Shafaat Shahbandari, Author at Sacred Footsteps

Shafaat Shahbandari

JoinedJuly 6, 2023

Articles1

Independent journalist, poet and filmmaker based in Bengaluru. Shafaat Shahbandari is the founder of Thousand Shades of India, an alternative media platform that celebrates the diversity of India through visual and literary interventions. Best travel moment? Watching the blue sky reach out to the blue ocean, from the balcony of an 18th century palace in Zanzibar, even as the sun still snuggled under a warm blanket.

Shafaat Shahbandari

A Yemeni Oasis in India

In a little known corner of an Indian metropolis lies a thriving Yemeni oasis, complete with harees, gahwah, and mandi....

sacredfootsteps

WEDNESDAY 18th DECEMBER✨ Join us for a monthly

WEDNESDAY 18th DECEMBER✨

Join us for a monthly gathering via Zoom, reciting the Ratib of Imam al-Haddad, with reciters live from Tareem and various locations around the world.

The recitation will be accompanied by commentary in English by Malaysian scholar Sayyid Muhiyuddin al-Attas, based on the book by Habib Alawi b. Ahmad b. Hassan b. Imam Abdullah al-Haddad.

⭐️ To participate, use the QR code on the post to join the Whatsapp group, or click on the link in our bio✨

In collaboration with @peacemeal_, @nur.saaadah, Ahlaha, @amanah_hak, Majelis Rasulullah Amsterdam and al-Fath.

Excited to announce our new series of introductory

Excited to announce our new series of introductory seminars covering various foundational topics and key figures within the rich intellectual tradition of Islam.

These classes are intended for students in higher education, as well as teachers, writers, and those interested in understanding depths of the Islamic worldview✨

12 Jan ‘25 | The Worldview of Islam | Syed Mohyideen al-Attas

19th Jan ‘25 | Plato and the Early Islamic Intellectual Tradition | @joshuabeneventi

26th Jan ‘25 | Islamic Historiography: the Development of the Methodology of History | @abuayyubchronicles

15th Feb ‘25 | An Introduction to Ibn ‘Arabi | Dr @ali_z_hussain

22nd + 23rd Feb ‘25 | The Intellectual Thought of Allama Iqbal | @saadyacoob

⭐️ £39 per seminar. Click on the LINK IN OUR BIO to sign up✨ | NOTE: We’ve made the decision to reduce the fee to £39. We aim to keep costs affordable and the seminars as inclusive as possible. Scholarships and financial assistance are available for those who require support. Email us at courses@sacredfootsteps.com to find out more.

“Our Ratib is like an iron wall for every city i

“Our Ratib is like an iron wall for every city in which it is recited.” — Imam al-Haddad

Join us for a monthly gathering via Zoom, reciting the Ratib of Imam al-Haddad, with reciters live from Tareem and various locations around the world. The recitation will be accompanied by commentary in English by Malaysian scholar Sayyid Muhiyuddin al-Attas, based on the book by Habib Alawi b. Ahmad b. Hassan b. Imam Abdullah al-Haddad.

In collaboration with @peacemeal_, @nur.saaadah, Ahlaha, HAK, Majelis Rasulullah Amsterdam and al-Fath.

📖 READ: Allamah Muhammad Iqbal: The Theorist of

📖 READ: Allamah Muhammad Iqbal: The Theorist of Muslim Modernity by @saadyacoob via the LINK IN OUR BIO✨

One of the most important thinkers of the last century, ʿAllāmah Muhammad Iqbāl was born in Sialkot in 1877. A third generation Muslim, his thought offers us a basis for building a civilisational movement rooted in the love of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ.

The core question that fueled Iqbāl’s thought was the issue of colonial domination. Iqbāl was born in the British Rāj, a territory that was larger and more populous than its ruling empire.
If the Indian population was to rise up and resist British domination together, British rule would become entirely unsustainable. The question for Iqbāl, then, was the nature of British methods of control and the framework for resisting them.

Intellectually, the British had convinced the Muslims of their civilizational inferiority, and spiritually, the vibrant traditions of taṣawwuf in India, which had once guided emperors and commoners alike, had begun to spiritualise their despair – an attitude that he viciously attacked in his poetry.

Well read in the literary, theological, and philosophical traditions of English, German, Urdu, and Farsi, Iqbāl’s inquiry led him to the realisation that the British exerted control over India as a whole, but especially over Indian Muslims. What one finds in close examination of his thought is an urgent desire to reconcile the tension between what he believes to be Quranic priorities and modern realities – not at a granular level but rather at a core, conceptual level.

By the time of his passing, Iqbāl was considered the most prominent Muslim intellectual in India, and his thought influenced important Muslim intellectuals around the world. His work calls us to take up the divinely ordained role of Islam and Muslims in the world, to cast off despair and don the cloak of hope in Allah’s majestic mercy.

Words: @saadyacoob Video: @mhmal1k

The Malay World and the Ahl al-Bayt Islam arrived

The Malay World and the Ahl al-Bayt

Islam arrived in the Malay world through “good word” and quickly established itself though various kingdoms that would later become centres of learning. Zain al-Haddad (@zainhd) speaks to Syed Muḥiyuddīn Al-ʿAṭṭās about the major Muslim figures in the Malay world and the development of an indigenous Islamic scholarship which was nevertheless rooted in networks of authenticated scholarly chains across the centuries.

🎧 PODCAST: Islam in the Malay world with Syed Muḥiyuddīn Al-ʿAṭṭās | LINK IN BIO or listen via iTunes, Spotify or other platforms.

⭐️Sacred Footsteps is run by a small team of volunteers. It is funded entirely by our followers/readers/listeners. If you enjoy our content and share our vision please consider supporting us financially via the link in our bio ✨

The khalwa (place of seclusion) of Sayyida Nafisa,

The khalwa (place of seclusion) of Sayyida Nafisa, the great, great, great-granddaughter of the Messenger of God ﷺ.

Known for her knowledge and piety, Sayyida Nafisa (ra) would retreat to this spot, then located outside the city (now within Cairo) to spend time in seclusion and worship, as her grandfather ﷺ before her and the women and men of God were known to do regularly.

The place is preserved in her memory, and visitors can go and sit in the place in which she once worshipped. A beautiful scent emanates from within.

“In the remote village of Kiselchovo, tucked awa

“In the remote village of Kiselchovo, tucked away in Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains, a small mosque without a minaret stood quietly, preserving the memory of a little-known Muslim community. I hadn’t come to Bulgaria expecting to find traces of Islamic history, but there it was, waiting to be encountered.”

✍️ Dr Rose Aslan’s (@dr.rose.aslan) latest article on Bulgaria’s Hidden Muslim Heritage is available to read now on sacredfootsteps.com - LINK IN BIO✨

⭐️ Sacred Footsteps is run by a small team of volunteers. It is funded entirely by our followers/readers/listeners. If you enjoy our content and share our vision please consider supporting us financially via the link in our bio ✨