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Ola Labib: ‘I want to be the person who bonds people through laughter’

Looking back at her time working in a pharmacy, one summer in particular sticks out in Ola Labib’s mind. “Everyone was clearly on a rampage and we’d run out of morning-after pills,” she recalls.

The British Sudanese comedian, who back in 2022 was still performing late night standup after her day job as a pharmacist, remembers a woman in need of emergency contraception who asked, in all seriousness: “Why don’t you just make me one at the back?”

“I responded with, ‘Well, I don’t have a meth lab...
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Sohail Hanif: ‘If the wealth isn’t given out it’s as if it’s polluted’

Dr Sohail Hanif, chief executive of the National Zakat Foundation (NZF), has dedicated his career to advancing the vital practice of zakat, a cornerstone of Islamic charity.

Zakat is the obligation of giving 2.5% of one’s wealth to those in need once a year. Hanif emphasises the importance of localising donations to foster stronger connections and support within Muslim communities.

Drawing from the rich history of zakat’s implementation in early Islamic society, the NZF is working towards buil...
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Inside Krept & Konan’s new supermarket

Rap duo Krept & Konan have made an unlikely move into retail with the opening of an “inclusive” supermarket in Croydon, south London.

Casyo Johnson (Krept) and Karl Wilson (Konan) hope Saveways, on Beddington Lane, will be a one-stop shop for the local Black and Asian communities. The 15,000 sq ft store offers a halal butcher, bakery and wide range of produce and seasonings from South Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. There’s also a large hair and beauty section catering to the needs of its diver...
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Professor Muhammad Abdel Haleem: ‘The Qur’an is with me every day’

As a child in Egypt, Muhammad Abdel Haleem learned the 30 chapters, 114 surahs and 604 pages of the standard Arabic version of the Qur’an by heart, laying the foundations for his lifelong dedication to Islamic studies.

His perfect recitation of the Qur’an at the age of 11 secured him a place at Cairo’s prestigious Al-Azhar University, and he was later awarded a fellowship to study at Cambridge University, making the UK his home for more than half a century.

In 2004 Oxford University Press publ...
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Behind the seams with TikTok tailor Riddz

“On Monday I might be extravagant, but on Wednesday I’m back to being plain. My style is quite juxtaposing,” says Ridwan Fadlu-Deen as we get on the tube to his favourite fabric store on Balham High Road, south London.

Known online as Riddz, Deen, 22, is the creative force behind the fledgling upcycled clothing brand RRIPZ, which he has introduced to a growing audience on TikTok. “Fabric shopping is my creative haven. I can be in a shop for hours with limitless ideas,” he says.

Fashion and tai...
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Jummah Aesthetics turns a lens on men’s Friday prayers style

“Growing up I used to see Muslim men either wearing a three-piece suit to jummah, a shalwar kameez or a kurta under a jacket. Now, that’s all gone,” says British Pakistani documentary photographer Rehan Jamil. We are speaking at Oxford House, a community and arts centre in Bethnal Green, east London, at an exhibition featuring his work, Jummah Aesthetics: British Muslim Men and Their Sartorial Choices.

“Everybody wears thobes now. Since when were we Asians Arabs?” Jamil laughs, just before the...
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‘We often forget that women have always been involved in science’

As a child, Bana Shriky recalls being fascinated by jelly: eating it, playing with it, experimenting with any gel-like substance she could get her hands on. Her obsession drove her to a career studying things that jiggle and wiggle.

Shirky, 26, is originally from Syria and now works as a post-doctoral researcher in the Faculty of Engineering & Digital Technologies at the University of Bradford. There, she looks into how the properties of soft, flexible materials change depending on their enviro...
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Fatima Rajina: ‘Language and clothing form a crucial part of our identity’

Fatima Rajina still remembers her naniji picking her up from school as a little girl in Luton, her maternal grandmother dressed in a brightly-coloured sari, wrapped in a soft cardigan. The academic holds this distant memory as the foundation of her fascination with how cultural aesthetics within the Bangladeshi diaspora have transformed over the years.

That interest formed the basis of her new book, British Bangladeshi Muslims in the East End, focusing on the intersection of dress, language and...
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Aihtsham Rashid: ‘Halal doesn’t just mean what you eat, the whole process needs to be halal’

Last year, Aihtsham Rashid came home one winter evening with boxes of treats for his cats Ivy and Coco. To his surprise, he was met with concern from his wife and daughters. “You can’t bring that inside, it’s haram,” they told him. Even if it’s not for you to eat, they explained, non-halal food can’t be purchased or brought into the home.

Rashid, who runs a construction company that builds mosques, began a hunt for cat food that he could guarantee was 100% halal.

In his research, the 45-year-o...
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‘When you see what’s happening on the ground you see the truth’

For 16 years, photojournalist Asmaa Waguih has used her camera as a window into war-ridden lands, from her home country of Egypt to Iraq, Ukraine and beyond. Through photography she documents the real-world effects of humanitarian crises, corruption and the ongoing fight for freedom.

Growing up in Cairo, Waguih was keen to know what was happening outside her city. Her curiosity led her to study English at university and pursue journalism, eventually freelancing for the LA Times and Associated P...
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‘This is just the beginning, revolutions take time’: the artists capturing women’s resistance

“If you want to change the world then it has to come from the ones who are most oppressed,” says visual artist Poulomi Basu.

This tension lies at the heart of the South London Gallery’s current exhibition, Acts of Resistance: Photography, Feminisms and the Art of Protest. The exhibition showcases the work of 16 international artists who focus on women’s rights struggles over the past decade, from the
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Areeb Siddiqui: ‘Do Muslims actually care about banking without compromise? Absolutely they do’

From finding an interest-free savings account to looking for Sharia-compliant products such as mortgages, CEO Areeb Siddiqui’s halal money app, Kestrl, hopes to solve Muslims’ personal finance dilemmas.

Before launching the start-up in 2019, Siddiqui — who grew up in London — worked in the financial services sector, for firms such as Deloitte and PwC, and studied for an MBA at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School.

The 32-year-old’s app has 25,000 users in the UK, and 300,000 in Malaysi
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The journey to my hijab-iversary has been liberating and enriching

More than just a piece of fabric that I wear on my head, I have found a whole new outlook on life

As the annual 1 February celebration of World Hijab Day has drawn closer, I have found myself reflecting upon my own experiences. It has been a full year since I decided to wear the hijab and my journey has been a powerful and liberating one. It all started at the end of 2022, when I was going through a rough patch in my personal l
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Dina Aziz: ‘The aim of this planner is to help Muslims in their journey with Islam’

The social media influencer on her forthcoming book, which helps Muslims plan and reflect on their fasts during Ramadan

When 25-year-old British-Bangladeshi influencer Dina Aziz first posted a guide to Ramadan, she had no idea how successful it would be. But within 24 hours of tweeting about her planner, her PDF was downloaded more than one million times.

Aziz, a modest fashion and lifestyle influencer from London with more than 67,000 followers, first began sharing her thoughts about Ramadan
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Khalid Ashraf: ‘Some people in mosques say it’s not allowed to use sign language’

The co-founder of Deaf Muslim UK on making Islam more accessible to people who are hard of hearing, and why we should all learn to sign

Khalid Ashraf, from Leeds, was born hearing but suddenly lost his ability as a young child. Now 56, he is the co-founder of Deaf Muslim UK, the country’s first organisation dedicated to assisting and advocating for Muslims who are hard of hearing in the UK and around the world.

Ashraf was one of the first ever deaf Muslims to complete an MA in Islamic Studies
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Faduma Farah: ‘Let disabled people enjoy shopping and buy clothes off the rack’

The fashion brand founder on her mission to bring a pop of colour to adaptive clothing

In 2011, Faduma Farah contracted meningitis. The disease left her temporarily paralysed from the neck down and she has been a wheelchair user ever since. When Farah found that she couldn’t get hold of stylish clothes that met her needs, she decided to create her own fashion line, tailored to people with disabilities.

Now 46, London-based Farah is the founder of Faduma’s Fellowship, an adaptive fashion initia
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Yazz Ahmed: ‘I was told I play instruments like a man’

The Bahraini-British jazz trumpeter on the power of fusing musical genres

Yazz Ahmed is a composer and trumpeter, who describes herself on Twitter as the “high priestess of psychedelic Arabic jazz”. Her signature sound fuses the rhythms and melodic structures of Arab and modern classical music with syncopated improvisation.

Born in the Persian Gulf to a Bahraini father and an English mother, Ahmed struggled to find her own identity after moving to London as a child. She began to take an intere
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Saima Duhare: ‘I want to conquer every Muslim kitchen in the UK’

The halal recipe box entrepreneur talks about her mission to change the way we eat

Remember when going to the supermarket to pick up piles of groceries was a highly anticipated weekly ritual? Now, as our working lives get busier, many people are turning to recipe boxes in an effort to eat fresh, healthy food.

Founded by Saima Duhare from Willesden Green, north-west London, the subscription-based It’s Halal launched online in April 2019 to provide tasty, easy-to-prepare meals for Muslims across
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Kew gardens: The spiritual life of plants

A new book and exhibition at Kew Gardens explore the role played in the Qur’an by trees, fruits, flowers and herbs

Kew Gardens is renowned as the largest and most diverse botanical collection in the world. Founded in 1840, the south-west London site has thousands of living species in glasshouses and outdoor plots across its 330-acre setting.

Now, visitors to the Unesco World Heritage site can view date palms, pomegranate buds and toothbrush trees intricately detailed in a series of watercolour
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Lucy Bushill-Matthews: ‘Nearly 4,000 Muslims applied for financial aid in a month’

The National Zakat Foundation’s chief operating officer talks about the challenges faced by charities during the cost of living crisis and the generosity of donors

Lucy Bushill-Matthews, 51, is the chief operating officer at the National Zakat Foundation. She is also the author of the book Welcome to Islam: A Convert’s Tale. At 19-years-old, while at Cambridge University, Bushill-Matthews embraced Islam, married and wore the hijab for the first time.

Working in the third sector for the past 15
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Ismael Lea South Q&A: ‘Hip-hop started my journey to Islam’

The director of the Salam Project talks about old-school rap, youth work and the power of positivity

Ismael Lea South is a rapper from Willesden, north-west London, and director of the Salam Project, a youth outreach enterprise that aims to challenge Islamophobia. Born into a Jamaican Christian family, he has loved hip-hop culture since he was a teenager. Now 50 years old, he converted to Islam aged 20, inspired to explore the faith by references to figures such as Malcolm X and Arabic words in
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‘There are many hidden Muslim gems in London’s history’

AbdulMaalik Tailor, the founder of Muslim History Tours, is on a mission to show everyone an often-ignored side of the UK capital

On a warm, sunny Wednesday morning, AbdulMaalik Tailor stood by the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, sporting a bright red fez. He was waiting for a group of year 5 children from Loughborough Primary School in Brixton to begin a tour of London as they had never seen it before.

The children arrived with their
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Shabna Begum: ‘Solidarity across different communities makes a difference’

The author of a new history of the Bangladeshi squatters’ movement on the inextricable links between poor housing and racism

Shabna Begum is the director of research at the Runnymede Trust, a leading independent race equality thinktank in the UK. She is also the author of From Sylhet to Spitalfields, a recently published exploration of the hidden history of the Bangladeshi squatters’ movement in 1970s east London.

The movement began when the growing Bangladeshi communities of Spitalfields and
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‘The war against drugs needs to be reimagined in a new way’

Inside the organisations helping Muslims with substance abuse issues during Ramadan

“I would score an hour before iftar, but it would be too early and I couldn’t control myself so I’d just end up using,” says Raf, who started using cannabis at the age of 14 and by 20 was taking cocaine regularly. “My thinking around it was, ‘As long as I fast during the day it’s OK.’ It was crazy.”

For the past four years, Raf, 35, has worked as a su
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