START | Hello

I'm Liy, and I am here to be the ancestor of my dreams.

I begin by invoking the Beloved, Most Gracious-Compassionate, the Source I am loyal to above all.

I am a knowledge worker and AuDHD tropical cryptid foraging for narrative resources in Southeast Asia. I am here to be the strange Muslim ancestor of my dreams. This site is where I play with communicating lifelong learning to tend to our attention spans. Everything I post I try to keep as evergreen as possible. Before the 2020 global pandemic changed everything, I was co-organising community spaces for queer feminists to befriend the Qur'an together. I also started a zettelkasten notes system that I still use today. While sheltering in place, I co-wrote the love letter I've always wanted to make, The Signs In Ourselves. These days, I cultivate this pocket of the web in my free time, and curate collections of essays, tools and stories saved for others in between work hours. Every thoughtful reader is an honour.

"Across the ages, humans have left evidence in the form of relics about orienting themselves towards something Sacred, Ultimate, or Holy Other." - amina wadud

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I keep a place to return to whenever you remember it, hopefully with your tea of choice. Some house rules:

🧿 A human being always wrote it. There is no space for generative 'AI' here, just my messy flesh and blood crafting these transmissions slowly as an act of care in between other obligations. Stay for the opposite of themed auto-playlists, polished people-pleasing text, eerie unreal images that interrupt our recognition of what is human in each other.
🧿 I choose what I write about here, and I do not write for everyone. I do not value 'producing content' to maximise popularity or profit. What I use this space to do is practice acts of service with the intention of helping others feel less alone and more oriented in their solidarity.
🧿 This is not the space or the time to defend theologies and ideologies of domination and exclusion. The world is not improved with narratives of rejection that bully and isolate using reactionary panic and shrunken views on life. While you are a guest in my garden of free time, let's keep as many possibilities open as we can for a world with less domination and exclusion in it, not more.

[BASICS] My comfort Quranic bookmarks

Spirit Garden

At this point, God is mine: Notes where I practice being the Muslim ancestor of my dreams.

All posts in Spirit Garden

Notes Garden

All posts in the Notes Garden

Future Garden

Essays practicing for later, formed from the alchemy of different reading notes.

All posts in Future Garden

Imaginary Garden

Short stories, flash fiction, role play, possible and impossible timelines.

All posts in the Imaginary Garden

Poem Garden

All posts in the Poem Garden

Tea In The Garden

Personal transmissions and creative nonfiction.

All posts in Tea In The Garden

[VALUES] My compass

[FAQ] "What do you mean you're ______?"

[SHELF] My working library

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Liy is a Southeast Asian Muslim knowledge worker and poet sharing what they learned from the periphery to prep for precarious futures. This is an ad-free space outside of the algo. If you're new here (hello!) or need a refresher, start here for house rules. Here is what I am up to now. I spend time thinking out of my zettelkasten notes system and sharing playlists of curated treasures from my time travels. Consider subscribing for free to read more and stay in touch— I only send out letters a few times a year. If you valued something here, tell me over DM (if we have access to each other) or tip this cryptid with a message— that sends a clear signal of appreciation ✨

Site icon: Iconathon. Typefaces: Sora and Montagu Slab.