This Saturday, I will be leaving for Mombasa, Kenya with my wife and kids for a couple of weeks. We are headed there to observe the occasion of Ashara, the annual commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Husain AS on the plains of Karbala, Iraq almost 1400 years ago. Each year, the spiritual leader of the Dawoodi Bohra muslim community, Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin TUS, chooses a different venue for the sermons, and then Bohras from all over the world flock there.

Last year I traveled to Colombo for Ashara and managed to post a few pictures to my other blog. This year I hope to do the same, but in my absence there will be some guest voices around here. Filling in for regular blogging duties will be my friend Willow Wilson, a writer and essayist who spent years living in Cairo, and Hesham Hassaballa, who is a regular columnist here at Beliefnet and at altmuslim. In addition to their posts, there will be a few surprise guest posts by various Islamsphere notables, some you may not have heard of, and others you certainly have. So, settle in and enjoy the ride, and I hope that there’s still room for me when I get back!