| Sacred Footsteps

Spiritual Travel

Harar: The Ethiopian City that ‘Becomes Your Teacher’

Asha Ahmad crouches around a symbolic green tomb of Ali Hamdon, one...

Mountain of Mauritania: Visiting Shaykh Muhammad Hasan Ould al-Khadim

It was a blistering hot day right in the middle of the...

Visiting the Wali Songo: The Nine Saints of Java

Upon entering the maqam of Sunan Gunung Jati in Cirebon, one dives...

Sacred Footsteps

Podcast | Cape Town’s Circle of Saints

On the hills in and around Cape Town, you will find 300 year old Muslim graves belonging to notable individuals who arrived on the southern tip of the African continent in chains, as slaves or political prisoners of colonisers. They brought nothing with them, except faith in their hearts and the remembrance of God on their tongues.

Muhammad A Twahir

The Sufis of Kochi, South India

The cultural fabric of Kochi has been elegantly woven by the beauty...

Saints of the Savannah Series: The Punjabi Labourer

Riding through the Kenyan countryside on the modern standard gauge railway one...

Between the Rock and the Baobab Tree: Spiritual Seclusion in The Gambia

Mustafa Briggs on spiritual seclusion in The Gambia The small coastal town...

My Ancestral Past: Visiting the Gilanis in Iran

Listen to the audio version of this article featuring audio extracts of...

Abdullah Sattar

Divine Love and Sufi Poetry of Punjab

Listen to the audio version of this article featuring audio extracts of...

Visiting the Companions of Jordan

Zara Choudhary on visiting the Companions (Sahaba) of Jordan Memory is a...

Hasen Abbas and Hamdi Saadi

The Saint of Harar: Aw Abadir

Walking through the heart of the old city, one may find its...

Tareem, City of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq

Al-Hujeireh mosque sits quietly, nestled among its neighbours, seeking little attention. Walk...

How Meaning is Lost: Social Media and Spiritual Travel

This is going to be the sort of messy opinion piece that...

Visting Bab al Fatuh: Garden of the Saints | Morocco

As soon as I stepped out of the taxi I knew I...

Ramadan in Istanbul

Ramadan is the month of fasting, worship and Qur’an. It is a...

Lamu Maulid Festival: In Pictures

Each year in Rabi al-Awwal, the small island of Lamu plays host...

Visit the Sahaba, Sultans and Saints of Istanbul

A walk through the old sections of Istanbul and one will inevitably...

Hajj: Journey of the Soul

In the days leading up to my departure from my hometown in...

Muhammad Ayaz Ramjaun

The Sufi Saints of Mauritius

Muhammad Ayaz Ramjaun visits the sufi saints of Mauritius White sand beaches...

Wali of the Commoners: The Patron Saint of Istanbul

Abu Ayyub on Aziz Mahmud Hüdayi, the Patron saint of Istanbul The...

Ali Abdelaziz Ben Saad

The Café of Saints: Sidi Bou Said

Sidi Bou Said: Tunisia’s Trendy Coffee Town & its Hidden Sufi Connection...

Muhammad Ayaz Ramjaun

Visiting Ajmer Sharif Dargah: The Gem Of India

For centuries, the dargah (zawiya/tomb) of Moinuddin Chishti, otherwise known as Hazrat Khwaja...

Adam's Peak Sri Pada

Adam’s Peak: In Search Of A Prophet

An audio version of this article, complete with sound from the actual...

yellow-bastion-sunset

Ramadan in Muslim Europe

“Look! It’s Dino Merlin,” whispers the man beside me. A well groomed white...

Medina Baye: A Wayfarer’s Journey Home

One of the peculiar sensations seasoned wayfarers fail to mention, as you...

Sacred Footsteps

How To Visit The Blessed Tree & Other Historical Sites in Jordan

This post deals with one of the questions we get asked most often: ...

Visiting Imam Jazuli and the 7 Saints of Marrakesh

Mohammed Khan on visiting Imam Jazuli and the 7 Saints of Marrakesh...

Fes

7 Places to Visit in Fes

Zara Choudhary on 7 places to visit in Fes, especially as a...

Jummah in Jerusalem

Friday prayers were about to begin; our taxi driver sped through the...

The Blessed Tree: A Divine Reality

A good word is like a good tree whose root is firmly...

Visiting the Sacred Sites of Jerusalem

The erudite spiritual master and saint Ibn Ata’illah, may God have mercy...

Muslims in Vietnam and Visiting Saigon Central Mosque

Zara Choudhary on the history of Islam and Muslims in Vietnam and...

A Mauritanian Retreat: In Search of Murabit al-Hajj

A journey through the Mauritanian wilderness to visit Murabit al-Hajj Night was...

sacredfootsteps

📖 READ: Allamah Muhammad Iqbal: The Theorist of

📖 READ: Allamah Muhammad Iqbal: The Theorist of Muslim Modernity by @saadyacoob via the LINK IN OUR BIO✨

One of the most important thinkers of the last century, ʿAllāmah Muhammad Iqbāl was born in Sialkot in 1877. A third generation Muslim, his thought offers us a basis for building a civilisational movement rooted in the love of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ.

The core question that fueled Iqbāl’s thought was the issue of colonial domination. Iqbāl was born in the British Rāj, a territory that was larger and more populous than its ruling empire.
If the Indian population was to rise up and resist British domination together, British rule would become entirely unsustainable. The question for Iqbāl, then, was the nature of British methods of control and the framework for resisting them.

Intellectually, the British had convinced the Muslims of their civilizational inferiority, and spiritually, the vibrant traditions of taṣawwuf in India, which had once guided emperors and commoners alike, had begun to spiritualise their despair – an attitude that he viciously attacked in his poetry.

Well read in the literary, theological, and philosophical traditions of English, German, Urdu, and Farsi, Iqbāl’s inquiry led him to the realisation that the British exerted control over India as a whole, but especially over Indian Muslims. What one finds in close examination of his thought is an urgent desire to reconcile the tension between what he believes to be Quranic priorities and modern realities – not at a granular level but rather at a core, conceptual level.

By the time of his passing, Iqbāl was considered the most prominent Muslim intellectual in India, and his thought influenced important Muslim intellectuals around the world. His work calls us to take up the divinely ordained role of Islam and Muslims in the world, to cast off despair and don the cloak of hope in Allah’s majestic mercy.

Words: @saadyacoob Video: @mhmal1k

The Malay World and the Ahl al-Bayt Islam arrived

The Malay World and the Ahl al-Bayt

Islam arrived in the Malay world through “good word” and quickly established itself though various kingdoms that would later become centres of learning. Zain al-Haddad (@zainhd) speaks to Syed Muḥiyuddīn Al-ʿAṭṭās about the major Muslim figures in the Malay world and the development of an indigenous Islamic scholarship which was nevertheless rooted in networks of authenticated scholarly chains across the centuries.

🎧 PODCAST: Islam in the Malay world with Syed Muḥiyuddīn Al-ʿAṭṭās | LINK IN BIO or listen via iTunes, Spotify or other platforms.

⭐️Sacred Footsteps is run by a small team of volunteers. It is funded entirely by our followers/readers/listeners. If you enjoy our content and share our vision please consider supporting us financially via the link in our bio ✨

The khalwa (place of seclusion) of Sayyida Nafisa,

The khalwa (place of seclusion) of Sayyida Nafisa, the great, great, great-granddaughter of the Messenger of God ﷺ.

Known for her knowledge and piety, Sayyida Nafisa (ra) would retreat to this spot, then located outside the city (now within Cairo) to spend time in seclusion and worship, as her grandfather ﷺ before her and the women and men of God were known to do regularly.

The place is preserved in her memory, and visitors can go and sit in the place in which she once worshipped. A beautiful scent emanates from within.

“In the remote village of Kiselchovo, tucked awa

“In the remote village of Kiselchovo, tucked away in Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains, a small mosque without a minaret stood quietly, preserving the memory of a little-known Muslim community. I hadn’t come to Bulgaria expecting to find traces of Islamic history, but there it was, waiting to be encountered.”

✍️ Dr Rose Aslan’s (@dr.rose.aslan) latest article on Bulgaria’s Hidden Muslim Heritage is available to read now on sacredfootsteps.com - LINK IN BIO✨

⭐️ Sacred Footsteps is run by a small team of volunteers. It is funded entirely by our followers/readers/listeners. If you enjoy our content and share our vision please consider supporting us financially via the link in our bio ✨

A conversation with @barakablue and @yasmineaismet

A conversation with @barakablue and @yasmineaismet about our forthcoming course ‘Islamic Cosmology’ in collaboration with @rumicenterarts

This 7 week online course in collaboration with th

This 7 week online course in collaboration with the @rumicenterarts, is a deep study of the themes explored in William Chittick’s book Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul: The Pertinence of Islamic Cosmology in the Modern World. Each week we will cover one chapter and discuss the key ideas within it.

Taught by @barakablue, co-facilitated with @zara_choudhary of Sacred Footsteps, with special guest William Chittick.

Sponsored by @meccabooks students will be provided with a discount link to purchase the book.

⭐️ Sign up: via the LINK IN OUR BIO✨

Aql: What is Islamic Thought? This is one of many

Aql: What is Islamic Thought?

This is one of many topics we will explore in our upcoming 7 week online course in collaboration with the @rumicenterarts - a deep study of William Chittick’s book Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul: The Pertinence of Islamic Cosmology in the Modern World. Each week we will cover one chapter and discuss the key ideas within it.

Taught by @barakablue, co-facilitated with @zara_choudhary of Sacred Footsteps, with special guest William Chittick.

Sponsored by @meccabooks, students will be provided with a discount link to purchase the book.

⭐️ Sign up via the LINK IN OUR BIO ✨