Inside Augsburg: Inside the world of Islam

I'm waaay in the background if you really wanna see me! ahahhaha

http://augnet.augsburg.edu/news-archives/2010/03_01_10/islam_week.html

Muslim Student Association at Augsburg

Ah, procrastination! I have been meaning to write this entry ever since Islam Awareness Week happened! But things keep popping up that I HAVE to resolve or further procrastinate on (like homework, hehe) so life has been terribly busy. However, my beloved Islam Awareness Week definitely deserves a blog entry so here it is!

First off, let me introduce Muslim Student Association at Augsburg College. Since the majority of the Muslims at Augsburg are Somali anyway, the Board is also Somali (other than me of course!). So the President is Najib Isse, a wonderful wonderful man who has truly worked very hard to make MSA what it is today. To top off his hard work and sincerity, he does everything for the sake of Allah which makes his efforts even more fruitful and sincere in my Muslim opinion. Hehe. As you might have figured out by now, I am much of a procrastinator and though I love MSA and I love talking about Islam and engaging in inter-faith dialogue, I am such a lazy bum that I need to be pushed to do stuff. So Najib Isse gave me that initial push I needed to help him get MSA going. So though I don’t like complimenting people when they are around, I have often told other Somalis and Muslims that Najib is why MSA is where it is today.

So back to the Board…I am the Vice President. The Treasurer is Ifrah Yassin, a great girl who is also willing to put in a lot of effort. The Public Relations Officer is Abdiaziz Farah, another really cool guy who is very sweet, always has my back, and does good work. There used to be other MSA board members but for one reason or the other, they kinda dwindled, went off track, and got off the Board. So primarily, Islam Awareness Week (henceforth written as IAW) was a venture of Allah SWT and four people.

Now that I have introduced the Board to you, I want to talk a bit about what MSA does. This is actually the first year that MSA has been super active. We have been holding weekly meetings where Najib starts off by reading one of the traditions or sayings of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The sayings can be about anything, ranging from specific Muslim worship to good deeds that one must do not just in order to be a good human being but also in order to be a good Muslim. Sayings like “None of you truly believes till he loves for his brother (for another human being) what he loves for himself” and reminders like “Beware of jealousy and envy, for indeed jealousy and envy consume one’s good deeds like fire consumes wood.” Simple reminders that not only make us a good Muslim but also a good conscientious human being are a great way to start our MSA meetings. Then we jump onto topics like events coming up, review of previous events, etc.

Every month, MSA has two events. One is called a “Sisters’ Halaqa” and the other is called “Islamic Stereotype Discussion.” You may wonder why the halaqa is called a “sister’s” Halaqa. In Islam, we believe that all Muslims are brothers and sisters of each other. This is because we believe that we are all Children of Adam and Hawwa (Eve). This not only reminds us to be respectful and kind to each other, but also helps keep our modesty and actions in check. If a man calls a woman his sister, then it is less likely he will ‘check her out’ or pass a rude comment about her in front of her or behind her back. So this event is called the sisters’ halaqa because it is only for women.

The Muslim men in our Augsburg community generally have more access to masjids (mosques) and thus can easily go for refreshers of their imaan (faith) whenever they like. Since the women are either international students (like me) who don’t have cars or know the area well enough, or are commuters who don’t get the chance to go to masjid anyway, we have attempted to bring scholars of Islam to them. In Islam, we believe that religion and faith are not restricted to a certain time of the year or week or even the day. Islam is a way of life for us and for that, we need to continuously learn about it, refresh our imaan by listening to scholars or speakers who remind us what our purpose of existence is and thus, we are better able to follow our religion. This might seem strange to people of other religions but that is how I see it at least.

Thus happens the Sisters Halaqa. The other monthly event is Islamic Stereotype Discussion where MSA welcomes non-Muslims to come and discuss their notions about Islam and understand and consequently break the stereotypes associated with Islam and Muslims. It makes a good discussion.

Ahh, I ramble a lot. Now that I have gotten into details about the MSA instead of write about IAW, I’ll make a separate post for it. It’s only fair! :P