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[ Wednesday, October 11, 2006 ]

MSA Fast-a-Thon!

Today was the MSA's 4th annual Fast-a-Thon and alhamdulillah it was a success! My sister made my day by showing up with CAIR's Ramadan booklets, which were really professionally done. About 250 pledges were collected from nonMuslims who fasted for a day so that local business would donate money to Doctors Without Borders. There are still more pledges to be collected from individuals who fasted but did not turn in their pledges or come to the iftar.

The event was well organized with a short speech from the Vice President about the significance of Ramadan. I loved how she connected it to fasting in other religious traditions, such as Yom Kippur for Jews, and Lent for Christians, citing their own sources. She also talked about the biological consequences of fasting (Yes, we bio majors find these things interesting!). Normally, we take in toxins that are stored in our fatty acid tissues, and by fasting, we burn up these fatty reserves, which means that we are in fact literally purifying our bodies. We always heard about how Ramadan is a way of purifying ourselves, and it was cool to hear about the literal biological means of it. She also talked about global poverty and disparities and how fasting allows us the opportunity to get a glimpse of what it must feel like to be hungry not only for food, but also for clothing, education, shelter, and justice. Masha Allah, I was really proud of her. She represented the MSA very well! After her, the community service committee heads gave a presentation on Doctors Without Borders. I was really glad they did that because it shows that Muslims are concerned about these issues, it also educated everyone about this organization and the amazing work they do (They received the 1999 Peace Prize for their work in several continents), and also made the Fast-a-Thon an event that wasn't just about Ramadan (which was important for those who fasted purely because they wanted to support a charitable cause).

A number of my nonMuslim friends fasted this year, though not all of them were able to make it to the iftar. My Mexican friend called me up in the middle of the day and said he wasn't feeling well and was studying for a midterm, and I told him to break his fast since he shouldn't have been fasting if he was ill. My Indian friend, who was also one of my models for the charity fashion show I had designed for last Spring, also fasted. My Filipino Catholic friend fasted, and brought along two of his friends for the iftar as well. I'm not sure if they had fasted or not, but he said that it was only because they had made suhoor for him that he was able to make it through the day. I had to laugh because only yesterday when I handed him the pledge form did it dawn on him that he wouldn't be able to eat. "Can't I even eat a little bit?" he asked. Well, alhamdulillah he made it through the day!

I was also surprised to see one of my interviewers for a campus biology program standing in line for the food, and when I asked him how his fasting had gone, he said it wasn't too bad, because he had actually been fasting the past couple of weeks to prepare for it. I told him he should come to the regular iftars, and he said he had heard about them and might come. I'm curious to find out why he's been fasting and whether or not he's interested in Islam. The funny thing is that when I first met him at my interview, there was just something about him that for a moment made me wonder if he was Muslim. I guess his short goatie and good adab gave me that feeling, though I can't really describe it.

My Catholic, Italian art buddy also fasted. She's in my oil painting class so I see her 2-3 times a week for a good few hours at a time. We sat next to each other last semester in our intro to art class and as soon as we realized we both like Turkish music, we became good friends. She always tells me that she doesn't know what she'd do if she hadn't met me, because she feels as if she's learned so much about Muslims and Islam, and can’t help but cringe at the ignorance of her swimming teammates, who seem to not care too much about learning about other cultures. She wanted to fast today but she has swimming practice every day except Wednesdays. She came to the iftar today, and intends to fast tomorrow instead. I'm supposed to give her a wake-up call for suhoor. She said the iftar today pumped her up, and she's glad we have class together tomorrow, because we're supposed to support each other through the day until iftar. This girl is in love with dates, which I find pretty funny. She's been to a couple of iftars with me and has met many of the Muslims in the MSA, and can't get over how nice everyone is. She heard the adhan for the first time today and was telling me about how pretty it sounded to her. And after the lectures when a brother said "Peace be with you" she got excited and told me about how Catholics also say something similar during their services. She joined us for gelato at the Naia lounge after the Fast-a-Thon iftar, and later she was excited to have my sister demonstrate wrapping her headwrap. She's been waiting to learn how to do a headwrap for the longest time because she says that it'll help her keep her hair out of her face when she's painting in the summer.

So alhamdulillah, it was a great day!

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~bean~

[ Wednesday, October 11, 2006 ]

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