Rabata

Sarwat Khan was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, where opportunities to formally study the Quran were limited. Growing up in the American South, she carried a quiet but persistent dream: to one day read and study the Book of Allah with fluency and confidence. Today, Sarwat lives in Dallas, Texas, where she is a devoted stay-at-home mother to six children. Alongside nurturing her family, she also works as a writing coach, helping others refine and elevate their written voice.

My first experience with iʿtikaf was very different from most people. My grandmother, may Allah have mercy on her, would go into iʿtikaf every year in the last ten nights of Ramadan. She would spend the first part of Ramadan sewing a cloth tent out of a beautiful, simple, delicate, breathable material. Inside, she would put a soft prayer carpet, her masbaha or dhikr beads, and mushaf (Quran). When the last ten nights of Ramadan would arrive, she would enclose herself in the tent, and we wouldn’t see her or hear from her until the day of Eid al-Fitr. When the night of Eid was announced, she would emerge from the tent more beautiful and fragrant than I had ever seen her before, and we would adorn her with necklaces of roses that we had made and give her special sweets, all the while congratulating her. Although I didn’t know what it meant at the time, I knew it was something very special, and something to be celebrated.

مَبْسُوطَتَانِمَبْسُوطَتَانمَبْسُوطَتَانِ Over and over and over….that is all I could hear and see يَدَاهُ مَبْسُوطَتَانِ يُنفِقُ كَيْفَ يَشَآءُ ۚHe is open-handed, giving freely as He pleases (5:64) In this week of intense grief and loss, every time I was still for even a moment…this is all that would wash over me مَبْسُوطَتَانِ Indeed—that is what

At our latest Latte and Learn, Anse Fatima walked us through some big-picture thinking about how we work at Rabata, especially as we prepare for Ramadan and expand our offerings with Ribaat University.