Ramadan Reflections, Day 11: Following your Calling

If there was ever a time in our generation to fundamentally reassess how we live our lives, this would be it. In the past two years, the universal upheaval in our daily routines and radical 180 degree changes in working patterns caused by the global pandemic have prompted a not insignificant self-searching about what it …

Ramadan Reflections, Day 10: Walls and the Universe

I am alive. Alive. I wake up in the morning and want to get out of bed. The day doesn’t seem threatening; it’s a space I want to be in. Ramadan is acting as an anti-inflammatory and de-risking my day. I feel like I am in a recovery home, a retreat, where slowly I am …

Ramadan Reflections, Day 6: Curves and Edges

My (re)discovery of the Qu’ran was catalysed by deep sorrow and loss. The kind that melds to you and becomes a second skin you wear for the rest of your life. In those early days, when it feels new and unwanted and you’re screaming to pull it off, there is a madness which needs to …

Ramadan Reflections, Day 5: Recitation

The recitation of the Qur’an in its original Arabic is highly reverenced by Muslims. I can’t help but think that part of this esteem is attributable to the spread of Islam to lands and peoples for whom Arabic was not the native language, and who showed their dedication to their faith by learning not only …

Ramadan Reflections, Day 4: In The Mosque

Time passes before this happens. It is an unusual occurrence, but no longer ten years unusual, more like months unusual. But on this day I am exhausted from a day of worldly fun and chaos, and I am drawn to come here to take some rest and worship. The doors to the women’s entrance glide …

Ramadan Reflections, Day 3: Praying Alone

It is rare that I go to a mosque to pray. A period of more than 10 years passed before I stepped foot in a mosque again to pray. Memories of being reprimanded on how I pray and having a chair placed over me while I was in sajadah was an effective deterrent for a …

Ramadan Reflections, Day 2: While I’m Waiting

I have not started this Ramadan the way I thought I would. I have been caught short finding out I am not quite as healthy and strong as I thought I was. It has brought me to a state of despair, and depression is not new for me. I just thought I had it under …

Ramadan Reflections, Day 1: Dances

Ramadan Mubarak. This precious month is here again. Ask any Muslim what date in the Islamic calendar it is and about 20% will be able to answer you with some accuracy. Ask them when Ramadan is coming, and it will be about 100%. Ramadan is the month which makes itself known even before it arrives, …

Eid Mubarak! And…my Eid gift

There is a word in Urdu that is wonderfully rich in meaning: 'barkat'. It means 'abundance', or 'bounty'; 'plenty'. Somehow, I always associate it with the Divine, for God is the source of all abundance. That is the Eid we have had: one of barkat and joy. Eid is characterised by fun, food, and festivities. Children …

Ramadan Reflections, Day 29: Farewell…

Part of the adventure of Ramadan is the benign drama around when Eid will fall. Although the lunar cycle can be scientifically calculated with razor-sharp accuracy, most Islamic scholarship has maintained the traditional view that the new moon must be sighted with the naked eye - within certain conditions - before Eid can be announced. …