Wandering Dervish

Camissa: The River That Remembers Us Heritage Month Reflections on Water, People, and Becoming The Forgotten River Beneath Our Feet Before there were streets and buildings, before Company Gardens and canals, there was water. It rose from the springs of Table Mountain and came tumbling down in streams, gathering into what the Khoi called Camissa — the place of sweet waters. For centuries, this…

🏴‍☠️ When the Pirates Wear Uniforms How empire sails in suits, and what it means to row in resistance. 🔰 Intro There was a time when pirates came with cutlasses and black flags.You saw them coming. You heard the war drums.But today — the pirates wear uniforms. Or suits. Or diplomatic smiles.And while their ships sail under the banner of freedom, the wake they leave is full of oil, fire, and…

Koesister Mentality: Sweet Spice, Survival, and Sunday Mornings More Than a Doughnut The koesister is not just fried dough dipped in syrup. It is a Cape Muslim archive you can taste: slavery and spice-routes folded into flour, patience stitched into the rise, mercy poured as syrup, and community dusted on like coconut. On Sundays in Cape Town, this is how memory is served warm. From Chains to…

Joburg Remembers Too: From Gaajah to Burdah Florida North – A Birthday Gaajah The room was warm with family and remembrance. Qur’ans lay open, voices moving together through Yāsīn, Mulk, the Quls, verses of Ḥashr and Baqara. Then came the Asmāʾ al-Ḥusnā, dhikr in chorus, and a duʿā that softened every heart. It was called an Arwaag, but as my friend Shakeel Garda reminded me, this was really…

In Our Veins, In Our Graves: Mawlud and Memory A Season of Scent and Song Every Rabiʿ al-Awwal, Cape Town breathes differently. The air is heavy with sandalwood smoke, the sny of rampies, the melody of the Riwayat al-Barzanji. Children once practised their lagu at home, correcting one another — because to sing the Prophet ﷺ was to sing him beautifully. Even cutting lemon leaves became…

The Good Word as a Good Tree Planting knowledge, remembrance, and companionship in the soil of hearts It began not with my own notes, but with a gift.A reflection carried to me from a dars (lesson) of Shaykh Allie Khalfe — may Allah preserve him — through the words of his student, Masooda. What reached me was not information but suḥba (companionship in transmission). It felt as if a branch had…

The Prophet in Our Veins: On the Scent, Sound, and Song of Cape Devotion Introduction: Rabi al-Awwal and the Living Presence Rabi al-Awwal has arrived — the month in which many commemorate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. But beyond the formal gatherings and public sermons, there are other ways his presence is felt. This blog reflects on three threads of remembrance: the Prophet ﷺ as a…

Fast-Forward into the Institute, Returning to the Circles A week with the IslamicText Institute and Azzawia’s living tradition It was a whirlwind week — Arabic on Tuesday, fiqh on Wednesday, Kitabush Shukr on Sunday, and Mawlood practice at Azzawia to close. What began as a fast-forward plunge into the Institute ended as a return to the circles that have always held the rhythm of Cape Town’s…

In the Circles of Azzawia From Sunday’s Kitāb al-Shukr to Monday’s Minhāj al-Ṭālibīn, tracing the chains of Shāfiʿī knowledge, the whispered wisdom of teachers, and a daily breeze of remembrance. Azzawia Masjid, Walmer Estate – a cornerstone of Cape Town’s Shāfiʿī scholarship and spiritual tradition. Sunday Morning – Chains of Knowledge, Wings of Mercy Last Friday, Al Ameen, my swaer, took me…

✨ A Door Opens: The Story Behind Rabbānī Creative Studio There are doors we walk through without noticing, and then there are doors that change the way we see.Rabbānī Creative Studio was one of those doors. It began as sketches and fragments, growing into a space that felt less like a business and more like a miḥrāb — not just a niche in the wall, but a place to face what matters most. Every…

The Stormborne Sisters: A Karoo Creation Tale Introduction In the heart of the Karoo, between silence and stone, stand three koppies known simply as the Three Sisters. But long before GPS and road signs, they were not just hills. They were memory, myth, and warning. This is their story — reworked, reimagined, and returned to light. The Legend In the time before breath, before bone, before the…

Before Three Sisters: A Road Interrupted, A Heart Opened We left Johannesburg in the early light, bound for Worcester — a journey that would return me not only to a familiar valley, but to a story still unfolding. I climbed into Deem’s bakkie at 6:20am. The air was still soft with sleep, but the weight we carried was real — a dinghy boat hitched behind us, and cement bags packed into the back to…

The Garden of Words The Origin of Rafiq al‑Bunduqia Before there were scrolls, there was silence. Before the baseball cap, the side-eye, and the wisecracks,there was something softer — a garden. Not of vegetables or vines, but of words:words whispered, weathered, watered by prayer. I wrote this piece years ago as a meditation on growth, loss, and language.Only now do I realise:this garden…

The Keffiyeh Is Mightier than the Cape Among the Tents, Beyond the Frame: Reimagining Heroism in Gaza He no longer flies.He walks.With dust in his lungs, and truth on his chest.📸 Visual by Rabbānī Studio – 2025 They called him the Man of Steel.But in Gaza, they make heroes out of dust, cloth, and resolve. In a world saturated with capes, franchises, and box office saviours, we’ve released a…

The Boy Who Waved Back: Remembering Riefaat Hattas of Manenberg Young activists of the Call of Islam, Manenberg, 1980s.Riefaat Hattas, second from top right, stands among friends and comrades — a generation brimming with laughter, courage, and purpose. [Pic: Yunus Mohamed] Manenberg: Where Struggle Learned to Laugh There’s a photograph from another time — a car crowded with boys and brothers,…

Between Distance and Closeness Walking the Path of Al-Fātiḥah Sh. Seraj Hendricks speaking on Al-Fātiḥah at Janet St. Mosque in Florida, Johannesburg. 3 Nov. 2013 [Pic: Muavia Gallie] Surah Al-Fātiḥah, the Opening Chapter of the Quran, holds profound significance in Islamic practice. It serves as a fundamental prayer for guidance and mercy, recited in every unit of Muslim ritual prayer…