Ramadan Recap Pt II -- What I Read, Saw & Wore

Salam=)

The last post was about my overall feeling for this year's Ramadan. This one is going to be about what I did, and how I lived, during the month.

Books first.


1. The Noble Qur'an. I've never read it in its entirety, I got to about a third of it, but I could already tell it's amazing! I really felt like I had a connection with it, every time I opened the Book to read it, I would always find something for me there. Intellectual and spiritual food, all in one. Insane! This definitely motivated me to try and read it more=)

2. Rubâi'yât by Mevlana Jalal-ud-din Rumi. This book is a collection of quatrains which deal with the author's experiences that have paved his spiritual path. What Rumî talks about in this poem is Love. What can I say, it's for the people of the heart, very inspirational and moving <3



3. The Anthology of Repentance by Imam al Ghazali. This book is an extract from Ghazali's Revival of the Religious Sciences, which is, in my opinion, a must-have! I've borrowed it from someone once, I liked it so much, I honestly did not want to give it back. So the book deals with the ins and outs of tawba. Can I say I love Imam al Ghazali? He always provides the reader with detailed, organized and clear data. Also, he has this sense of urgency, he shakes you up! I love how he urges you to think about what you're doing with your life and to rectify whatever is wrong before it's too late. Talk about a wake-up call!

I wish I could've read more books, but like I said, I didn't have enough time to. On to the Web discoveries!

As usual, I've spent quite some time on my computer. But since it was supposed to be all about the deen, I tried and focused on that. Here's a list of a few people/channels/websites I've discoreved and learned a great deal from:

1. IslamOnDemand. A YouTube channel that I randomly came across. It features various talks/classes from several shaykhs- men as well as women- and great info for newbies/people who want to learn about specific subjects.

2. Sylviane Diouf. A French and Senegalese academic, researcher and writer whose area of study is the African diaspora, with a focus on the Atlantic slave trade and the presence of African slaves in the US. She conducted several studies showing that: 1. the people who were made slaves were not stupid, bone-in-the-nose savages; 2. millions of US slaves were Muslims; 3. a lot of them remained Muslim during their captivity; 4. a lot of them were organized while in the US. I found out about her through Hamza Yusuf, and I'm REALLY glad I did.

3. Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch. A 20th century French orientalist, translator, writer, professor, and poet. Born and raised in a Christian environment, she started questionning her faith. She later converted to Islam after reading Mohammad Iqbal's The ‎Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. Fascinated by Rumî- to the point where she would actually be buried next to his mausoleum in 2008, she then dedicated her studies to the Afghani poet, becoming a specialist on the topic. A very inspirational woman, whose spirituality shone through.

4. RadicalMiddleWay. A great website offering quality info for a variety of speakers for all over the world. For the people of heart only=)

5. Usama Canon. This is what you call a cool cat! He's very learned and humble, but he's keepin' it real at the same time, and I love it!

6. Music. Islamic music, that is. I found out about some good artists. These songs I listened to during the whole month- I still do now. It's like ear candy and dhikr at the same time, who would say no to that?

I might be late on Sami Yusuf, but better late than never!

Let's talk about clothes now=)

I spent 99 % of Ramadan at home, so I opted for casual clothes. The clothes I LIVED in were melhafas, which are traditional Mauritanian outfits [check out the 'My Hijab Story Tag' picture]. I'm not going to expand too much on that, all I'm going to say is they're very convenient and comfy=)

There you have it, a complete Ramadan recap! Now we're back to our regular schedule, with OOTDs and all. See you^^

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