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Our Ethical Iftar: The Green Deen Challenge
This Ramadan, Tayyib Society and myself teamed up with Green Deen Tribe and joined them for their annual Ethical Iftar Challenge. Green Deen Tribe is a not-for-profit organization that uses practices and teachings based on the Prophetic traditions and sacred Qur’anic texts with the aim of reconnecting to our spiritual selves and state through nature and the environment. Now you are probably wondering what their challenge is all about, well well… The Ethical Iftar Challenge seeks to revive the sunnah of healthy eating and ethical consumption. Its three core principles are to reduce meat consumption, food waste, and the use of plastic. The challenge took place on the 24th and…
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Unani Medicine: Finding a Balance between the Mind, Body and Soul
This article is the first part of Aamirah’s series on Unani Medicine, in which a general introduction to this tradition and the concept of the four temperaments is given. Part two of this series, which digs deeper into the six lifestyle factors, will be published soon. Heralded as one of the great sciences of the Islamic world, Unani Tibb (literally Greek medicine) was practiced and developed from the days of the height of Greek civilization, and successfully reached generations across a wide array of empires in Islamic civilization. A thriving system, leading with a whole-body approach, its ultimate goal was to strike a balance between mind, body, and spirit. Some…
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Wardah Books: Where the Good Books Are
On Singapore’s Bussorah Street lies a flourishing Muslim bookshop called Wardah Books, which has been around ever since owner Ibrahim Tahir opened its doors 19 years ago. His late mother, whose favoured flower was the rose, had always daydreamt of opening a bookstore of her own. Fond of wordplay and layered meanings, he named the shop Wardah (Rose), reminiscent of the Beloved (saws) in Islamic spirituality, and the rose-and-nightingale symbolism in Sufi poetry. Wardah Books’ team of six booksellers provide a temporary home to books in categories ranging from Qur’an studies, fiqh, and sirah, to prayer manuals, sufism, history, poetry, art, children’s books, and much more. The store is also…
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Makar Farms: A Tale of Endives and Yellow Tomatoes
“You take one spoon of balsamic oil, one spoon of mustard, a bit of pepper and salt, and three spoons of olive oil. It’s the perfect vinaigrette.” Mounir Makar, a former banker and economist by background, stands amidst hundreds of celery plants, mini spinach, mixed lettuce, and other leafy greens. They are bathing in water, floating in enormous basins well-calculatedly placed within a greenhouse. We, and the other visitors gathered for one of Makar Farms’ famed Saturday lunches, attentively listen as the farm’s leading man explains how this hydroponic system came into existence. The dressing recipe comes for free, Makar’s wit by nature. “The system is constructed with tools that…
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Meet: Emosha’s Organic Food
Who’s Emosha’s Organic Food? Where did they get the name from? Are they organic? Those are a few questions we had when we first found out about them. For our project on Organic Food Providers we are cooperating with organic farms in and around Cairo to learn more about their supply, their owner and their way of farming. As consumers we find it important to know who’s behind the products that we buy. This creates trust, transparency and it is also the aim of our project. In the following video, the owner of Emosha’s Organic Food is answering some of our interview questions which are part of our research. *Disclaimer:…
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Towards Intentional Communities
I admit. I do not particularly find the greatest peace of mind in the company of others. I am forever grateful for those heartwarming moments shared with family and friends, but my solitude-loving self suffers from a pre-emptive, itchy phantom pain by the mere thought of the loss of so-much-needed long stretches of time by myself. It goes hand in hand with a deceitful feeling of complete independence and self-reliance, which makes, truth be told, little to no sense. Because even though the loner in me yearns for flying solo, the more I look around, the more I see that individualism as a way of being and, even more so,…
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From Cattle to Steak: Know the Source
Living in Cairo for almost two years, I feel a sense of amazement to walk on grounds where the world’s most agricultural civilization ever has lived thousands of years ago. Agriculture was the foundation of the ancient Egyptian economy and was vital to the lives of the Egyptian people. To provide the civilization with food, the Egyptians were dependent on the gift of the Nile—the yearly flooding that left behind a black fertile soil, kemet, to grow crops and raise animals on. Animals, in particular cattle, were used to work the land—trample the seeds, pull the plough, and eat leftover grain—and to provide the Egyptians with food and drink. Agriculture…
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Would It Be in the Spirit of the Sunnah to Be Vegan Today?
As a Bosnian married to a South African, our cultures are not unfamiliar with meat dishes. Akni or biryani is served for Eid or on weddings, and ćevapi is a traditional, Bosnian meat dish. Meat is an integral part of many cultures and religions. But are we overindulging in our meat consumption? After reading Mohamed Ghilan’s blog post on the Sunnah and veganism, a door to reflection opened. If Islam advocates protecting the environment and if today’s meat consumption contributes to an environmental crisis, are we actually practicing the Sunnah by eating meat? What is the Meaning of Sunnah? The core meaning of Sunnah is following the Prophet’s (saws) sayings,…
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The Toil and Fruits of Farming: Wiiwii’s Farm
Blessed are the hands of a farmer who, through his hard labor and devotion, feeds mankind. Wael is an Egyptian farmer. With no previous experience in farming, Wael decided to leave the corporate world behind and, in February 2017, buy a plot of land that today he proudly calls Wiiwii’s Farm. Wiiwii’s Farm is an organic farm adorned with olive and lemon trees, vegetable and herb plants, chickens and goats, and the sound of birds that gives tranquility to the mind, far away from Cairo’s busy city life. Situated off Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, the owner of the farm, Wael Basheer, isolated himself from the metropolis by choice, to start his…
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Muslim Ethical Consumption, and the Way ‘Back’ to a ‘New’ Normal
Blessed Be the Strangers A little over seven months into the Covid-19 pandemic, we are still trying to understand, make sense of, respond to, and perhaps even adapt to our new and unstable environment. Despite our different socio-economic backgrounds, geographic locations, the severity of the pandemic, our work and family situations, and our various privileges, the one thread that ties us together is how we all continue to experience and negotiate both familiarity and strangeness. Our Lives “Post”-Covid There is much that is foreign and unprecedented about our lives “post”-covid, and yet much remains familiar. For many of us, this has been a time to witness firsthand how norms are…
