When life gave Halima Ashfaq lemons, she decided to make lemon juice. It was December 2024, and the 28-year-old chemical engineer was at a crossroads: she had recently resigned from a job where she had negative experiences as a visibly Muslim woman in a male-dominated industry and did not have another job lined up.
While her faith in Allah was unwavering, she had reached a point where she had no idea what she should do next.
Her mother, too, had just come off the back of a difficult period in her life, and Halima thought to herself, what they both needed was some spiritual upliftment and comfort — not comfort in the sense of a bunch of flowers or box of chocolates, but something that would speak to their souls and help them navigate difficult times.
While scrolling through her Instagram feed, Halima came across a woman in the United States who offers a monthly poetry mail subscription, and she instantly fell in love with the idea.
She researched online but could not find an Islamic equivalent. At that moment, Halima knew what she needed to do.
From a two-week idea to a global Islamic mail subscription
"I thought to myself, ‘If no one's doing this, then I'm going to do it,’" she tells The New Arab.
"Because I wasn't working, I thought I had no reason not to pursue this. I decided to launch my own Islamic mail subscription while job hunting and trying to find out what my next career move was going to be," Halima adds.
"I gave myself two weeks. In those two weeks, I had to come to grips with creating a website, designing a logo and managing subscriptions, and Alhamdulillah, I just figured it all out. I launched The Deen Dispatch in January 2025 and have since grown it slowly. It has grown into something that I'm so grateful for. And since then, I've hired my mum to help me because I just can't run it without her."
The mother-and-daughter duo recently marked their first anniversary running their 500+ strong Islamic mail subscription.
Each month, Halima curates a bundle that includes a spiritually uplifting letter she pens, alongside watercolour prints, calligraphy, stickers, Quranic quotes and illustrations, all delivered by snail mail.
The aim is to provide readers with spiritual comfort, inspiration and joy, with heartfelt reflections that help them connect with their faith, carrying those words with them as they go through the motions of everyday life.
In the year since launching, Halima’s subscriber base has expanded beyond the UK, and she now mails her dispatches internationally.
"Each month, I pick a topic that's close to my heart. I've always been told that I'm good with words and at explaining things," Halima says.
"I get my inspiration from lots of different places. It could be conversations with friends and family, a lecture I've watched, a book I've read, or something personal that I'm going through. This Ramadan's dispatch is titled 'The yearning for Ramadan: An opportunity to shape the rest of the year’, and it is about making the most of the holy month."
She adds, "One of the things that I love about The Deen Dispatch is that I've been able to collaborate with so many Islamic creatives, such as calligraphy artists, poets and painters."
Halima recently re-entered the world of engineering, and so working on The Deen Dispatch is a creative break from her day job.
She works on the content in the evenings and on weekends before going into production for a full week mid-month, with subscriptions sent out in the last week of each month.
In this digitised era of short-form videos, streaming services, apps and e-newsletters, a mail subscription carries with it a renewed sense of novelty.
The quiet revival of handwritten mail
Amid fears that letter-writing was becoming a lost art, Gen-Zers have been making this form of correspondence popular again, with a study in America finding that 48% of Gen-Zers send mail one to two times a month.
It is the personal act of writing and receiving letters, which Halima says is popular among her subscribers.
"One of the biggest things that people say is that receiving a letter in the post hits differently," says Halima.
"There is so much amazing Islamic content online, and we can get into the habit of just scrolling past stuff. With this, it is physically delivered to you; you have to open it, sit down, and read it. The response I often get from people is, ‘This came to me at the right time.’ People have also said that my dispatches have been helpful with Quran journalling."
The subscription box industry in the UK is booming, valued at £1.8 billion in 2025, with 27% of that coming from letterbox subscriptions like The Deen Dispatch.
The excitement lies in waiting patiently each month for your subscription to be posted through your door, rather than the instant dopamine hit you get when you purchase a product online with next-day delivery.
However, the cost of The Deen Dispatch, at £7.50 per month for UK subscribers and £9 for those outside the UK, just about covers Halima's production costs, proof that while indeed the subscription is a product, the intention behind it is not profit.
Although scores of people have encouraged her to add other products, Halima says she has no plans to expand it yet, reiterating that she wants it to remain accessible and affordable.
"My main aim is for it to reach as many people as possible. It's important to me that people benefit from it, that it brings them comfort and joy and closer to their deen," she explains.
"One thing that surprised me is I get a lot of people who subscribe who aren't yet Muslim, but they're considering becoming Muslim, and they use my dispatches to learn more [about the deen]."
While Halima is not currently looking at expanding her subscription box, she says she could definitely do with a bigger workspace. "I would love to have a little Deen Dispatch studio, because right now I have taken over the dining room and kitchen," she laughs.
The Deen Dispatch costs £7.50 per month for UK subscribers and £9 per month for international subscribers. To find out more, visit the website.
Yousra Samir Imran is a British-Egyptian writer and author based in Yorkshire. She is the author of Hijab and Red Lipstick, published by Hashtag Press
Follow her on X: @UNDERYOURABAYA