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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…
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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…
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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,…
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In the Circles of Azzawia
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The Stormborne Sisters: A Karoo Creation Tale
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The Garden of Words
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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…
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A Word That Wounds and Wakes Us: Rethinking “Coloured” in the Age of Memory
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Our Inheritance: The African and Islamic Civilisations That Shaped the World
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The Mother Tongue of Tasbih: Afrikaans, Islam, and the Echoes of Resistance
Adli Yacubi 