My newest book is “BenchTalk: Wisdoms Inspired in Nature” — a collection of heartfelt reflections, gratitudes, and life lessons by people from all walks of life, young and old, shared in yellow journals—a treasure trove of hope and connection when we need it the most.

“My Baba would say,” Dalia starts but has to hold back tears, “that if nobody’s criticizing you, that means you’re not doing any work.

Kazi Mannan, an immigrant to the United States from Pakistan, owns a restaurant called Sakina Halal Grill, a few blocks from the White House in Washington DC. But the restaurant is anything but typical.

KindWorks is an organization that promotes community and service through organizing daily volunteer opportunities based in the Washington, D.C. area. Underlying this mission is a desire to nurture diverse communities that support one another over time.

We met Fahim the first evening we arrived in Athens. He is a professional soccer player, and used to play for the national team in Afghanistan.

Raghad Bushnaq has been helping people in need in informal ways for at least a dozen years, but when refugees started arriving in the Washington D.C. area in large numbers in April 2016

At a time in this country when even the sight of Arabic writing can make some people nervous, Aadil Abedi, a London-based artist, is launching his Arabic

Today is the 20th anniversary of the massacre in Srebrenica, when more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces.

The questions during the live Twitter chat with the singer, songwriter and composer Sami Yusuf a few weeks ago were pouring in, hundreds every few minutes

Last Friday, as I was waiting, blue-gowned, in the hospital for my bi-annual mammography results, I scrolled through my Facebook feed and saw the tributes pouring in.

Asif Shaikh sits behind his black granite table in his office in Ahmedabad, India, discussing fabrics, colors and designs with the mother of a groom.

Over 1200 people have died in Pakistan in the past week, not from natural disaster or a terrorist attack, but from debilitating heat. Temperatures are reaching 120 degrees

He was taking curious – but evocative – photographs: a pair of eyeglasses of a pashmina weaver; calloused feet working the pedals of a loom; dozens of tillis wrapped

I was staying at a hotel in Queens, and woke up to a phone call from my manager Al Sirowitz. His call was expected; we were going to be working at a recording studio that day.

A young mother, wearing a black abaya over a bright red shalwar kameez, her hair loosely covered and her hands painted with henna, waits in the front office of the boys school at Edhi Village

Dozens of magazines are scattered across the table in the kitchen of the Wilkins Avenue Women’s Assessment Center in Rockville, Maryland. Four white refrigerators

In one of life’s strange twists of fate, a failed climber becomes a great humanitarian. Salma Hasan Ali tells the extraordinary story of Greg Mortenson and his passion to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Todd Shea is an unlikely savior. But the people he helps don’t care that he was once a crack addict—or know that they’ve also been saviors to him.