On Wrapping, Slowly
A gift is opened in seconds. It is wrapped in minutes. Those minutes are a gift too, one the receiver never sees but always feels. In praise of wrapping slowly. Watch anyone open a present. The...
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The Reading Room
From the Journal
Slower reading on giving, faith and the making of beautiful things.
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A House Without Walls
We tend to think of home as four walls and a door that locks. The Muslim tradition has always imagined something larger. An essay...
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Why We Chose Attar
Every house has a scent. Ours is attar: oil, not alcohol; close to the skin, not in the air around it. This is why....
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The Manners of Giving
A gift is a sentence said without words. Islam gave that sentence a grammar: manners for the one who gives, and for the one...
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What Is Kiswah? The Story Behind the Cloth of the Kaaba
The black cloth over the Kaaba is one of the most photographed objects on earth, and one of the least understood. Here is what...
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15 Ways to Become a Fajr Person
Morning people, we are told, are born, not made. Fajr politely disagrees. Here is how to make the hour before sunrise the best part...
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The Mezban: What Chittagong Knows About Feeding a Crowd
In Chittagong, a feast is not measured by the guest list. It is measured by how many people you did not have to invite....
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Why the Scholars Wrote Everything Down
The scholars of Islam carried extraordinary amounts of knowledge in their memories, and they still wrote everything down. What they knew about ink and...
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The Prayer Mat, Explained
It is the one piece of furniture most of us use five times a day, and the one we think about least. Where the...
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15 Ways to Bring Barakah Into Your Home
Some houses feel lighter the moment you step inside. It is rarely the furniture. Fifteen ways to invite barakah into the place you come...
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