4d • General discussion
You Must Come With Both Hands Open
On today’s call, our dear sister Mahdiyah, shared a story from the Sufi book. The Last Barrier by Reshad Feild.
A man leaves his country to seek knowledge. When he reaches the teacher, the teacher tells him:
“You must come with both hands open.”
The man hadn’t.
He had left his business running back home, just in case this new path didn’t work.
The teacher refused him.
Not because business is wrong. But because barakah does not enter divided containers.
And this is where it gets uncomfortable.
Most women don’t keep one hand closed because they lack faith. They keep it closed because of history.
Old trauma that was never completed.
Conversations that never ended.
Pain that was never metabolized.
Intentions that were once sincere, and punished.
So the nervous system learned:
• Don’t fully arrive
• Keep an exit
• Expect loss
• Stay alert
• Stay guarded
Over time, that turns into a posture toward life:
Everything is a scam.
People always disappoint.
Something bad is coming.
I’m on my own.
And then we call this wisdom.
We call it discernment.
We call it being responsible.
But it’s not.
It’s protection pretending to be maturity.
You pray with one hand.
You work with one hand.
You ask Allah for more with one hand.
And the other hand is still gripping:
• the old identity
• the backup plan
• the unfinished resentment
• the past version of you that learned “never again”
Barakah does not respond to effort. It responds to wholeness.
And wholeness requires something most people avoid:
Clean endings.
Not dramatic ones. Honest ones.
If this post makes you uncomfortable, pause. That discomfort isn’t accusation.
It’s information.
Ask yourself... without defending, without explaining:
Where am I still keeping one hand closed?
What am I refusing to finish?
What part of my past am I secretly negotiating with?
You don’t open the hand by force.
You open it by telling the truth.
Fatima
P.S. Thank you Mahdiyah. JazakaALLAH hu khairan.
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You Must Come With Both Hands Open
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