When you’re looking to get deeper in your faith there a lot of options out there from meditation to yoga to spiritual retreats, how do you navigate it all? Reoccurring guest Joshua Abdul Haqq (aka Ikhlas’ husband) comes on the show to talk about his forthcoming podcast, “Three Stations of the Deen,” and why he decided to take up the spiritual path (tariqa). Makkah’s nephew, Tariq, also comes back on the show to share tips on how to maintain your Qur’an study.

To mark the halfway point of Ramadan we check in on how we’re doing on those #RamadanGoals and chat with actor, comedian, and writer Ramy Youssef about how his Ramadan has been going in the wake of the release of his new Hulu show Ramy, what his hopes are for show, and the challenges and opportunities that we face when trying to tell our stories.

Ramadan Mubarak! To kick off this year’s series, we reflect on the last decade of summertime fasts and our girl Samira Abderahman joins us to talk about Black Iftar, why she created it and the importance of leaving room for Black joy in Ramadan.

Ikhlas and Makkah chat about how Muslims talk about Muslims, how Hollywood talks about Muslims and have Besheer Mohamed, Senior Researcher at the Pew Research Center, to tell us what the data says about Muslims. What we’re looking to find out: what’s really good for the ummah?

We list our favorite films from 2018 and filmmaker Nijla Mu’min comes back on the show to chat about her debut feature film “Jinn” and we play a game of movie trivia.

Guest:

Nijla Baseema Mu’min is an award-winning writer and filmmaker from the East Bay Area. Her work is informed by poetry, photography, fiction, and dance. Named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine in 2017, she tells stories about black girls and women who find themselves between worlds and identities. Her debut feature film, Jinn, won the award for Best Screenplay at the 2018 American Black Film Festival and was acquired by Orion Classics.

We come up short on Friendsgiving invites so we play a game of friends trivia instead. Action item: call a friend you love today. 

Is there any reason to still believe in our political system? Mohamed Gula and Aysha Ahmed of Emgage USA join the show to answer this question and more. We discuss our favorite civic engagement commercials, why representation matters, and what fictional characters would have our votes.

Guests:

• Aysha Ahmed is the Programs and Operations Specialist of Emgage USA. In this role, she she manages organizational operations and develops programming for local Emgage USA chapters. Previously, Aysha worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and for the Ohio Democratic Party.
• Mohamed Gula is Executive Director of Emgage Virginia, where he builds community-based civic engagement programs that serve the Virginia Muslim community. Mohamed previously served as an Organizer in Ohio for the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign and with Organizing For Action (formerly Obama For America).

Writer and poet Tariq Touré sits down with us to talk vulnerability, fatherhood and what we owe Black women. Plus we share what’s on our bookshelves, shoutout some of our favorite poets and discuss the role poetry can play in imagining a better world.

Guest:

Tariq Touré, @TariqToure, is a Muslim writer, husband, father and native child of Baltimore, Maryland. Toure’s sophomore collection, 2 Parts Oxygen, is a weighty tribute to family roots, the miraculous privilege of fatherhood and Islam in Black America.

We’re back with Season 5 and Makkah is in a new city! We talk moving—the good apartments, the bad apartments, what comes, what goes and how to create a home and community.