A Special Message to my Muslim Sisters
When you scroll down your Instagram feed and see others – don’t compare yourself to them. Embrace your natural beauty and never feel like you have to compete with someone else, or don’t ever feel as if you need to make any alterations to yourself in order to look like them – because something we over look is the fact that filters are often used on images to create an illusion. This idea of “perfection” is a myth. The idea of looking like a certain person needs to eradicate from our minds because this will only lead to self-destruction. We do not need to look “flawless” 24/7, and we don’t need to portray ourselves as something that we truly are not, just to please followers and others using a social media platform. Embrace yourself. Embrace what the Almighty has blessed you with.
Personally, I have spent hours scrolling through my Instagram feed, and I come across certain public figures posting images of themselves relentlessly, and the comments such as “goals” made me realise how social media is killing reality. We’ve become so obsessed with how we need to look, and it’s almost as if we live for the approval of others as opposed to the approval of our creator. We don’t need to look up to the likes of the Kardashians, nor do we need to imitate how someone else looks in a magazine – because really and truly, even the girl in the magazine doesn’t look like the girl in the magazine.
We’re living in a digital age, people are using filters, Photoshop, and other ways to edit themselves like there is no tomorrow- and they can’t see how they’re living in a self-destruct mode. Beneath the layers of contour and highlighter, lies a beautiful person – yet it’s hardly ever seen. Thousands, maybe millions of people feel inferior and worthless purely because they feel that they do not meet society’s standards when it comes to how they appear physically. They feel that if their eyebrows aren’t on “fleek” or if their highlighter isn’t “popping” then there is something wrong with them… how saddening.
Let’s not ignore the fact that most of the public personalities that girls are looking up to have undergone countless cosmetic surgeries to look that way. From having their jawline chiselled to look a certain way when they smile to lip fillers and other enhancements – none of it is real, but YOU are real, and that’s what matters. Stop focusing on what x and y look like, but focus on yourself, focus on real happiness, focus on the real things in life. Beauty fades – your spiritual and mental growth is far more important.
So, please don’t feel the need to change yourself to impress others, because you can’t impress everyone, and if you really want to make someone happy – please the Creator, not His creation.
When you look at yourself in the mirror today, tell yourself that you are beautiful, and remember no one, no one at all has the right to dictate how you should look.
With Love,
Another Sister