I was sitting with another graduate student reading (Ibn 'Arabi) texts in Arabic and English, and it was one of those moments that time seemed to hav… - Sa'diyya Shaikh

I came of age during apartheid in the 80s in a Muslim community in a society that was deeply segregated, and so all of those kinds of influences were deeply impacted me quite deeply.

Hardly have the words left his lips when a hand softer than silk touches his shoulder. He turns. A young woman of breathtaking beauty gazes intently at him. As if omniscient, she responds to his poetic rumination with a depth of spiritual discernment, subjecting each line of his poem to careful scrutiny, culminating in a reprimand: How can “the great mystic of the time” pos-sibly question God’s knowledge of his state? A true lover is content with the desires of the Beloved even when they entail absence and separation.

For justice to ripen into a truly transformative and sustaining force, it must draw back from that deep current of love, and this is where we dive into for respite, rest, rejuvenation, replenishment, and creativity.