To see what else is going on, check out www.foodrevolutionday.com.

The challenges of change…

It is with a sense of awe and gratitude that I sit down to write this editorial. For this is no ordinary issue of SISTERS: this month, SISTERS Magazine will have been in existence for five years! Allahu akbar! When we started out with our crazy idea for a little online magazine for Muslim women, with zero funds, seven children, two countries of residence and not a lick of magazine experience between us, my good friend and beloved sister, Umm Zakariyyah and I really didn’t know what we getting ourselves into. But we soon realised that we had taken on an ambitious and demanding project, one that would require all the energy, focus and determination we had to give – and then some!

In the past five years, we have seen sisters who have always wanted to write join us as newbies and go on to write for a wide variety of other publications, Muslim and mainstream. We have seen our writers administer blogs, publish books, start businesses – and have several more kids! The members of the core team have celebrated no less than five births between us, masha Allah!
With the assistance of Allah SWT, we’ve enabled sisters to earn halal income from doing something they love and, in the process, we’ve made connections with wonderful sisters from around the world. We’ve learned, shared, laughed and cried together.

Over the five years that we have been publishing SISTERS, the magazine has seen many changes, as those who have been with us from the beginning will testify: design and designers; topics, writers and editors; websites and branding – not to mention moving from bimonthly online to quarterly in print, and monthly in print to our new, larger sized glossy monthly.
I don’t mind admitting that none of this was anticipated from the start: we didn’t have a five year plan that described these changes and their effects in detail. But we had hopes, we had ambitions and dreams – and Allah SWT was Merciful and gave us the strength, will and support to keep going, even when the going was tough and the changes threatened to overwhelm us.
Throughout it all, we kept the faith: if there is khair in this, Allah SWT will not let us fail.

Today, the magazine you hold before you is a product of the blood, sweat and tears of many Muslims around the world, brothers and sisters, over the last five years. And through it all, we have held on to the same dream: for SISTERS to be a magazine that empowers Muslim women everywhere to live lives of purpose and faith, to truly become the best Muslimahs we can be.
That has not and, bi’idhnillah, will not change.

However, as we strive to shape the magazine and respond to the challenges of a tough economic climate, we have indeed made some changes to the magazine, changes I would like to share with you as our beloved readers.
There are some changes will have been obvious to you, even before you opened this page: the monthly magazine has put on weight and is now the same size as the old quarterly issues. We have more articles, more writers and are tackling more topics in a greater variety of ways – we hope that you will be as excited about this as we are!
You may also notice that we’ve brought more advertisers on board, advertisers we hope you will benefit from and offers we sincerely hope you will take advantage of. By supporting our advertisers, you are helping the magazine to continue producing high quality content, looking after our wonderful writers, editors and designers, and, ultimately, building a brand that will last another five, ten, fifteen or twenty years, bi’idhnillah! The subscription price is now a true reflection of the cost of producing and shipping the magazine – we hope that the different payment plans we have devised will help make the transition easier – plus the goodies we plan to offer in the coming months!

I felt it necessary to be open with you, our loyal readers, in the hope that you will appreciate this honesty and understand why we are doing what we are doing, and that you will continue to support us, to remind us when we forget, to advise us when we err and to celebrate our successes with us.

I pray that this issue is one of reminder, benefit and joy for every one of you. For returning readers, I hope you enjoy this issue as much as you have enjoyed any other. For our new readers, we are delighted to welcome you as part of our SISTERS family – ahlan wa sahlan!

Wishing you love, forgiveness and salaam,

Na’ima B. Robert

PS. Please do not hesitate to write in to me in response to this editorial or any other article in the magazine – I would love to hear from you. Email me on editor@sisters-magazine.com

Celebrating 5 years of SISTERS!

We are led on the journey of a lifetime to the city of Mecca – the pilgrimage known to Muslims as the Hajj. The pilgrims walk with heads bare and feet in sandals; they call to Allah; they kiss or point to the Black Stone, as the Prophet did. Arriving at Mecca, they surge round the Ka’aba, shave their heads and travel to Mount Arafat. Finally, though their bodies are tired and aching, their spirits are uplifted, knowing that with thousands of others they have performed the sacred pilgrimage.

This is a window on to a sacred journey for Muslims the world over – beautifully described and illustrated for younger children.

“An excellent way to encourage young children to understand the importance of going to Mecca, and to gain an insight into another faith.” – Parents in Touch

Buy now

Binding: Hardback, 32 pages
ISBN: 9781847801531
Format: 270mm x 214mm

Getting a new book published is very much like welcoming a newborn baby. A sense of wonder and tremulous pride accompany both occasions: is this really my baby?

The publication of my second picture book with Frances Lincoln, ‘Going to Mecca’, is mixed with another set of emotions: nostalgia and longing.

Nostalgia because I remember vividly where I was when I first wrote the prose poem that ended up in the pages of a children’s book: it was over five years ago, when a dear friend of mine had come back from the Hajj. She loved it and said that it accurately depicted the sights, sounds and emotions of the pilgrimage. Back then the piece was entitled ‘Walk with a Pilgrim’.

Longing because, up until now, I have not had the privilege of making Hajj. But reading this book, savouring the lovely illustrations and reliving the journey, I find myself hopeful once more that I will receive my invitation to Allah’s house very soon, bi’idhnillah.

In the meantime, share the book with your little ones – and the big ones too!

Warm thanks to Valentina Cavallini who did a wonderful job with the illustrations – and to my editor, Janetta Otter-Barry. Here’s to many more!
N.

Buy Going to Mecca from Amazon.co.uk HERE

As I look around me
The pain makes me flinch –
So many faces
Their features
So familiar,
Etched on the walls of the memory,
By shared tales,
Laughter and tears.

But today,
I do not delight in those faces
For each one holds the promise of pain,
The pain of parting,
The promise of more tears shed.

It hurts.
SubhanAllah, how it hurts
To see those you have loved
Disappear into the Cairo skies.
Spreading wings to fly,
To flee,
To seek out new horizons.

And those who are left behind
Survey the remains,
Bereft,
Aghast at the emptying
That was once so full of life
And love
And laughter
Is inhabited by shadows
Of memory,
Memory that will fade
As the dust season approaches.

It hurts,
SubhanAllah,
It hurts.

I cling,
Cling with a fervour
To the certainty
That there is a reason
That there is a season
That there is a higher purpose
To our meeting here,
In this time,
In this place,
In Egypt.

We have touched each other
Some of us
In ways so profound
That the marks will never fade,
Even with a lifetime of journeys.

We will carry the memory of this time
These golden days in Egypt
With us always
In our hearts,
In our smiles,
In the way we shrug when the lights go out,
In our accent when we recite Qur’am -
Fa bi ayy ala rabbihuma tukadhiban…

We thank Him that He brought us together
In this time,
In this place,
In Egypt.

As I look around
At the emptying of my Egypt,
I thank Allah for all that we shared
In this place.

My beautiful,
Wonderful,
Unforgettable
Sisters of Egypt.

xxx