Both plays take place on the evening of Friday, 12th March (i.e., in less than 24 hours!), in the SAF building (no. 33 on the map), at the South Kensington campus.

The sisters' play starts at 6.15pm (female-only audience), and the brothers' (all welcome) is straight after at 7pm, inshā’Allāh. I pray that the show runs by GMT, and not MST!

I'm not performing, but I have made three short videos for the sisters' play, and as of yesterday night, will be taking care of 'tech' (which basically means playing a list of odd, a capella sound effects on cue!).

Regarding the vids, this was my first time filming 'fictional' pieces, as opposed to conducting interviews or covering events, so I'm quite interested to see how well they're received, especially by the non-Muslim attendees. The ideas and scripts were written by other sisters; I was roped into filming and editing at the last minute, i.e., making their crazy ideas a reality!

At first, I was reluctant to help, mainly because the publicity team hadn't yet finished making the IAW trailer, I only had a week left to make the videos the girls wanted, and tbh, I kinda hate editing these days.

But when it actually came time to film, I had such a blast, I actually felt a bit guilty for not being more keen initially. And even better, going through the 100+ clips that we had amassed over two afternoons of filming was a joy in and of itself. I was often creasing with laughter during playback – which made me realize: it's not that I find editing a chore; it's that I find editing boring stuff a chore.

Anyone who regular goes through the process knows what I mean: you're sat alone in a room for hours on end, your backside getting progressively more numb whilst you traverse backwards and forwards through hours of footage, in order to find the best five minutes worth. Then you have to decide on the cuts and transitions between scenes, where mere microseconds can mean the difference between glory or disaster.

If you're lucky, you'll have a good soundtrack (music-free, if you swing that way) to work with – it really makes the job of editing 1000 times easier. But the 'No Musical Instruments' (and sometimes, no musically stuff whatsoever) barrier presents a real challenge. And frankly, I am getting pretty tired of the same five anasheed that every Muslim video-maker seems to use these days. Please people, we need some new material already!

Anyway. This whole experience has served as a nice prelude to the 'women-only film club' idea, that I recently proposed. At first I was umm-ing and ahh-ing about whether women-only would work, but māshā’Allāh, it really does. Especially when you have access to bright young minds. The results speak for themselves – which you can judge for yourself, if you're around tomorrow night, inshā’Allāh. :)

One of the arguments used by those in favour of the permissibility of music is that Prophet Dawood, 'alayhis salam, is reported to have used instruments – Allāh knows best.

That is why I thought the above lyrics would be quite fitting for my début stage production, based on one of the most fiercely contested fatwas in Islam…

“Music is Haram!”… The Musical

Of course, the score would have to be either voice-only, duff, maybe some b-box… just to ensure neutrality/ respect/ bums on seats. And, cuz, y'know, I also kinda follow the 'music is not good' ruling myself. Shh.

You can book your advanced tickets to the hottest show in town (most likely as the theatre will be fire-bombed in protest) by placing a comment in the box below.

Please donate online NOW, writing “IMPERIAL COLLEGE” in the comments section of the donation form (we're in competition with the other participating universities). All money goes to Islamic Relief's orphan fund. So be generous! :)

Please also leave a comment below (anonymously if you wish) to let me know how much you donated, so I have an idea of the impact of the video, and also, to encourage others to follow suit, inshā’Allāh.

Update – Photos from the Henna Stall we ran today (Day 4):

iMuslim proceeds to kiss her mum on the cheek, and notices a flowery scent.

Me: “You smell of talcum powder…”

Mum: “Whaaat?!”

Me: “I said: 'You smell of talcum powder'…”

Mum: “Ohhh… I heard something else…”

Me: “What?”

Mum: “I thought you said, I smelled of cow ka powder.”

Me: {guffaws}

Mum: “I was thinking: 'Cow ka powder is milk!'”

Mother and daughter erupt into giggles. Dad looks on in confusion.

And thus a new parent-child in-joke is born.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Anyway… after carrying a bunch of heavy duty equipment across East London, debating American racial politics, and eating a good dinner, poor Media Guy collapsed into an ocean of velvet, and felt absolutely no shame in snoozing in full view of the surrounding public!

Black, hooded thobe >> Grim Reaper catching some Zees.

I guess young media guys can get away with these things… {smiles}

Anyway, while I wait for the moon dust to settle, I'll leave you with this fantastic text message my friend sent me about ten minutes ago (edited restoring 'txt spk' to 'real speak'):

Mubarak. It has been formally and unanimously agreed upon by all the religious bodies, jamiat, Imam, radio stations, Dewsbury [a town in England], Saudi, Morocco, Madina, along with all the biggest governing bodies – and not to mention Islam and 'S' Channel – that tomorrow, inshā’Allāh, will definitely be….

..

..

..

..

Tuesday!

It had me laughing on my prayer mat, anyway – haha!

Photo credit: Radiant Guy

I am not even going to waste my time, or your time, discussing it.

I will do this year, what I have done pretty much every year, and follow the majority. If the majority follow Saudi, then so be it. Alhamdulillah.

The same with ‘Īd, inshā’Allāh. Following the majority… Simple. Easy. Sunnah. Yey!

Other “You Know It's Ramadan When…” moments:

* Your local supermarket runs low on frozen foods, and ready-made pastry.

* There is no more room left in your freezer.

* The phone doesn't ring as much, cos all the aunties are too busy in the kitchen making samosae.

* When the phone does ring, it's an aunty who has run out of samosae filling, and needs to borrow xyz from you, and/or wants you to run them to the store for more of xyz.

* Muslims start planning how to put their annual leave to good use, inshā’Allāh.

* You suddenly take a great deal of interest in the protein content of your morning meals for the next 30 days.

* The words: “I can't believe it's Ramadan already!” are oft-repeated by Muslims everywhere.

* The words: “Please not in the last ten days, ya Allāh” are oft-repeated by Muslim women of a certain age, everywhere.

* You make the time to record a special Ramadan podcast with a cool co-host… (okay, maybe that's just me then – to be released soon, inshā’Allāh).

Feel free to share your own “You Know It's Ramadan When...” moments below.

Click here to view the embedded video.