| 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

Online Seminar: Plato and the Early Islamic Tradit

Online Seminar: Plato and the Early Islamic Tradition with @joshuabeneventi

This seminar will provide an overview of the transmission of Platonic thought to the Islamic world. There will be a focus on key Islamic philosophers, including al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd and Suhrawardi, and their adaption and expansion of Platonic ideas within an Islamic context.

The seminar is part of our series on the intellectual tradition of Islam.

⭐️ £39 | 3 hour online seminar | BOOK YOUR PLACE: sacredfootsteps.com or via the link in our bio ✨

On the hills in and around Cape Town you will find

On the hills in and around Cape Town you will find dozens of Muslim graves, the oldest of which are 17th century. Some have small domed structures built over them, known locally as kramats, and belong to notable and influential men whose deeds are well-known. But there are many other men, the details of whose lives are only now, slowly, coming to light thanks to the meticulous work of the Cape’s Muslim historians – the descendants of these very men.

📖 READ the full article by @zara_choudhary via the link in our bio✨ A shoutout to @petersen_daiyaan for his invaluable input to this article

Online seminar: The Worldview of Islam with Syed M

Online seminar: The Worldview of Islam with Syed Muḥiyuddīn Al-ʿAṭṭās | Sunday 12th January

This online seminar will present an outline of the fundamental elements and salient features of the worldview of Islam.

Being derived from the statements of Revelation regarding reality and truth, elements of this worldview possess the characteristics of finality and stability, presenting the concept of God, Man, knowledge, life, the world and happiness as interpreted in the Islamic intellectual tradition by theologians, philosophers and metaphysicians.

Challenges to the interpretation of this worldview will also be discussed, both historically and in the contemporary age in the form of secularisation as a philosophical programme. The main guiding text for this seminar will be Professor Syed Naquib Al Attas’ introduction in his Prolegomena to the metaphysics of Islam.

The seminar is part of our series on the intellectual tradition of Islam.

⭐️ £39 | 3 hour online seminar | BOOK YOUR PLACE: sacredfootsteps.com or via the link in our bio ✨

WEDNESDAY 18th DECEMBER✨ Join us for a monthly

WEDNESDAY 18th DECEMBER✨

Join us for a monthly gathering via Zoom, reciting the Ratib of Imam al-Haddad, with reciters live from Tareem and various locations around the world.

The recitation will be accompanied by commentary in English by Malaysian scholar Sayyid Muhiyuddin al-Attas, based on the book by Habib Alawi b. Ahmad b. Hassan b. Imam Abdullah al-Haddad.

⭐️ To participate, use the QR code on the post to join the Whatsapp group, or click on the link in our bio✨

In collaboration with @peacemeal_, @nur.saaadah, Ahlaha, @amanah_hak, Majelis Rasulullah Amsterdam and al-Fath.

Excited to announce our new series of introductory

Excited to announce our new series of introductory seminars covering various foundational topics and key figures within the rich intellectual tradition of Islam.

These classes are intended for students in higher education, as well as teachers, writers, and those interested in understanding depths of the Islamic worldview✨

12 Jan ‘25 | The Worldview of Islam | Syed Mohyideen al-Attas

19th Jan ‘25 | Plato and the Early Islamic Intellectual Tradition | @joshuabeneventi

26th Jan ‘25 | Islamic Historiography: the Development of the Methodology of History | @abuayyubchronicles

15th Feb ‘25 | An Introduction to Ibn ‘Arabi | Dr @ali_z_hussain

22nd + 23rd Feb ‘25 | The Intellectual Thought of Allama Iqbal | @saadyacoob

⭐️ £39 per seminar. Click on the LINK IN OUR BIO to sign up✨ | NOTE: We’ve made the decision to reduce the fee to £39. We aim to keep costs affordable and the seminars as inclusive as possible. Scholarships and financial assistance are available for those who require support. Email us at courses@sacredfootsteps.com to find out more.

“Our Ratib is like an iron wall for every city i

“Our Ratib is like an iron wall for every city in which it is recited.” — Imam al-Haddad

Join us for a monthly gathering via Zoom, reciting the Ratib of Imam al-Haddad, with reciters live from Tareem and various locations around the world. The recitation will be accompanied by commentary in English by Malaysian scholar Sayyid Muhiyuddin al-Attas, based on the book by Habib Alawi b. Ahmad b. Hassan b. Imam Abdullah al-Haddad.

In collaboration with @peacemeal_, @nur.saaadah, Ahlaha, HAK, Majelis Rasulullah Amsterdam and al-Fath.

📖 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