Muslim aura is real.
I posted this on Twitter the other day and it blew up. 3,400 likes in just a day which for someone with less than 10,000 followers on X is pretty good. People were tagging their friends on Instagram. Everyone related to it.
So what is this Muslim aura thing? Is it just some Gen Z banger that I pulled out from my new software app that writes for you. Actually no but the software is insane and have used it for a few posts before that did numbers. We keep working on it and it keeps getting better and at some point we have to launch it… so I’m just teasing you guys for now…
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I actually wrote the aura post during a gathering I hosted a few days ago. A young 29-year old-Muslim girl walks in to my house at 9pm. She has a brown wooden camel bone tasbeeh (iykyk) in her hand rotating between her fingers. I kid you not every time I meet her, the energy in the room just changes. I don't know how to explain it. I personally automatically feel so much more connected to Allah. It's amazing subhanallah.
Some people aura so strong you can feel it through the layers of internet.
And that's when it dawned on me: you either have it or you don't.
And if you don't have it, you can work your way to it and I’m going to tell you how in this letter. But first, let's talk about anti-aura. I'm just going to sum it up and say: sinning.
When we sin, we actually get uglier (take note womenfolk and I guess menfolk). This is documented about the blackening of faces throughout the Qur’an and scholars of the past. Every sin you commit puts a black dot on your heart [Tirmidhi 3334]. If you repent the dot is wiped clean and if you don't the dots build up. Eventually they cover the heart entirely. Imagine you have so many black dots on your heart then it can no longer reflect light, right? And what the heart (the most important organ in your body) can't reflect, how can your mind or body radiate?
I would say for the majority of people the aura doesn't leak in front of people.
It leaks when you are alone.
What do you do when no one is watching?
So if you want the cool Muslim aura, stop adding dots and start polishing. Here's how:
(1) Pray five times a day on time.
This sounds so basic that I sometimes get tired of saying it online. But I forget how many people (especially in the West) are not praying 5 times a day on time. One of my friends from adolescent years just had a baby (may Allah bless their family). She’s been off her postpartum bleeding for a week now and I asked her, "Oh, did you pray yet?" She said no. It's mind-boggling to me. She'd been done bleeding for a week and hadn't prayed yet.
But some people go their whole lives like this.
This is why I mention it. Pray. On time. Non-negotiable.
How you not going to do the one thing that differentiates you from a non-believer and the one thing that you were literally created for?
(2) Pray tahajjud.
I've talked many times about how this prayer has changed my life. I'm not 100% consistent with it, but when I am… it's amazing. It's the prayer nobody sees. Having a secret with Allah is unmistakable on the face and the energy of someone who prays it.
(3) Have a wird of Qur'an.
Ever since I time-blocked Qur'an every single day in my life (separate from prayer) the benefits have been immense, even just from reciting. Oh and if you actually contemplate on the meanings? It takes you to a whole other level.
You don’t have the discipline yet to recite? Just open the Mushaf and look at it. I also recommend you get a Qur’an teacher to keep you in check.
(4) Do dhikr in the mundane.
Don't just do it after prayer.
Do it while you're cooking. It makes your food taste better by the way. When I was in Yemen in 2022, we would have food delivered to our student dorms. The men cooking our food would literally just do dhikr all day. When we would walk to school, we would see them in their futas and turbans, made out of natural fiber, sitting on these wooden stools with these big pots of food, just praising and glorifying Allah and mixing the foods with these big wooden spoons.
That was some of the best food I've ever had in my life.
It’s the same thing with halal spots in New York City. When you walk into the mom and pop store, family-owned, where the women are all wearing their hijabs and the men greet you with the salam, and all of their workers are pretty much Muslim, their food just slaps. You can taste the barakah in it. You need to experience it. I’m about to order the beef shawarma wrap from Souk al-Shater right now. So freaking good!!! Allahumma barik lahum.
So do dhikr while you're cooking. Driving. Between meetings. On your commute. In line at the grocery store. While you're waiting at a gathering for food. Instead of reaching for your phone, just do dhikr. Have a dhikr ring or tasbeeh in your hand to keep you reminded.
SubhanAllah. Alhamdulillah. Allahu akbar. La ilaha illa Allah.
The one who remembers Allah and the one who doesn't is like the living and the dead. (Bukhari 6407)
(5) Lower your gaze.
This isn't just for men. The Qur'an commands it twice. Once for men (24:30). Once for women (24:31). This is one of the most direct things that builds the light in you. Just by turning away from what isn't lawful to look at.
Summertime in New York City is crazy. There's fitnah everywhere - women walking around with practically nothing on. I mean even as a woman myself… it's a lot for me. I can't imagine what it is for a man. But the gaze isn't just outside. It's also your phone. Don't watch those dancing videos even if you are a woman and its of other women. Not even something as trivial as looking at dog poop on the street… just don't.\
Think about it this way: the greatest gift a Muslim can attain is the ability to gaze toward the face of Allah in the next life. With your very own eyes. Not the way we know it of course.
The believers in Jannah will be shown nothing more beloved than looking upon the face of their Lord. (Muslim 181)
How could you look at bad things with the same eyes you want to see Allah with?
May Allah grant us the ability to see His face.
(6) Talk less.
Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him speak good or remain silent. (Bukhari 6018)
A lot of the aura people have is the discipline of not talking when they don't need to. When you talk a lot, it kills your aura. It's similar to when you obsess over someone online. You really want to meet them. Then you meet them in person and it's like oh, okay, they just a regular person. The distance lets people fill in the gaps with the best version of you they can imagine. So when you come close and they start talking, the built up perception drops.
Same concept. Speak less.
Having Muslim aura is really the byproduct of having a real relationship with Allah and modeling the Prophet ﷺ who had the GREATEST Muslim aura any person can ever have in this lifetime.
Don't chase the aura.
Chase Allah and the Sunnah.
The aura will follow you around.
P.S. If you don't know where to start, start here.
The more you remember Allah, the more conscious of Him you become.
The more conscious you are, the more your aura builds.
And the easiest way to remember Allah throughout an ordinary day is to learn the du'as the Prophet ﷺ already gave us for every moment of one. Getting in the car. Leaving the house. Before sleep. After waking. When you're afraid. When you're grateful. When you're broken.
Most Muslims have never memorized them.
That's what the Everyday Du'as book is. Pocket-sized. Every du'a the Prophet ﷺ taught for every moment of an ordinary day.
Start here if you haven't yet.
Until next time.
مع حبي (with love)
Saufiyah ♡