From the Editor's Desk – COVID-19 Ramadan Prep & How We are Supporting You in April
Community
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Apr 1, 2020
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3 MIN READ
Dilshad Ali
editor
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As salaamu alaikum and hello everyone!
Wow. March was a long month, the likes of which most of us have never witnessed in our lifetimes. We started out the month hearing about the coronavirus in China and then we heard more and more as it reached other parts of the world. We watched Italy and Iran start to succumb and other countries see their own cases emerge, including here in the U.S. It quickly became clear that there was a major crisis brewing when the World Health Organization officially declared it a pandemic.
That was March 11. Two days later in Virginia (where I live), our schools shut down for two weeks. Then it was a month. And now, no more school for the rest of the year. Elsewhere, much of the U.S. workforce, including all of us at Haute Hijab, moved to work-from-home situations wherever possible. Our masajid, including the Haram Sharif (where the Ka'aba is) in Makkah and Masjid an-Nabawi  (the Prophet's mosque) in Madinah, closed for Jumu'ah prayers and daily salah.
All the talk was about "flattening the curve," staying at home and social distancing. By the end of the month, parts of Washington state, California and especially New York were declared hot spots, virtual war zones, with healthcare professionals on the front lines in the fight of their lives. For all of us, a new, much more isolated and scary "normal" emerged as the way of life.
My dear friends, I wish I could offer platitudes to make you feel better. But we will all feel what we will feel, living so many different kind of lives and emotionally managing a variety of things. What I can tell you is that here at Haute Hijab, we are in this with you  body, mind and soul. We have spent countless hours forging a path forward to help you with your new realities and finding ways to support our communities and each other with helpful, fun, informative and sincere content.
With that in mind, here's what we have coming up for you in April:
1. A plethora of content to help you prepare for a Ramadan the likes of which most of us have not seen before. How can we come together to create community when our mosques are closed? What can virtual iftaars look like? Can one pray tarawih prayers at home? How do we bring more kushoo (focus and humility) to our prayers? What are some ways to decorate and prepare our homes for Ramadan? We will be exploring all these topics and more.
2. Some of your favorite products are coming back to the site! (I can't tell you exactly which products, but judging from the huge excitement when these first dropped, you're going to be happy!) Also, we are bringing you something brand new that you'll enjoy having for Ramadan!
3. Continued stories and articles to help you adjust various areas of your life to staying at home. In March we talked about working from home, homeschooling tips, how to spring clean and recycle your hijabs, creating prayer space at home and how to pray Jumu'ah at home. We will continue to explore more of these topics in April, including ways you can help healthcare professionals on the front lines. (Learn more about how you can sponsor a hijab to donate to them!) Buy a hijab for donation here!
We don't ever want you to feel alone in this. I too am scared and sad at times. There has been a tremendous amount of upheaval in my children's lives. My in-laws, who should've been back home with us by now, are currently stuck in India. My husband is a doctor on the front lines of all of this. It is a lot. But the way I see it is, there's no other way but through this.
We are not always meant to understand what Allah's (S) reasons are in everything that happens, but we are asked to trust Him. That's all I can do. That's all you can do, too. 
Remember each other in your du'as. Stay at home. Social distance. Call your loved ones. Facetime! Set up a Zoom meeting! Donate to good causes. Support health care workers. Give yourself and your family a break. And like I tell my kids all the time, may we all be good, make good choices and say Bismillah-hir-rahman-nir-raheem.
Editorially yours, Dilshad
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