Members  of  the Academy Celebrate Ramadan

Members of the Muslim Student Association celebrate Ramadan together. Courtesy of Muslim Student Association

By ETHAN DING 

Until the holy day of Eid-al-Fitr, Muslims across the world observe Ramadan. In the faith of Islam, Ramadan is considered one of the holiest months of the year. For the duration of the month, Muslims fast each day from dawn until sunset, carry out charitable acts, and read the Quran, as well as many other efforts to become closer to their faiths. 

At Exeter, Muslim students and faculty have come together to celebrate with all sorts of activities. On some nights, Muslim Exonians gather for Iftar, the evening meal when Muslims break their fast, sharing culture and good food. Instructor in Mathematics Makhtar Sarr has hosted Quran classes every Sunday and has also been teaching Arabic to members of the Exeter community who are interested in Islam and Islamic culture. And recently, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) hosted an assembly to talk about Ramadan’s significance and the different ways it’s celebrated. 

For upper and MSA co-head Kenza Madhi, Ramadan at Exeter is special because of the unique community. “We actually have a lot of people that participate in the Sunday night and Wednesday night Iftars. We even have some friends of MSA members come in as well. It’s really nice to have that kind of gathering, and we always have great conversations,” Madhi said. “When I was younger, I didn’t know very many people that were Muslim or practiced Ramadan at my school. Having so many people around you here that are attending the same religious activities is just a huge plus.”

Upper and fellow MSA co-head Ayaan Akhtar echoed a similar sentiment about the Exeter community. “It’s nice having this connection with each other, especially when many of us are away from home and our families. It’s like we have a close-knit family with all the other Muslim students and faculty,” Akhtar said. “I’ve been at Exeter since my prep year, and I’m an upper now, but the Muslim community at Exeter has just grown exponentially. I remember when I was a prep, it was super small. We’d only have like two to three people, but now we have around 20 people who attend the regular Jummah prayers, which is a good amount of people. It’s a lot of fun being with each other, especially during this holy month.”

It’s nice having this connection with each other, especially when many of us are away from home and our families.

When Muslims fast, they pledge not to eat or drink anything for the course of the day. This, in conjunction with the heavy workloads Exonians normally have, presents itself as an additional challenge.

“There are both pluses and minuses when it comes to Ramadan at Exeter,” Madhi said. “The schedule itself makes Ramadan really difficult. We’re fasting for the whole time that we’re in classes, so it’s difficult to be as attentive as you normally would. You getvery tired very easily. One potentially good thing about having such a large schedule is that you’re staying busy. Sometimes it makes the time go by faster as well. It really just depends on the day.”

“I think the nature of Exeter’s schedule makes it so that fasting is a lot harder because you have five classes a day, then sports, and only after the whole day can you fully relax,” upper Tanya Syed said. “A lot of teachers have been very understanding and accommodating to people that might be fasting. Ramadan here doesn’t really compare to what it’s like back home, but the fact that there are so many people that support us here makes it better.” 

For non-Muslims, Ramadan can be a topic that many people aren’t familiar with or have questions about. The MSA planned an assembly with the goal of showing the wider Exeter community the many ways Ramadan is special and clearing up some common misconceptions that people had.

“The assembly schedule was tight, but luckily Mr. Miller was able to provide us a slot in March, which worked out really nicely because it was near the start of the term and near the start of Ramadan,” Akhtar said. “We wanted to highlight that Ramadan is celebrated in many different ways since Muslims are very diverse. No two places celebrate Ramadan the same way because Muslims are from all over the world. We wanted to especially focus on how we have Muslims from all over the world within our community here at Exeter.”

A defining feature of the Assembly was the video made of how different Muslims at Exeter celebrate Ramadan. 

“In our brainstorming for the assembly, we thought of a video since we were inspired by  the Black History Month video during an assembly in February. We thought it was a good way to do something fun that also has some important elements to it,” Madhi said.

“The video was a lot of fun. We got Muslim members of our community, students and faculty alike, to answer the question, ‘What do you love about Ramadan?’ I threw a video together and tried to make it fun and engaging. Ramadan really is about celebrating and being with the community, “Akhtar said. 

Ramadan is all about improving yourself, getting closer to your faith, and making your community a better place for everyone.

The MSA co-heads also put together a presentation on how Ramadan is celebrated in different cultures around the world. 

“In addition to the video, we also thought it was important to have a presentation for the factual aspect of Ramadan, just so that people could become more informed about our traditions and Islam in general,” Madhi said. “We thought it was important to stress how different Muslims practice Ramadan in different ways.” 

“A lot of people think that Ramadan is like a diet. It’s not a diet,” Syed said. “People are not fasting for aesthetic reasons. It’s about being grateful and appreciating life. In addition to fasting, Ramadan is also a time for self-reflection and giving back to your community through service. Many people don’t know this but community service is one of the pillars of Ramadan. I feel that the presentation cleared a lot of this up, and people are much more well-informed now than they were before.”

The assembly finished off with a dance performance. Syed and Upper Ayman Naseer were the performers.

“Ayman and I, we’re both South Asian. I’m Indian and Ayman is Pakistani, so we decided to put together a dance based on various Hindi songs,” Syed said. “It was really nice to wear my cultural clothes and share that part of my culture and identity with the rest of the school.”

“The purpose of the dance was just to show, furthermore, the celebration associated with Ramadan and particularly Eid,” Akhtar said. “Tanya and Ayman danced through Bollywood songs, and that was just one more of the many aspects of how culture is celebrated during Ramadan.”

During Ramadan, Muslims strive to purify their hearts and minds, focusing on acts of kindness, generosity, and compassion toward others. It is a time to deepen one’s understanding of the Quran and to strengthen one’s connection to the community through acts of charity and prayer.

“Ramadan is a time to speak kindly to people. All the things that people should do any time of the year, but they’re stressed more in Ramadan,” Madhi said. “There are a lot of things in Islam that are considered good deeds that you probably wouldn’t normally think of. Even smiling is considered a good deed. Ramadan is all about improving yourself, getting closer to your faith, and making your community a better place for everyone.”

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