The last day of takbir.

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.

7 October 2014.

It’s an almost full moon tonight, the sky is hazy and we are lazy after these few days of activities. It is the last day that we still takbir here in Cape Town.

Sunday was awesome. Early morning mosque and breakfast under the canopy.  Closer to qurban time the family gathered to witness. And as we strive for a perfect qurbaan we should also strive to make a point of sorting out everything that goes after it, the distribution so the barakah in our actions are spread, May Allah SWT be pleased with us all. So Eid Mubarak everyone!

Of course we started off in the week with a wish list of what to bake and at the end of the day we settled on some biscuits some éclair fruit rings and beautiful pastries filled with all kinds of beautiful fillings: custard, apple and cinnamon and coconut with a date tucked in. My eldest daughter made a table full of flaky pastry and it was Luqmaan’s debut for making a special dessert pyramid cheesecake for tea time. Of course it was in between his work with wood carving. We kind of ate it like a frozen dessert with strawberries down the centre. We had beautiful corned beef and fresh rolls and flaky chicken pies with a slice of pepper dew and crumbled feta for breakfast with some basil pesto on the side, hmmm. We bought some this time but it’s so easy to make one’s own. Recipe in 23 March blog.

The cousins can never resist an archery session even on Eid, so just a quick round and then the takbir resounds again. Subhanallah, Sunday night the sky was beautiful, dark and the stars were so beautiful and bright – it seemed like all they came out to light it up.

The weather is marvellously warm but the pollen levels bring out all those hay fever symptoms. How quick humanity forgets the cold winter months and the cool breeze, we were created this way. We forget pain even the pain of a birth or the ache of a tooth. Hey, like I forgot the mosquitoes and the sneezing and rubbing of eyes. We placed bunches of flowers from the garden into vases but it made us sneeze even more so they were placed outside except the lavender. This year I resolve only to rinse with light salt water and it works. For a good while at least.

The garden continues to be luscious but is more unforgiving when we have little time to water so we take turns. The poppies continue to bloom, flush after flush of red. The strawberries continue to fruit flush after flush of red - only sweeter from the warm sun. And the spinach and other greens just flourish. There are small broad beans on the bushes now and we enjoyed sprigs of broccoli with the roast for Eid. The artichokes and brussel sprouts and asparagus plants make good progress and we planted some yellow peppers and okra as well. The gourds – pumpkin, butternut and squash are starting to have flowers and attract the bees and the cucumber plants are growing up. We have started to eat from the gooseberries too, its way enjoyable early in the morning to walk around and enjoy the fruits of our work in winter Alhamdulilaah. All the cuttings are now mature plants – the herbs and lavender and even the chives that we separated are bunching up again. 

 

Soon the hujaaj will be making their farewell tawaaf and hasten for home. Back to their loved ones, and their jobs, back to reality. And they will miss the rhythms of the tawaaf and time spent in the haram, and the endless zam zam. But they will bring with them the barakah of Makkah and beautiful memories that cannot be captured on camera or phone. They will bring back an attitude of peace and not want to be bothered with worldly goings on. They will look out into the sky for that shining star that they watched at Fajr from the Haram. And they will always be nostalgic to go back again and again, so they will keep in touch with the friends they travelled with and sometimes over a cup of tea the will reminisce about the most amazing trip they ever had. As for us? We cannot wait for them to come back home and sit at their feet as they share their stories.

Grow food and contemplate the stars.

Yasmine

 

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