Meet Rakaya Fetuga
Ramadan Mubarak to all our sisters participating in Ramadan. This month we got the chance to speak with Rakaya Esime Fetuga who gave us a beautiful insight into how she’s taking care of self during the holy month.
Rakaya is an award-winning poet, facilitator and events producer based in London. Her work joins conversations on overlapping identities, faith and culture as self-affirmation.
During the holy month of Ramadan we'd love to know how you are taking care of self during this time?
One of the ways I’m taking care of myself during the blessed month of Ramadan is finding quiet moments in the day for worship and reflection in addition to the five daily prayers. I might use that time for reading the Quran in Arabic or English, making dhikr, listening to discussions by Islamic scholars, or just sitting in a masjid while women all around me speak to God.
There’s an Islamic tradition of retreat and reflection – the prophet Muhammad, may Allah honour him and grant him peace, used to spend time in a cave atop a mountain, an example for us to detach from the world and find nourishment in the company of the Most High.
“While a mountain cave feels out of reach in London, I still find restoration and serenity in the mini retreats of my day.”
Another act of care I am trying to practise is being gentle with myself when I fall short of my goals. Allah loves those who ask forgiveness, so anything I wished I could have done better is just another reason to turn to my Rabb, my Loving Nurturer.
What is something that you are looking forward to this Ramadan?
As well as the reflective time alone, Ramadan is such a beautiful excuse to spend time with my friends, family, local community and to connect with my global community. In this first half of Ramadan, I’ve already had heartfelt conversations with people I had never met before, and seen friends I hadn’t seen in person since last Ramadan.
I’m looking forward to more late nights of sharing food, thoughts, tears, laughter and prayers for the world. In London, the wonderful organisers at Rumi’s Cave, Green Deen, Ramadan Space and Reference Point Haḍra have already brought so much colour and beautiful company to my month, as well as the online community Muslim Writers Salon.
What advice would you give for fellow creatives during this holy month?
Connect to the spontaneity and love you find in your creative practice. A lot of artists comment on the sensation of being inspired as proof of God’s existence and their connection to Divine creativity. When your art is also your work, it’s easy to dull the instinctive playfulness and innate celebration of living that art can and should be.
So my advice this Ramadan is to connect with other creatives, attend some workshops, some jams, sing a qasida, pick a favourite Quran reciter and listen while you’re on the move, read something profound and ponder it a little longer than usual, fill your eyes with the expansive sky, watch it change colours at sunrise and pray Ishraq in thankfulness for it. Remember why you create, in the world of the greatest ever Creator.
“Let the dreams of your heart exist in words and watch them materialise.”
Image credit: Maaria Lohiya
What is a piece of advice you’d like to share with our community during this time?
Retreat to your prayers. Be delusional with your prayers. Let the dreams of your heart exist in words and watch them materialise. I’ve been loving all the Tiktok supplications with girls asking God for everything from clear skin on Eid, to their dream car and the love of their life to appear. They make me giggle, but the sentiment to ask God for everything, and to keep asking, is an important one. As we see and hear of immense and unfathomable suffering around the world, in Sudan, Palestine, Congo, Haiti and so many more places, turning to God in our du’a, our sincere pleas, is an element we should never leave out of our activism, especially in this month of mercy.
“Picturing sieged lands as free, oppressed people as empowered and destroyed scenes as flourishing, while begging God to make it a present reality is an act of love I encourage myself and everyone to do often. “
One Islamic teaching that gives me comfort is that no du’a is left unrewarded by Allah, your du’a will either bring you what you asked for, fend off a calamity, or bring you a reward in Heaven. So there is no loss in all our extended and hyperbolic prayers, may Allah accept them all.
Image credit: Maaria Lohiya
Lastly, could you share 3 Black Muslimah platforms to support
I would love to recommend the Pearls of Islam for beautiful music, songs of praise, retreats and events, Tysir Salih for updates on the humanitarian emergencies in Sudan, Congo, Tigray, Gaza and more, and Ahlaam for poetry and heart-shattering vulnerability. All of the women behind these pages have taught me so much this Ramadan and reminded me to open my heart and feel.
Thank you so much to Rakaya for sharing such inspiring words with us.
