Category: Inspiration

  • Before Three Sisters: A Road Interrupted, A Heart Opened

    Before Three Sisters: A Road Interrupted, A Heart Opened

    “Some roads answer us back. Even in silence. Even before Three Sisters.” Before we reached the landmark called Three Sisters, something else shifted — a pickup turned into a homecoming, and memory took the wheel. This is a story of roads interrupted, hearts opened, and how a boat hitched behind us became a vessel for…

  • The Garden of Words

    The Garden of Words

    Before Rafiq ever dropped his first scroll, there was a garden of words — planted in silence, grown in love. This is his origin soil.

  • The Keffiyeh Is Mightier than the Cape

    The Keffiyeh Is Mightier than the Cape

    In Gaza, not all superheroes fly. Some livestream truth. Some carry bleeding children. Some send plastic bottles filled with rice. And some — like the mother stirring a pot that is almost empty — hold the line with nothing but dust and devotion. This post is not about comic books. It is about subverting myths,…

  • The Boy Who Waved Back: Remembering Riefaat Hattas of Manenberg

    The Boy Who Waved Back: Remembering Riefaat Hattas of Manenberg

    He was the boy who waved from the embassy window, the brother who made us laugh at rallies, the servant who built bridges inside City Hall as he once did on the streets. Riefaat Hattas carried the scars of struggle — but also the joy of belonging, the courage of standing out for justice, and…

  • Between Distance and Closeness: Walking the Path of Al-Fātiḥah

    Between Distance and Closeness: Walking the Path of Al-Fātiḥah

    Al-Fātiḥah is not only recited — it is lived. This reflection invites the reader to walk each verse across the terrain of the body, mind, and heart. From the right brain’s imagination to the atria of the heart, the Opening Chapter becomes a sacred map of presence and return. Inspired by a teaching from Shaykh…

  • Our Inheritance: The African and Islamic Civilisations That Shaped the World

    Our Inheritance: The African and Islamic Civilisations That Shaped the World

    Discover the hidden contributions of African and Muslim civilisations to science, education, culture, and daily life — from algebra and surgery to universities and the fork itself.

  • The Mother Tongue of Tasbih: Afrikaans, Islam, and the Echoes of Resistance

    The Mother Tongue of Tasbih: Afrikaans, Islam, and the Echoes of Resistance

    “Os wiet dat ’n taal is ook ’n houvās.” We know that a language is also a holding — like a salomie wrapped in a roti: not to preserve perfection, but to keep the inside warm. Spiced, sacred, messy, surviving. This blog is my offering — a prayer for our tongue, our tasbīḥ, and the…

  • Comfort of Our Eyes…

    Comfort of Our Eyes…

    In a world where sermons often speak to the youth or about parents, this khutbah speaks for the child. Inspired by the memory of Jayden-Lee Meek — an 11-year-old who died under tragic, preventable circumstances — this reflection draws from the Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ tenderness towards children and confronts the silence that allows harm to…

  • The Forgotten Tongue of Remembrance

    The Forgotten Tongue of Remembrance

    A rare Cape relic — the Ratib al-Haddad handwritten in Arabic script, with Afrikaans transliteration in the same sacred calligraphy. A language of remembrance once shaped in the shadows now returns as a light for generations.

  • The Legend of the Silver Tree

    The Legend of the Silver Tree

    “Not brought by botanists. Not named by settlers. But gifted by a porcupine, Planted by Gubi and Nori, Rooted in fire, story, and seed.” A tale passed down through generations — from mother to child, from silence to word. Set beneath Table Mountain, this is the story of the Silver Tree, the river Camissa, and…