About Me

I grew up in a Palestinian-American Muslim family that loved doing jigsaw puzzles. I have many fond memories of the hours we would spend laughing, crying and deepening our connections as we sorted and connected pieces. As a child, I thought of puzzles as games, but I have come to realize that I learned much more than how to assemble pretty pictures. Yes, they improved my patience and logic, but they imparted something much more important that I did not become aware of until recently. Doing puzzles taught me how to organize, not only the pieces, but also my thoughts. There is something very grounding for me about the feel of a puzzle piece between my fingers, the smell of the cardboard, and the visual impact of the colors. As a person who often gets lost in my own head, I have found puzzles to be physical tools that can facilitate meditation, mindfulness, and prayer. Because puzzles have helped me so much on my religious journey, I was saddened to find that there are very few puzzles that display images that are meaningful to Muslims. After unsuccessfully trying to find Islamic puzzles for years, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I started Salamat Puzzles with the help of my family to provide puzzles with Islamic themes, because I was tired of feeling unseen by an industry that has had such a big impact on my life. My hope is that our puzzles will allow others to experience the same joy, family connection, deepening of faith, and sense of calm that puzzles have granted me.