Author: mzabteam

Tawakkul (Trust in God)

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What will it do to swallow the night when the heart of a bird will carry you? Fluttering, leaning against the sky, drumming against your chest and reaching for a rope. Searching for an oasis like Hajar. These eyes are weary. But the water always flows. Hands calloused-breaking and breaking is a rough enterprise. All you have been through-I see you. Gazelle eyes, blinking under the shade of a Lote tree, the same wisdom you seek to fall upon you is within you. Next time hold back before you curse the dust, the future lies in the rubble – this is how God works. Silence ensues in the stillness of the amphitheater, the curtains part, this is your act. Spotlights blink on against a Saharan night. This time uproot the antennae coiling longer than your body, tissue skin is reaching to refract the light, words which knew their decree before you tumble from your mouth. All the while inside you, the heart is migrating skyward. Soukeyna Osei-Bonsu is a poet and writer based in London. She …

The Moral Judgement of Butterflies: K. Eltinaé in Conversation

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In this interview MZAB speaks with poet and writer K. Eltinaé on his newest collection of poetry ‘The Moral Judgement of Butterflies’ available to purchase here . Our conversation explores his upbringing, culture and the creative process behind writing and creating. Tell us more about yourself, your upbringing and what informed your creative literary pursuit? I grew up in a very scientific family, the third of four kids so kind of middle child. I felt drawn to performing arts and music, while my siblings were more athletic and I guess where traditionally most family members followed in the footsteps of what came before them, I strayed early on and found a community outside my family home where I would disappear for hours on end besides of course the Public Library. My father was big on wildlife documentaries and obsessed with traditional homeopathic medicinal herbs and plants and gardening. I grew up with a mathematician of a mother who had a very critical eye, pouring through newspapers after work with her glasses perched on her nose …

Vanguard of Exploration: Farha Bi on the Road

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Close that voice down in your head that’s telling you to prepare for a little bit longer or that maybe it’s not right at the right time and just do it. Farha MZAB magazine caught up with Farha Bi also known as Brown Girl on a Bike. Farha is based in Birmingham with Kashmiri roots documenting her cycling adventures through her Instagram page @browngirlonabike. We interviewed Farha about her culture, upbringing and key moments during her travels. What is your full name and what does it translate to? My name is Farha Bi and it means Joyful Woman. I think its root is Farsi but is found in Arabic and in Urdu as well. Bi is a common surname for women in South Asia, although I recently learned it’s also used a lot in China, with a different meaning.  Tell us more about your upbringing. What were the departure points, which shaped who you are today?  I am a brummie at heart, living in Birmingham until I was 18. I am also Kashmiri with both  …

The Conference of the Birds

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“The ocean can be yours; why should you stopBeguiled by dreams of evanescent dew?The secrets of the sun are yours, but youContent yourself with motes trapped in beams.” Farīd al-Dīn ʻAṭṭār, The Conference of the Birds

Blazing a Trail: Amira the Wanderlust

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Amira the Wanderlust is an adventurer in every sense of the word. Hiker, explorer, mountaineer and expedition leader as well as founder of the adventure group ‘The Wanderlust Women’, she is the contemporary Argonaut rekindling a modern take on the 15th-17th C age of exploration. Much like the anthropologist, Amira travels from region to region discovering and documenting – the only catch being that Amira is a cultural force within herself. Donned in a hijab and niqab (face veil) Amira looks starkly different to the collective imagining of a contemporary explorer. In a global society from Macron’s France and his sanctions against the hijab to the female Iranian resistance to forced/ imposed hijab, Amira is emblematic of audacious courage, existing with neither tensions as her point of reference but rather her religion and her desire to explore our home that is earth, being her guiding principles. Captured on Instagram traversing the valleys of the Lake District, the terrain of Ben Nevis or paddle boating in a National Park all while maintaining her religion and her …

O To Live! To Build a Quiet Life: Deep Time, Eschatology and the Anthropocene

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ANTONIO. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage, where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one. GRATIANO. Let me play the fool! ~The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare The centre, for many, seems not to be holding. Turning and turning in the widening gyre, it appears that we homosapiens have lost our way. The darkness has dropped a thousand times over and still we ignore the tensions between our profound purpose and the brevity of life… On a blue-skied afternoon in London, against the backdrop of a chorus of birdsong and the murmuring happenings of a leafy suburb, I embrace the concept that despite the socially constructed stratification of what is and what isn’t considered the ideal life, there is no real hegemony or hierarchy in one’s approach to and experience of it. To me, to live means to cultivate a quiet life. To engage with the world around us, to build meaningful relationships and to practise the avocations that make us feel most like ourselves. How …

The Moonlit Cabin

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after Izumi Shikibia and Nizar Qabbani Dew kissed ferns unfurl in silence. Sea relentlessly blankets shore. How many times will I betray, only to find myself in this mountain’s shade? You watch as I fade into forest. The earthly scent of cedar stirs longing. My every footfall, in any direction, can only lead me back to you. What gentle hearth this stillness is,  nestled in your arms again. Wind and rain reduced to memory Caressing this cabin’s windowpanes. Nothing, Save the full moon’s light  Can reach me here. it’s all ephemeral except the One Rooted in the rainy Pacific Northwest, Efemeral’s multilingual written verse and spoken word performance entwine reflections on faith, language and the human psyche. Her latest English works have been published in the anthology, “A Kaleidoscope of Stories” published by Lote Tree Press. She has pieces in anthologies by Rumi Center for Spirituality and the Arts and was also published in The Puritan’s 2019 issue, “What Does It Mean to be a Muslim Writer?”. Her Arabic poetry is currently featured in the …

Stuck in Traffic Salawat

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اللهم صل وسلم على الذي يسعى إليه كل من ضل السبيل عدد أنوار القوافل والراكبات وعدد المسافرين ‏والقادة فمن تمت رحلته جوار الحبيب فقد رزق في رحلته بكل ما أراد we who have lost our way pray: Ya Allah, send Your Peace and Blessings upon our Compass our Northern Star  our Drinking Gourd  as many times as there are lights  leading caravans and cars headlights and stars and as many times as there is light on the faces of travelers and wanderers for we know, whosoever concludes their journey by his side has reached a destination  sought by every guide it’s all ephemeral except the One Rooted in the rainy Pacific Northwest, Efemeral’s multilingual written verse and spoken word performance entwine reflections on faith, language and the human psyche. Her latest English works have been published in the anthology, “A Kaleidoscope of Stories” published by Lote Tree Press. She has pieces in anthologies by Rumi Center for Spirituality and the Arts and was also published in The Puritan’s 2019 issue, “What Does It Mean to …

In Conversation With Ahmad Ikhlas: On Dub Poetry, Faith and Travel

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“The first step is intention. Once that foundation is established then the balance will naturally follow.“ Read on as we catch up with Ahmad Ikhlas, an international dub poet, reggae and garage musician who draws on his Jamaican heritage and his British upbringing to form a unique style of music and poetry, used in praise of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). We are curious to know more about what led you to being a dub poet, reggae and garage artist? Could you tell us more about your developmental experience and the influences that shaped you to do what you do today?I grew up listening to reggae in it’s various forms Rock steady, ska, dancehall, lovers rock revival etc. I guess it’s part and parcel of growing up in a Caribbean household. This genre had a strong influence on my style and delivery as a Garage MC which came as second nature and something I unconsciously perceived. I’d perform weekly on Pirate Radio stations and in clubs. When I became serious about practising my faith I gradually …

An Interview with Sabah and Muneera of ‘Black Muslim Women Bike’

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MZAB magazine caught up with Sabah and Muneera exploring their outdoors initiative ‘Black Muslim Women Bike’. Read on as we explore the minds of these two adventurers and the inspiration behind this initiative. Who is behind Black Muslim Women Bike? Muneera: Black Muslim Women Bike started almost by accident, I started cycling just before lockdown when advised to do so by the doctor due to an on going injury I had from running. I was told I need to build muscle and I may never be able to run again which was devastating because I had been running on and off since about 2014 when my friend Nisa Ali come to visit me in the UK and told me about a triathlon she was training for. I was looking for ways to keep fit, I can’t swim, I didn’t have a bike, so running seemed like the easiest thing, all I needed was myself. So when the doctor told me that, I thought at least I can try cycling. Good thing, in terms of timing, …