This review was originally published at Muslim Views. Research in the areas of Islamic and Gender Studies often overlap when it comes to the question of women in the Islamic spiritual tradition. What does Sufism offer to men and women seeking out paths of equality and egalitarianism? How does maleness or femaleness influence spirituality, and […]

I hope you enjoyed MMW’s Ramadan series this past month!  If you missed any of the pieces, go to this post and scroll down to the bottom for a list of all of our Ramadan writings. Of course, we weren’t the only ones writing about Ramadan.  Below are excerpts from some of the other reflections […]

  The MMW team wishes you all the best this Eid. May God accept all of your fasts, prayers, and good deeds. Thanks to those who commented on or shared our Ramadan posts! We’ll be back with our normal media analysis coverage this week.

Bismillah. Originally intended to be posted in the start of Ramadan, this post has taken an unusually long time. The first draft was cathartic, yet it took longer to go into depth and dig deeper.  I am left in a position where I unapologetically want to share my truth – a truth that may, with […]

I grew up in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, and when I was younger, my schooling had been a secular as Nigerian schooling can get (which is not really secular at all). When it was time for me to go to secondary school, my mother decided it was best to enrol me in a Catholic […]

Since images often speak louder than words, from this week on I will include every week a news picture, which features Muslim women, with a special focus on women that usually do not receive a lot of “face time”. An image from Iran, where a major earthquake struck last Saturday, starts us off. May Allah […]

“And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” – Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters To a Young Poet, Letter Four (16 July 1903) My earlier post on Ramadan was a nostalgic look back to simpler times, when […]

For most of us, Ramadan has always been linked to achieving spiritual goals, or spending some time with the family for Iftar or Suhoor.  One very special memory that the first day of Ramadan holds for me is beginning to wear hijab, three years ago. I had been thinking of putting it on since I […]

My mother and I are in the kitchen on a bright Sunday afternoon right before Ramadan. Spices overwhelm our shared counterspace as my mother toasts and grinds spices for her garam masala, the ubiquitous Indian spice blend. I’m squishing tamarind pulp that’s been soaking in warm water through my fingers—my mother assures me that the […]

Now that I’ve gotten over my pre-Ramadan funk and am well into the thick of this month, it’s a good time to reflect on how my Ramadan is going. Unlike my expected pre-Ramadan moping, this Ramadan has been anything but predictable; in fact, it’s been downright diasporic. In June I had to make a last-minute […]