Halaal love guru tells it like it is

Tattooed and foul-mouthed, Thanna Alghabban, 31, is a trainee solicitor and director of a modest-wear fashion company.

The Manchester-born vlogger has gained legions of followers on Instagram and YouTube because of her no-holds-barred take on dating as a modern Muslim woman. But she’s also had her fair share of online trolls, calling her “whore” and “hoe”.

She soldiers on. That’s why her brand of honesty is something many can relate to. Alghabban has proclaimed herself the halaal-dating guru because she believes no one is as candid as her when it comes to dating, sex and divorce.

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Marry a guy with a beard, because a man that’s patient enough to grow a beard has enough patience to deal with your bullshit

A post shared by Thanna Alghabban(@xh11jab) on Oct 23, 2018 at 9:39pm PDT

She should know. She met her husband through the online dating platform,Tinder. They were married according to Islamic rights 10 days later. Soon Alghabban was pregnant. Their joy was short-lived - a few months into their marriage, she was left a pregnant widow.

Alghabban has turned her grief into a tool to help other Muslim females with advice. She has more than 28 000 subscribers to her YouTube channel (xh11jab) and her number of Instagram followers (about 54 000) is growing steadily.

“A lot of the stuff I talk about is from experience; I’ve got a lot of wisdom to share and there’s a need for it,” she says. “Don’t tell me it’s haram (forbidden). Whether you like it or not, girls date guys.

“I’m just here to shed some light so that girls don’t make even more mistakes to put them in even more haram.”

The dating world is fraught with minefields, so dating as a young Muslim can be even more complicated. There are strict rules surrounding relationships and sex outside marriage, which could explain why Alghabban has garnered herself a cult status in the younger Islamic community.

In one of her more popular vlogs, she gives a straightforward account of what to expect on the wedding night, saying she doesn’t think much importance is placed on sex within a marriage “because of this stigma that we have of it growing up”.

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My thoughts when so called haram police attribute all of my faults to me being a Shia. 😂😂 #sitbackdown and maybe read up on what being Shi’a ACTUALLY means from a source that is not wasabi-approved (it’s really not that deep nor is it that fundamentally different from being Sunni.......and I’m sorry to break it to you but Shia aren’t classified as kufar if you were to actually go by Islamic guidelines, nor do we just “go round tattooing our naked prostitute bodies” 😭😭😭- and yes that is a real comment I have received via DM)

A post shared by Thanna Alghabban(@xh11jab) on Sep 10, 2018 at 2:25pm PDT

She has tips for creating a profile on Muslim dating apps to increase your matches: filtered pictures are a big no-no, make an impact with your short greeting and add the serious info in the longer description.