Iman Saymeh, M.Ed., MSW

12/29/2025

12/29/2025

“Sit with those who talk about ideas, awareness, ambition, goals, and faith, not about people.”

12/10/2025

🌟 Parenting Together: Building Strong Families 🌟

Join me for a heartfelt conversation on teamwork, connection, and raising resilient kids. Can’t wait to see you there!

In-person event | Charlotte, NC

12/09/2025

Grateful for the recognition.
Marymount University

🎓 EdD Student Spotlight: Iman Saymeh, M.Ed., MSW., PPSC Saymeh, Cohort 7 Meet Iman Saymeh, a dedicated higher education professional and proud member of Cohort 7 in Marymount University’s Doctor of Education in Leadership and Organizational Innovation program. Why Marymount? Iman chose Marymoun...

12/02/2025

Q- Salam sister Iman, I came across your page and want to know your opinion about making duaa against someone who wronged me. Is that ok?

A- When we are hurt or wronged by others, whether through family upbringing, marriage, sibling or extended family relationships, friendships, or professional interactions, it is natural to feel anger, sadness, and even betrayal. Acknowledging the wrongdoing and identifying the one who caused the harm is often an important first step in healing. Islam does not ask us to deny our pain or pretend injustice never happened.

However, remaining emotionally stuck in that moment, year after year, can imprison the heart. It can halt your emotional growth, weaken your spiritual maturity, and drain your mental well-being. The world continues to move forward, but the person who remains frozen in old wounds loses the opportunity to grow through them.

Islam fully recognizes the right of the oppressed to call upon Allah against the one who wronged them. Allah says:

“And whoever has been wronged, for him is a way against the oppressor.”
Qur’an 42:41

And the Prophet ﷺ said:

“Beware the supplication of the oppressed, for there is no barrier between it and Allah.”
Sahih al-Bukhari

Yet, while making duʿāʾ against an oppressor is permissible, living in a state of bitterness and waiting for calamities to fall on others so that we may feel compensated or vindicated is spiritually harmful. It closes the heart, fuels resentment, and prevents us from extracting the wisdom and lessons that Allah intended for our growth.

Allah reminds us that trials are ultimately opportunities for purification:

“Perhaps you dislike something, yet Allah places in it much good.”
Qur’an 4:19

And the Prophet ﷺ taught:

“A believer is not stung from the same hole twice.”
Sahih al-Bukhari
This means the believer learns, grows, and becomes wiser, not stuck.

Islam calls us to balance: to name oppression, seek justice, and make dua, yet also to rise above being emotionally imprisoned by what others have done. Healing is not forgetting. It is reclaiming your life, your heart, and your spiritual trajectory. I advice you to see a Muslim mental health provider who can support you with grief recovery.

12/01/2025

*Rebuilding a Reponsible Umma

I believe it is time for us to revive the true meaning of belonging to a Muslim community, ultimately, the Ummah. As a mental-health provider, I meet people from all walks of life, each carrying unique struggles. One pattern I often see is individuals coming in after a divorce, repeating the same comment they heard from community members: “I wish you had consulted with me before you married that person.”

But let us pause here and acknowledge a communal responsibility that we often overlook.

When someone in your community becomes engaged, and you possess important, factual information about either of the partners, information that could genuinely affect the success or safety of the marriage, you have an ethical and Islamic duty to share it, either confidentially with the local imam or directly with the individual involved. Remaining silent until after a painful divorce is neither wisdom nor a way of “saving face.” Islam teaches us to protect one another, not to watch quietly as harm unfolds.

The Qur’an reminds us:
• “Help one another in righteousness and piety, and do not help one another in sin and transgression.” (Qur’an 5:2)
This includes helping someone avoid entering a harmful marriage when you possess knowledge they do not.
• “The believers, men and women, are protectors of one another.” (Qur’an 9:71)
Being a protector sometimes means having difficult but necessary conversations.

The Prophet ﷺ also said:
• “The religion is sincere advice (naṣīḥah).” They asked, “To whom, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “To Allah, His Book, His Messenger, the leaders of the Muslims, and their common folk.” (Sahih Muslim)

Giving sincere advice is not optional, it is an act of faith and love. And in another hadith:
• “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” (Bukhari & Muslim)

If we would want someone to warn us about a potential harm before marriage, we must be willing to give that same care to others.

Many families do their due diligence when considering a proposal, but they may unintentionally miss something. If you know information that could protect them from hardship, you must gather the courage to step forward, kindly, privately, and with integrity.

This is how we rebuild a healthy, compassionate, and responsible Muslim community. This is how we honor the concept of Ummah.

11/28/2025

When Growth Requires Distance

Whenever you face difficulties, whether illness, loss, setbacks, or any kind of pain, your support circle naturally reshapes itself. It’s a form of divine realignment that brings the right, genuine people closer to you. Don’t mistake others’ reactions or opinions as a need for more explanation. Their behavior during your hardest moments reveals exactly where you stand in their lives and how they truly see you. This can include anyone: relatives, friends, in-laws, community members, and unfortunately, sometimes even siblings.

There comes a point where you have to mature, acknowledge what’s been shown to you, and intentionally clear out what no longer supports your growth.

This will speak to you in proportion to how much you value your inner peace and your sense of self-worth.

In Islamic history, nearly every prophet had to step away from toxic environments and harmful influences in order to fulfill the mission they were divinely entrusted with. Their purpose could only unfold once they created distance from what threatened their clarity, integrity, and spiritual strength.