Rabiulawwal Reflections: Day 1

I realise I love me some routines or traditions. For the first time in about 10 years, I don’t have my usual Rabiulawwal tradition, or at least not with the same people I’ve always had it with. I’m sad but I am so grateful I had 10 years of that. What a blessing alhamdulillah!

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently — maybe the past 10years was a lot of learning and solidifying religious habits and just marinating in them. And the future is so uncertain but I have a chance to create new traditions or adapt them to whatever/however life looks like.

I feel like I’ve said this a lot this year: it’s scary but also exciting. Wherever/however I find myself, God is there, the Prophet ﷺ is there. May I always be in gatherings of mawlid and remembrance of Allah and His Prophet ﷺ, even if I don’t know anyone else in these gatherings.

I love Rabiulawwal. I loved the nightly mawlids, the beats of the drums, the ecstasy and the tears, I loved hearing the same voices singing the same songs, I loved serving food to the same faces, I loved walking home humming to a qasidah or two.

But most of all, I love Rabiulawwal because I am reminded of the Prophet ﷺ and his beauty, his sacrifices, his gentleness and his love. Without the same people and the same drum beats and the same songs, Rabiulawwal can still be beautiful for me inshaAllah.

Rabiulawwal Mubarak! May this blessed month find us increasing in our knowledge and love for our beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, his sunnah, and in our practice of them, ameen.