Adli Yacubi

Tag: Inspiration

  • When the Pirates Wear Uniforms

    When the Pirates Wear Uniforms

    When flags become brands and uniforms cloak injustice, we must name what we see: a world where war hides behind legality and theft wears a tie. This blog is a poetic protest against global hypocrisy — from Gaza to gilded offices — and a reminder that resistance still rows quietly below deck.

  • Joburg Remembers Too: From Gaajah to Burdah

    Joburg Remembers Too: From Gaajah to Burdah

    From a family Gaajah in Florida North to the chorus of the Burdah at Houghton Mosque, Joburg’s dhikr carries both intimacy and grandeur. This Rabiʿ al-Awwal, in Heritage Month, I was reminded that memory does not belong to Cape Town alone. It stretches wider — across towns, valleys, mosques and homes — carried in the…

  • In Our Veins, In Our Graves: Mawlud and Memory

    In Our Veins, In Our Graves: Mawlud and Memory

    This reflection flows from my Radio 786 series with Gadija Ahjum — Rooted Light, Series 2. In the month of Rabiʿ al-Awwal and Heritage Month, I write of Mawlud as memory in our veins and in our graves: sandalwood tasbihs from Makkah, rampies leaves cut by children, the riwāyah of Barzanji, and the moment we…

  • The Prophet in Our Veins: On the Scent, Sound, and Song of Cape Devotion

    The Prophet in Our Veins: On the Scent, Sound, and Song of Cape Devotion

    Rabi al-Awwal has entered our skies. In Cape Town, remembrance is not reserved for the minbar — it pulses in the scent of rosewater, in quiet salawāt whispered in traffic, and in songs sung without instruments. This reflection explores three threads of Prophetic remembrance — as a guide in our struggles, a wellspring of longing,…

  • In the Circles of Azzawia

    In the Circles of Azzawia

    From whispered questions in the Haram to the green dome of Azzawia, these are the moments where the old way of learning still lives — teachers in a circle, books open, hearts leaning forward. In Cape Town, the chains of knowledge are not shackles but links that draw us closer to Allah.

  • The Stormborne Sisters: A Karoo Creation Tale

    The Stormborne Sisters: A Karoo Creation Tale

    In the Karoo, three koppies rise like ribs from Mother Earth’s chest — storm-sisters who absorbed a comet’s grief and became stone. This is their myth. Their vanishing. Their voice beneath the silence.

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • A Word That Wounds and Wakes Us: Rethinking “Coloured” in the Age of Memory

    A Word That Wounds and Wakes Us: Rethinking “Coloured” in the Age of Memory

    A reflection on the word “Coloured” — its pain, its power, and its place in memory. This essay challenges state labels, honours creole ancestry, and reclaims identity through the sacred dye of remembrance.

  • 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.