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From The Chaplain’s Desk: Prep Guide For Ramadan On Campus

Muslim Matters - 24 February, 2024 - 11:00

Alḥamdulillah, it’s almost that time of year again. That time of the year that is marked by a mixed bag of emotions; happiness, joy, excitement, enthusiasm, anticipation, worry, stress, anxiety, and concern. Through the grace and mercy of Allah ﷻ Ramaḍān is right around the corner. In just a few days, we’ll be welcoming this very special guest that comes and visits us every single year.

In the past several weeks, anyone I’ve spoken with expresses amazement at how fast this year has gone by. It truly feels as if Ramaḍān wasn’t too long ago, but it has already been a year. In this past year, people have come and gone. There are several individuals we know who witnessed and experienced Ramaḍān with us last year, but won’t be with us this year as they have transitioned to the mercy of Allah ﷻ. We have grown, completed another year of school, and had several experiences. Time is one of the most unique and intriguing creations and blessings of Allah ﷻ. It is our responsibility to figure out how to preserve the gift of time and take advantage of it. 

For some students, the build-up to Ramaḍān can sometimes create a feeling of stress and anxiety. How are we going to wake up for suḥūr, fast for so long, pray tarāwīh, and still attend our classes, take notes, study, and do well on our midterms and finals? When am I going to sleep?! Coffee! All of these feelings are totally normal, and usually through the blessings of Ramaḍān, they melt away after the first few days.

Allah ﷻ facilitates ease for us during this month, allowing us to do amazing things that we thought we would be unable to do. We are about to witness the beginning of the month of worship (praying, fasting, recitation of the Quran, duʿā, dhikr, etc.), gratitude, generosity, service, God-consciousness, mercy, and forgiveness. Allah ﷻ will be giving us another opportunity to reconnect with Him and earn His pleasure, mercy, grace, pardon, and forgiveness. 

Preparing for Ramaḍān as a college/university student can be a very beneficial, fulfilling, and challenging experience that allows us to balance our responsibilities to Allah ﷻ, others, spiritual growth, and studies. The following is a guide for preparing for Ramaḍān and benefitting from its blessings as a busy (perhaps 🙂I say that because during my student days, my friends and I had a lot of free time!) college/university student.

  1.   Intentions – One of the most important and fundamental steps when preparing for anything is clarifying and purifying our intentions. As the Prophet ﷺ said, “Actions are only by intentions and every person will only get what they intend.”1 Our primary intention for fasting the month of Ramaḍān is to obey Allah’s subḥānahu wa ta'āla (glorified and exalted be He) command as an expression of our love, gratitude, devotion, submission, servitude, and surrender so that we can earn His pleasure. We can then make secondary intentions in the form of micro or macro goals. For example, perhaps I want to recite or memorize more Quran, become consistent with my prayers, improve the quality of my prayers, be more generous, or quit a bad habit. We should take some time to identify our personal goals for Ramaḍān, write them down, plan out how to practically achieve them, and then get to work! The beautiful thing about Ramaḍān is that Allah ﷻ facilitates ease for us and makes these goals attainable.
  2. Learn – Before the month of Ramaḍān begins, we should take some time to learn about its blessings, virtues, rewards, rules, and regulations. I would recommend reading through the aḥādīth on the virtues of Ramaḍān, fasting, charity, prayer, and recitation of the Quran in Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn. Review the fiqh of fasting according to whatever school of thought you may follow. Perhaps attend a local class or seminar that covers these topics, or better yet organize one for your MSA/MSU with your local scholar. Ramadan on campus

    Ramadan on Campus – PC: Priscilla du Preez (unsplash)

  3. Plan Your Schedule – Start by assessing your class and study schedule during Ramaḍān. Adjust your timetable to accommodate prayer times, especially Fajr, Maghrib, and ʿIshā prayers. Ideally, try to pray Fajr, ʿIshā, and Tarāwīḥ at your local masjid. Make sure you have enough time for suḥūr (pre-dawn meal) and iftār (breaking the fast). Coordinate with professors or supervisors if necessary to manage academic commitments during fasting hours. Dedicate a set time to reciting the Quran along with translation. 
  4. Time Management – Balancing academic commitments with religious observance during Ramaḍān requires effective time management. Prioritize tasks, allocate specific study hours, and utilize breaks between classes for spiritual activities such as reading Quran, making dhikr (remembrance of Allah subḥānahu wa ta'āla (glorified and exalted be He)), or reading religious books. Setting realistic goals and sticking to a campus routine will help you stay productive throughout the month. An essential part of time management during this blessed month is to cut down on distractions. I would personally recommend deleting all your social media accounts for the month (take a social media break), suspending your Netflix/Hulu/prime or any other streaming services, and avoiding music altogether. Replace any music you may listen to with Quranic recitation or beneficial lectures and reminders. Believe me, spending a month away from these things will not take anything away from your life or somehow lead you to a life of boredom. It will enrich your life and improve your spiritual health. 
  5. Connect with the Campus Community – Engage with the Muslim community on campus to foster a supportive environment during Ramaḍān. Participate in group activities such as iftār gatherings, tarawīḥ prayers, Quran study circles, and community service projects. Building bonds with fellow students will enhance your sense of belonging and strengthen your spiritual journey. I would highly recommend: daily MSA/MSU suḥūr/iftār, praying all your prayers in congregation while you’re on campus, carpools for Fajr and ʿIshā, and a daily Quran reading and reflection circle an hour before iftār.
  6. Pray Tarāwīh Nightly – The Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever stands at night in prayer during Ramaḍān with faith and sincerity, then all of their previous sins will be forgiven.”2 According to most scholars, this ḥadīth refers to the unique night prayer of Ramaḍān that is performed after ʿIshā known as Tarāwīḥ. Make a habit of praying this extra prayer nightly throughout the month.  
  7. Make a habit of reading the Quran – The month of Ramaḍān is the month of the Quran. We should set realistic goals for our recitation throughout the month. For some, this may be doing several completions of the Quran, for others one, and for others perhaps even reading a few pages or verses a day. Whatever it may be, we should set realistic goals that we can achieve and maintain on a regular and consistent basis. Perhaps organize a communal/group Quran reading on campus daily 30-40 minutes before ifṭār. 

May Allah ﷻ accept all our fasts, prayers, charity, and any other act of righteousness we do in this blessed month and make it a means for us to attain the forgiveness and mercy of Allah ﷻ. Āmīn!

 

Related:

Ramadan Prep Guide for Busy People | Part 1: Training Season

From The Chaplain’s Desk: Preparing For Ramadan On Campus

1    https://sunnah.com/nasai:752    https://sunnah.com/bukhari:1901

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Brianna Ghey and stable-door logic

Indigo Jo Blogs - 22 February, 2024 - 22:40
Picture of Brianna Ghey, a young, white, female presenting teenager with long, blonde hair and glasses, standing in a wooded area wearing a white cardigan and tartan school skirt with her finger pointed out towards the camera.Brianna Ghey. (Image source: TikTok.)

A few years ago I wrote an article on what I called “stable-door logic”: the tendency, after a disaster or atrocity, to look for ways to make sure that said disaster could not have happened if they had been in place, and to do those things. This came after a German passenger aeroplane was flown into the side of a mountain in the French Alps by its pilot while his co-pilot was out of the cockpit to use the toilet, and the co-pilot was unable to get back in because of security measures put in place after 9/11. We have been seeing the same in the wake of the murder of Brianna Ghey last year and the trial and imprisonment of her two teenage killers: Esther Ghey, Brianna’s mother, has been telling the newspapers that Brianna was vulnerable because of her addiction to social media and calling for special phones to be introduced that offer no access to social media and that if under-16s have access to any phones at all, it should have to be one of these.

Mobile phones that offer no internet access already exist, of course; they were what most of us used before the iPhone and Android became popular (there were smartphones before this, but they were rather more primitive than those of today). Mobile phones are not the only devices that offer social media access; computers and tablets do as well. In the early days of social media, alternatives to Facebook existed that catered to teenagers, such as Bebo and MySpace; the first of these closed down, likely because children wanted access to their parents’ and other relatives’ social media which was on Facebook, and the latter because it was horribly slow and sometimes illegible because of the graphics it allowed people to use, and these days mostly caters to musicians. Facebook has a lot to answer for; in other parts of the world the fake news it allows to be circulated is linked to serious inter-communal violence. But even though Brianna Ghey had been accessing sites discussing self-harm and eating disorders, these things didn’t kill Brianna Ghey; her two schoolmates did.

Esther Ghey seems to have reasoned that Brianna was killed partly because she was transgender, and maybe blames this on social media, and partly on her lack of social skills, which likewise remained undeveloped because she had enough friends online not to have to work on her relationships with her schoolmates. The simple fact is that some children fail to develop friendships at school and this was the case before social media existed. Some children do not get on at school, even if they are academically able and interested in their learning. Online communities provide an avenue for forming friendships for these young people that school does not, and without it, they would just have no friends. Removing supports from people does not always make them self-sufficient, and removing one avenue for friendship and social interaction does not mean they will find another. The killers, Eddie Ratcliffe and Scarlett Jenkinson, were also influenced by things they had read online, but they were also disturbed individuals who both inflamed each other’s criminal tendencies. This phenomenon, called folie à deux, has been documented for decades or centuries, long before computers existed, let alone the Internet. 

There were opportunities to save Brianna, of course. If Scarlett Jenkinson’s old school had passed on the details of her behaviour, the fact that she had given another girl sweets laced with cannabis, making her very ill, perhaps her new school — Brianna’s school — could have ensured other students were protected, or not allowed her into the school. But none of these things were in Esther Ghey’s power; what she could have done was restrict Brianna’s freedom and her access to information and to connections with people online. Once again, people cannot face up to the fact that an evil-doer was too smart for them, and there was nothing they could reasonably have done to prevent them harming someone. As with the German air disaster, the things Esther Ghey suggests we do to prevent another similar tragedy will have unpleasant consequences for lots of other young people: cut them off from perfectly healthy and beneficial friendships, make it more difficult or impossible to contact friends when separated by distance or when one is in hospital, among other things. Although there is a stereotype of autistic people relying on the Internet for their social interaction, chronically ill people do as well, including children, particularly those who are housebound and cannot go to school or to places where people socialise.

Esther Ghey has also demanded that these special phones for teenagers be linked to their parents’ phones, and that they inform the parents if the teenager searches for some forbidden topic or other. This is an extremely dangerous suggestion; the child could be searching for help with something they could not discuss with their parents, maybe because of the parents’ religion or culture but maybe because the parents are the problem: they are the abusers, or they are the ones bringing the abuser into their life. If such parents are informed that their child is looking for ways to escape from the situation or perhaps alert the authorities to the situation, the child’s life could be in danger. It’s a way to increase parental control, not enhance the child’s safety, and sometimes the first does not help with the second.

We must also remember that the safety of all young people was at stake when Scarlett Jenkinson was allowed to move schools after trying to poison someone, not just the one she killed. She and Ratcliffe had a hit-list and there were four other names on it, so if Esther Ghey had managed to keep Brianna wrapped in cotton wool and isolated from her online community and maybe even prevent her from becoming transgender, at least one of the four others would have been at risk. A better way to protect everyone would have been to ensure that pupils, like teachers, cannot enter a school after seriously harming someone or displaying behaviour that strongly suggests they might, at least not without intensive supervision if at all. I can’t see a serious downside to keeping a murderer away from children, which is more than can be said for removing all teenagers’ internet or social media access.

Possibly Related Posts:


Christchurch gunman discussed attacks online a year before carrying them out | Chris Wilson, Ethan Renner, Jack Smylie and Michal Dziwulski for the Conversation

The Guardian World news: Islam - 20 February, 2024 - 23:13

New research into Brenton Tarrant’s posts on 4chan raises questions about why authorities did not detect them before the 2019 mosque shootings

In March and August 2018, up to a year before he attacked two Christchurch mosques, Brenton Tarrant posted publicly online that he planned to do so. Until now, these statements have not been identified.

In fact, for four years before his attack, Tarrant had been posting anonymously but publicly on the online message board 4chan about the need to attack people of colour in locations of “significance”, including places of worship.

The individual claimed that he was not a frequent commenter on extreme rightwing sites and that YouTube was, for him, a far more significant source of information and inspiration. Although he did frequent extreme rightwing discussion boards such as those on 4chan and 8chan, the evidence we have seen is indicative of more substantial use of YouTube and is therefore consistent with what he told us.

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Hindu nationalists go to court over lion named after Muslim emperor in India

The Guardian World news: Islam - 18 February, 2024 - 14:27

Controversy in West Bengal centres around Akbar and Sita, named for a Hindu deity, being placed in the same enclosure

An Indian Hindu nationalist organisation has launched a court petition to stop two lions named after a Hindu deity and a 16th-century Muslim emperor from sharing a zoo enclosure.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a prominent rightwing Hindu organisation, went to court in the state of West Bengal after reports a lioness named Sita had been put with a lion called Akbar.

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