Salima
“I care most about helping to create a world in which every single person is provided and cared for, where no one feels like they aren’t worthy or enough. I care about fighting for a world where there is real equity, where we have moved passed the kinds of inequality and oppression that create despair and hopelessness.”
Salima is 35, a PhD Candidate & Instructor in the University of Alberta's Religious Studies Program, a mother of two young boys, and is a psychotherapist and a Canadian Certified Counsellor, having started her own practice, Rahma Counselling & Consulting, where she specializes spiritual care, cross-cultural & interfaith counselling, and feminist work, including postpartum care. In addition to her studies and practice, she is a highly involved in her community. She is actively involved at the University of Alberta, her own Ismaili community, the Muslim ummah, and the broader Edmonton community. Within the Ismaili Muslim community, she is an Alwaeza, which is a scholar, preacher, and spiritual care giver. Salima is also a regular guest speaker on Islam and Ismailism at both community and academic institutions. She has been a board member for various interfaith, Muslim, and feminist organizations and speaks on and participates in a variety of projects and discussions related to Islam, religion, feminism, social justice, and mental health. Her own favourite quality is she cares so deeply. She told me, “my wellspring of empathy never seems to dry up, no matter how tired or burned out I am. It informs every aspect of my life and my work and allows me to always see people more clearly, which is such a gift.” When I asked Salima what her proudest accomplishment is she told me, “a toss-up between becoming an Alwaeza and starting my own practice. Both have been a way for me to actualize my faith and to turn dreams I’ve had since I was a child into reality. I love that I have become exactly the kind of person I would have looked up to as a child – I feel like little me would fangirl just a bit over who I am now, and that makes me so happy.” Salima told me the one thing she knows for sure is “that Allah’s defining characteristic is Rahma, Loving Compassion, which means that everything we do, everything we see, everything we are, comes from a source of absolute, empathetic, love.”
Q&A Feature:
Where is your favourite place to find yourself?
“Home, in my office. We’ve moved around a lot over the past few years but I’ve always tried to carve out at least one space that is just mine, where I keep my books and the things that feed my soul. I’ve been luck to be able to create those spaces consistently, regardless of the constant changes in housing. I also love my jamatkhana – I am lucky to be living in the community I grew up in, and still attend the same jamatkhana as I did when I was young, and there is such a safety and stability in that. It’s a beautiful space, calm and serene, but also full of life and people who support me. I’m very lucky that way.”
What is your biggest hope?
“That my sons will grow up to be good people – that they will respect boundaries, pass the mic, and work for justice, even when that means they get a little less. That they will be empathetic and kind and loving, and that they will be as inspired to be these things by their faith as I am by mine.”
