Hi! I’m Sadia. Each week I publish Ugly Shoes and Paper Planes, a newsletter that explores faith and paradox as a Muslim woman. I’m learning and sharing what I learn from teachers with a wider audience, in hopes that it will spark questions and curiosity. In this essay, I explore the love of someone I have yet to meet, but to whom tomes of poetry and songs are dedicated. He is named Muhammad (S), the Praised One.
How can you love someone who have yet to meet, that you have never spoken to or had an interaction with?
For Muslims, this is a special time of the year, the month of the Prophet Muhammad (S)’s birth. It’s September but it’s also the Islamic month “Rabi’ul Awwal.” The word "Rabi" means "spring" and Al-awwal means "the first" in the Arabic language, so "Rabi' al-awwal" means "the first spring" in Arabic. As the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, the month naturally rotates over solar years, so Rabīʽ al-awwal has nothing to do with the actual season of spring.
In the USA, t…
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