Fast-a-thon teaches self-discipline, spirituality

The Muslim Students Association began its annual Islam Awareness Week Monday by hosting a fast-a-thon open to all students, Muslim and non-Muslim, at NC State. The event welcomed approximately 50 people in Riddick Hearth, right before sunset at 7:47 p.m.

“[Islam Awareness Week is] a week that MSA sponsors every year in an effort to get the student body a little more engaged with the MSA, and also to educate the non-Muslims on what it is exactly that Muslims believe in and what religious practices and rituals that we have,” said Doha Medani, a junior studying nutritional science and the social chair of MSA.

Although Islam Awareness Week is typically held at the end of May, the dates were changed to work for the academic calendar. Medani said that although Ramadan isn’t until later during summer — from May 26 until June 25, according to the lunar calendar — she hopes that people who attended the event make the connection between their experience at fast-a-thon and how Muslims observe Ramadan.

Maria Afreen, a senior studying nutrition and the MSA outreach chair, explained that the event is a way to teach students about fasting, a practice in which Muslims partake during the month of Ramadan, during which they refrain from eating from dawn until dusk.

“We definitely encouraged people to fast, but the fast today was from 5:19 a.m. to 7:47 p.m., and I think that’s 14 hours, so it’s a long fast,” Afreen said. “The idea was for people to try it. If they couldn’t do it then obviously they’re under no obligation to continue to fast. The goal was to get people engaged.”

Medani said that fasting was more than just refraining from food for Muslims.

“Fasting is supposed to not only strengthen your relationship with your creator, but it’s also supposed to strengthen your own self and your own self-control,” Medani said. “It reminds you to be grateful.”

Among the events held during Islam Awareness Week, the fast-a-thon is the only event that has been held every year since it started, according to Medani. The evening started with a discussion by Hassan Masood, a youth director from a local mosque, who explained what fasting is and why Muslims fast.

“Fasting is not about food,” Masood said. “Food is a big part of it, yes … but fasting is a way to discipline myself.”

He quoted a verse from the Quran about fasting, which states, “O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous, self-disciplined.”

After the discussion, students broke their fast with cups of water and prayed the Muslim sunset prayer, called Maghrib. The MSA provided dinner after the prayer, catered from Al-Baraka Grill.

Maya Stafford, a sophomore studying business administration, attended the event as a non-Muslim who fasted since dawn.

“This is a cultural thing that I don’t know much about, and I really just wanted to familiarize myself more with what it was about,” Stafford said. “I wanted to inject myself into this by fasting, to get a perspective of what it was like and experience that.”

Aasiyah Feisal, a first-year studying engineering who also attended the event, was impressed by the large turnout.

“I thought it was a very beneficial way for Muslims to connect with non-Muslims and for people to see what it is like to fast through food, which really brings people together,” Feisal said.

Other events hosted by MSA for Islam Awareness Week include Prayer on the Lawn, which will be held Tuesday on Stafford Commons at 5:30 p.m., Art Expo, which is Wednesday in Riddick Hearth at 6 p.m., and Act of Kindness, which will be in the Brickyard around noon on Thursday. More information can be found on the Facebook event created by MSA.