Community Chat

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

 🔴PLEASE READ THIS FIRST🔴

THIS VIDEO HAS ALREADY BEEN VIEWED BY OVER 250,000 PEOPLE ACROSS MULTIPLE PLATFORMS IN JUST FEW DAYS. I’M SHARING THIS MESSAGE HERE, IN THIS QUIETER COMMUNITY SPACE, BECAUSE I BELIEVE IT DESERVES TO BE READ WITHOUT NOISE OR DISTRACTION, NOT LOST IN THE THOUSANDS OF YOUTUBE COMMENTS.

I WRITE NOT AS AN OUTSIDER, NOR AS SOMEONE WHOSE FEELINGS WERE SIMPLY HURT, BUT AS A MUSLIM WHO DEEPLY LOVES THIS DEEN, WHO HAS STUDIED ITS PRINCIPLES, AND WHO UNDERSTANDS THE SERIOUSNESS OF PUBLIC DA’WAH.

ONE PARTICULAR LINE IN THE VIDEO GROUPED TOGETHER VERY DIFFERENT ACTIONS, SOME OF WHICH ARE CLEARLY FORBIDDEN IN THE QUR’AN AND SUNNAH, AND OTHERS WHICH REQUIRE NUANCE, COMPASSION, AND UNDERSTANDING. I FEAR THAT SUCH GENERALIZATIONS, WHILE WELL-MEANING, COULD CAUSE REAL HARM TO PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY IN A STATE OF INNER STRUGGLE AND SINCERITY TOWARD ALLAH.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING, THIS IS NOT A RARE CASE. EVEN AMONG A MAJORITY-MUSLIM AUDIENCE, THE NUMBERS TELL US THAT DOZENS, IF NOT HUNDREDS, OF PEOPLE AFFECTED BY THIS TYPE OF MESSAGE HAVE SEEN IT. MANY OF THEM MAY BE SILENTLY STRUGGLING, STILL ATTACHED TO FAITH, STILL MAKING DUA, STILL TRYING TO FIND THEIR WAY.

TO MY KNOWLEDGE, I MAY BE THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS BOTH THE EXPERIENCE AND THE RELIGIOUS GROUNDING TO EXPRESS THIS WITH BALANCE AND CARE. I SAY THIS NOT FROM PRIDE, BUT FROM A DEEP SENSE OF ACCOUNTABILITY, TO ALLAH FIRST, AND THEN TO THIS UMMAH.

Dear Lily,

First of all, I want to say that I truly appreciate your work. I’ve followed you for a long time and have supported your initiatives, including your Gaza fundraiser, and I genuinely admire your passion and effort in spreading Islam in a way that resonates with many hearts.

However, one line from your recent video left me in tears.https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SBNvBHSOPY0

Not tears of anger – but of quiet sorrow. You said:

That sentence grouped together very different realities. And for someone like me, it was deeply painful to hear. Faith teaches us to distinguish between sin and struggle, between rebellion and reflection.

Zina, alcohol, and gambling are clear and destructive sins, they harm both the soul and society. They are choices rooted in desire, negligence, and defiance of divine guidance. But there are other realities in life that are not acts of indulgence, rebellion, or sin, but rather deep struggles that a person never asked for, that test the soul and expose one’s sincerity before Allah.

 All of those acts you mentioned — zina, alcohol, and gambling — are explicitly forbidden in the Qur’an and Sunnah, their prohibition is clear, repeated, and undisputed. But when it comes to questions of identity and inner struggle, the only related narration is the hadith where the Prophet ﷺ cursed men who imitate women and women who imitate men. Yet this refers to deliberate mockery, deception, or the pursuit of sinful desire, not to someone striving with sincerity to understand themselves and to live in peace with how Allah created their inner nature.

I’m a Muslim woman. I’m also transgender. I didn’t choose to “play with gender.” I walked through fire to become someone better, to soften my heart, and to live a life closer to Allah. Before my transition, I struggled. I was harsh, distant, far from the person I wanted to be. Since beginning my transition – with full awareness of Allah watching me – I’ve become someone more sincere, more patient, more humble. I left many sins. I started praying consistently. I cry in sujood every day now.

But please understand this clearly:I do not believe I was born in the wrong body. Allah does not make mistakes. He is Perfect in His creation. What I believe is that Allah, in His infinite wisdom, created me in a way that would force me to struggle – to search, to reflect, to break my pride. If I had been born content as a man, I might have become arrogant. If I had been born as a biological woman, maybe I would’ve been vain and selfish. But this middle path, filled with hardship and confusion, made me grateful and small before my Lord.

I also want to make it clear that I haven’t chosen this path in pursuit of a relationship, marriage, or worldly validation. Quite the opposite – I accepted that by transitioning, I might be giving up any chance of having a partner in this life. And if that is the price I must pay for what this journey has done to my heart – for the peace, the sincerity, the closeness to Allah – then I accept it fully. Being a woman is not about desire or romance for me. It’s about living in alignment with the soul Allah shaped within me, even if that means walking alone.

So when someone puts me – and others like me – in the same sentence with zina, alcohol and gambling, it feels as though our sincerity is being erased. And I know you didn’t mean it with cruelty. I know your intention is to protect the values of our deen. But I wanted to share this perspective, because maybe it can soften a corner of your heart the way Islam softened mine.

We are all trying, Lily. And your da'wah has helped me too. But I hope that in this vast ummah, there can be space for people like me – who may walk a harder path, but walk it toward Allah with trembling hearts.

May Allah guide us all and make us gentle with each other.

With love and sincerity,

Mirjana