broken ideas is to offer a better idea. Instead of spending precious time and energy fighting bad ideas, I’m offering a far more beautiful and powerful idea that expands the original container: Islam.
The first published book in a series, The Song of the Human Heart: Dawn of the Dark Feminine in Islam doesn’t create a new sect; it offers a parallel reality — Allah’s Islam.
Reimagining Islam as a ‘Dark’ Religion
Islam is often called a ’dark religion’ by those who have misunderstood the faith. The Dawn of the Dark Feminine in Islam encourages embracing Islam as a ‘dark’ religion. Islam belongs to the realm of the Dark, the primordial feminine aspect of God. The Dark is the other eye of God alongside the Light, across a face of a great divinity that is nebulous and unknowable.
The Song of the Human Heart: Dawn of the Dark Feminine charts several key Islamic historical events through a metaphysical lens that plays with the non-linearity and fluidity that Islam is known for. At every turn, Islam is speaking to a multi-dimensional reality. From the story of migration (the Hijrah) where all the natural world conspired to protect the Prophet Muhammad, to the Satanic verses that created a vulnerability in faith, to the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr) when Islam was revealed to the prophet — the Dark is speaking. The Dawn of the Dark offers a portrait of Islam beyond Man’s Islam, and toward Allah’s Islam — toward an Islam of the Dark that completes the Islamic faith. In his final revelation, Prophet Muhammad shared “on this day your religion is complete.” But through the Dark, our faith is born. Through the dark feminine, the seeds of a 1400-year-old faith are beginning to germinate in the hearts of its women.
The Song of the Human Heart knits memoirs, dreams, mysticism, and plant medicine with history and myth to reimagine what it means to be Muslim. The first in a series of songbooks speaking to crisis points, The Song of the Human Heart dances with Islam’s most chaotic and controversial elements, to create something new by returning to something far older. Everything is pointing to the Dark.
The Song of the Human Heart sets up the foundation for an alternative vision of Islam by introducing a dark Islam, Allah’s Islam, with theologically sound arguments and an alternative storyline that offers a new framework for the fastest-growing religion.
A Calculated Bulldozer to Islamic Fundamentalism
The first time is always the hardest, they say, and this was no different. The Song of the Human Heart: Dawn of the Dark Feminine is a calculated bulldozer to the Islam of distorted masculinity — the fundamentalists, the dogma, the eternal wagging finger of a bearded, robed man.
The Song of the Human Heart is an 8-part anthology broken up into several books. The next set of books covers the Dark Night of the Soul, terrorism, identity, women, childhood, God, community, and silence.
The next set of books is roughly drafted but now needs to be further researched and written throughout the rest of this year, which requires my 100% commitment. This includes researching, writing, drafting, editing, and the cover art. I’ve also begun the marketing leg of the book by lining up some big-name guests for the accompanying podcast with an aim to do one podcast a month. This month, several op-eds are going out, with talking points set up to generate future rapid-fire op-eds responding to relevant trending events.
I think you’ll agree this subject and approach is so important in our world today. Religious extremism in Islam isn’t going anywhere. While we’re momentarily distracted by domestic issues, that which hates will never release its death grip. It’s a matter of time (sooner rather than later) before another large-scale attack occurs. I respect that Islam doesn’t matter to everyone, but everyone is impacted by the chain of cause-effect scenarios that are triggered when a seismic event occurs.
We’re reminded to “Never Forget” after 9/11 happened — and I didn’t forget. Over the last 22 years, this is the sole issue I've dedicated myself to understanding and mastering. It wasn’t enough for me to just say ‘women’s rights’ or ‘extremists are bad.’ That doesn’t actually say anything other than demanding a belief be adopted or fighting a bad idea from the outside. There are some people we will never change, but there is a larger percentage on the fence and an even bigger potential group of allies we can activate and bring into the fold by telling a new story, a different story. We have to show people another way and do that within the language they understand. I explain this further in the book introduction that you can read for free in the Amazon book preview.
The Sacrifice I Had to Make
Last August, I resigned from my 9-5 job as a non-profit communications manager so I could focus on writing this book. It took every ounce of courage and faith to make that leap. It was a huge financial sacrifice but a necessary one. There is no way I can write at this level or do this kind of work without the 100% devotion of time and energy that it requires. I took everything out of me; I didn’t just write this book …I embodied it as I share in The Song of the Human Heart.
If you’d like to support my continued work through the next book, The Song of the Mystery (that sets up the third and major book tackling terror and identity obsessions), there are several ways to help:
Buy the book on Amazon (and leave a positive review).
Offer a donation (re-occurring donations are very helpful too!)
Make introductions to a publisher, an organization, or others.
Subscribe to my Substack.
Share this post on your social media accounts.
I’m going to be honest — I can’t do this without a LOT of help. I’m grateful to everyone who supported me in getting to this point so I could birth this vision.
Thank you so much for your time. I very much look forward to hearing your thoughts as you begin to read. The early reviews have been spectacular with a highly diverse audience of both liberal Muslims and conservative Muslims — and of course non-Muslims including those in the counter-terrorism arena, academia, and those broadly interested in the sacred feminine and expanding human consciousness.
