Welcome to our minority musings
This is where our community shares its favorite readings, stories of food and travels, everyday reflections, and more.
Be sure to check out our series Muslims making an impact, in which we speak with members of the community on their work, journey and sources of inspiration.
Reading this month
Over the coming few months we’ve got our eyes set on the changing labor market, Industry 4.0, and emergent technologies. This month’s theme is all things tech…
Reading this month
Welcome back from the summer holiday season! This month’s theme will be productivity and time management. We’ve picked out just a small few number of books to ease you back into the short remainder of the year.
Reading this month
Here’s a few to put in your backpack as you leave for holiday throughout June/July!
Makkah & Madina: Scenes from a cultural crossroads
It is said that you can only fully appreciate the diversity within the ummah once you have been on Hajj or ‘Umrah. The following are scenes from the final 10 days of Ramadan, just weeks after the Saudi Arabian government lifted all of its COVID-19 restrictions. They capture the richly diverse and diasporic nature of the global Muslim community, and how a shared faith and purpose transcend cultural, linguistic and even geographic boundaries.
Reading this month
Throughout this month of May, we’ve been going through these pile of books!
Muslims making an impact: Taahirah Ghoor
In this feature of Muslims making an impact, we spoke with Taahirah Ghoor who studied in the UK and is from South Africa about her work in the sustainability sector. Originally coming from an Industrial engineering background, Taahirah switched to the sustainability sector and has been helping her city Cape Town manage its waste in more economically and ecologically viable ways. She views her faith and the responsibility of preserving the Amanah, or the resources that Allah has entrusted to us, as an important theme in her work.
Muslims making an impact: Thomas O’Reilly
In this feature of Muslims making an impact, we spoke with physicist Thomas O’Reilly, whose research has been featured by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and on Dutch national media (NOS). His research focuses on developing a more accessible and affordable MRI system for medical imaging, so that people from low resource settings can also benefit from the healthcare technology. From an Islamic point of view, Tom views his work as a chance to potentially leave behind a legacy and build his sadaqa jariya in the dunya.
Muslims making an impact: Cansu Delikaya
In this feature of Muslims making an impact, we spoke with Cansu Delikaya, who was recently featured in a report by regional Dutch media Omroep West. Originally having worked in biomedical sciences, Cansu followed her passion for teaching and founded her own educational centre StudieBinck, focused on remedial teaching for children and youth.
It’s never just about food: Dim Sum & Muslims in Hong Kong
Christine Lee tells us about culinary practices among Muslims in Hong Kong.
Reading this month
In celebration of women’s history month, we wanted to highlight books by these female authors!
Reading this month
Throughout this month of February, we will be burying our heads in the following books!
Reading this month
Throughout this month, we will be reading and offering Our two cents on the following books.
Communities like us
Yasmin Ismail shares her reflections on animals in Islam from Kafue National Park in Zambia.
…“There is no creature moving on the earth, nor a bird flying on its two wings, but they are all communities like you” (Surat al-An’am 6: 38)… as I rethink this verse now, I pause on that line, communities like you. Communities that also worship Allah, that stand equally before Allah like us, that are provided for as we are provided for. That communities like us, makes them fellow believers like us. But what I could not understand then and that I am only beginning to appreciate now is how differently this would shape our relationship with them, if we reflected more closely on this verse.
Reading this month
Throughout this holiday season, we will be reading and offering Our two cents on the following books.
Review: Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam
This book began as a preface or the Muqaddamah (introduction) to a 40-volume work biographical Arabic dictionary of the women hadith scholars in Islam. Expecting to find perhaps 20-30 accounts of influential women, Sheikh Nadwi instead found accounts of more than 8,000 women teaching hadith to men, and women as important teachers and scholars in mosques and schools, women who issued Fatawa, who interpreted the Quran who debated rulers and whose opinions were much sought after by fellow jurists
Review: Cut from the Same Cloth: Muslim Women on Life in Britain
The figure of the ‘Muslim woman’ is all too often in the spotlight, the visual representation of Islam, ‘she’ remains a vague ambiguous figure, one that is written by others, such as the media for others often politicians, media and the wider public, yet Muslim women themselves are never offered a platform on their own terms.
Reading this month
Throughout this month, we will be reading and offering Our two cents on the following books.