Sabr- What Is It?

For my final project at university, I decided I wanted to focus on photographing my family and capturing religion and faith. This stemmed partially from a second year project called ‘To Believe in’ where I photographed several muslim women in order to celebrate them and to combat the negative stereotypes we face. This idea of documenting the little every day nuances of Islam through my family, really came from being put in Lockdown and not being able to leave the house. So I decided on photographing my family, as we are all muslim women with varying degrees of faith and our own individual journeys with Islam. The loss of my grandad in September also spurred me to make this project, as his death and grieving really bought myself and my family even closer to Islam. 

It felt like what else is there that you can fall back on besides having faith that you’ll be able to see the departed again. It was a comforting thought, and made me want to be a better muslim in order to do that. 

‘Sabr’ means to have patience, endurance and perseverance in Arabic. It is a fundamental principle in Islam. It is what we use and rely on to get through tough times and trust in God that he has a plan for us, and that he can get us through the hard times. 

It has frankly been what got me through this year and so I wanted to use this experience in a way where I could celebrate muslim women and Islam but also to help me heal.