Overview
of the Year
By Abdel-Rahman Zakieh
Assalaamu alaikum all,
First and foremost, alhamdulillah for such an amazing school year. A year that was filled with insightful events, dialogues, classes, and donations is about to come to an end. This will be a short list and reflection of not only the various events the Loyola Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) hosted but also the positive impact they’ve had on our beautiful campus, the Greater Chicago community, and around the world.
Where to start?!
Loyola University Chicago welcomed its first Muslim Chaplain: Professor Omer Mozaffar. Every week, Professor Mozaffar volunteers his time at chaplain office hours and weekly Quran and Student Life classes for students to discuss, learn, and share.
In November, the MSA hosted Fast-a-thon, which was part of Loyola’s Hunger Week. People of all faiths pledged to fast from Fajr (sunrise) to Maghrib (sun down). At the dinner, many shared their experience with fasting and some of the things we all learned includes the importance of self-restraint, patience, and empathy towards those who are in need.
The Loyola MSA also hosted several events throughout the school year featuring world renowned scholars, imams, and leaders including Dr. Ramzan Shahid, Mufti Hussain Kamani, Imam Suhaib Webb, Boonaa Mohammed, Yasmin Mogahed, and many more.
In February, the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) and the
Golden Key International Honor society hosted a campus wide Spelling Bee to help the MSA fundraise for their Orphan Sponsorship Drive. By simply participating, the spellers and orphan in need.
The three most impactful, year-long events include the bagged lunch events for the homeless in our neighborhood, the LifeSource blood drives, and the orphan sponsorship drive. We could let the numbers do the talking: a total of 2665 lunches, over 100 donations of blood, and over $3000 raised for Syrian Orphans. However, there is so much more behind these numbers. These numbers represent the collective effort of not only the Loyola MSA but our Loyola community as a whole coming together for the bettering of humanity.
But there’s more! Among many others, there was also Project Rizq: Feeding Our Neighbors, Blanket Drive for Syrian & Iraqi Refugees, Winter Clothing Drive, and Humanitea time.
Finally, we arrive to the largest event of the year: Islam Appreciation Week 2015 (IAW). Months of planning went into this amazing yearly event whose goals are to increase interfaith dialogue, dispel misconceptions, and increase understanding of the Islamic faith on campus. IAW was jam packed with events, such as Taste of Faith, Exploring Islamic Art, Walk a Mile in her Hijab, Bagged Lunches: Serving our Neighbors, and, of course, the Culmination Dinner.
Just reading through this article seems almost overwhelming from how much great work this student group has made and continues to make. We hope that the Loyola MSA continues to host and create not only a large quantity of events but incredibly unique events that positively impacts our beautiful Loyola community.