Guest blogger Ola Mohamed is a senior at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill studying Political Science and International Studies. She is interested in how Muslim youth from different backgrounds deal with issues of integration and identity in the United States. A native Egyptian, Ola enjoys learning about Middle Eastern history and has traveled to Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Working with the UNC Muslim Students Association sparked Ola’s interest in interfaith work. In her free time, Ola enjoys working on community-based projects, ice-skating, hiking, traveling, eating almost any kind of fruit and developing her photography skills.

This Sunday morning had the appearance of most others: serene and uneventful. I go downstairs to see if the kitchen has yet come to life. The rest of the house is quietly contemplating summer’s end; the kitchen slumbers as well. I go back up to my room, and highlighter in hand, I delve into political theory. The previous Tuesday marked the beginning of my senior year at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

The kitchen comes alive when my mother awakens. “Does anyone want to help their mother for ten minutes?” This is my mom’s indirect, yet direct, way of asking for help. I think about this for a minute and trek down the stairs.

I’m late. My mom has already finished half the task she wanted one of her children to do. “I’ll finish,” I offer. I start scooping shredded onions seasoned with salt and pepper into freezer bags from a massive plastic bowl. “Yes! This is great,” my mother exclaims. “This is how I prepare for Ramadan.” I tightly seal the bags of shredded onions and stack them in the freezer. Now each bag is ready to go for making Egyptian-style dinners quickly, and my mother doesn’t have to think about food all the time during Ramadan.

Fasting everyday from dawn to dusk during the ninth Islamic lunar month of Ramadan is one of the main tenets of Muslim practice. The month is historically significant because Muslims believe that Ramadan was the month in which Muhammad (peace be upon him) began to receive revelations of the Qur’an from God through the Archangel Gabriel. Fasting Ramadan serves a spiritual purpose as well. Fasting from food, drink, disgraceful actions—such as foul language—and sexual relations frees the practicing Muslim from the distractions of this world and transplants him or her into a spiritual sphere of reflection. Self-discipline, Muslim children are taught in Islamic Sunday school, nourishes spiritual growth. Fasting is not starvation, its conscious and purposeful self-deprivation, and many Muslims will tell you that the euphoria of breaking a fast after hours of patient hunger has a sweetness of its own: hard to describe, easy to feel.

For me, preparing for Ramadan is about revisiting and reflecting on these verses and ideas. It is human nature to forget, and since fasting is about spiritual renewal, it is important to renew one’s understanding and intention.

It is Monday, August 18 when I walk down the familiar hallway of Murphey Hall. Five Muslim Student Association (MSA) board members are waiting. Classes had not yet started and, as President of the UNC MSA, I had convened the board for two meetings. I hoped to death they didn’t already resent me for it, but I had little choice. Ramadan was starting in two weeks. There was a lot to be done.

The UNC MSA has an active Ramadan agenda. Ramadan for MSA members means iftars (dinners breaking the fast) on every Wednesday and Thursday. Ramadan is always packed to the brim with service and interfaith events as well. Fasting on an individual level may be refreshing to the soul, but fasting is also aimed at getting Muslims to empathize with the poor and reach out to others. In the spirit of these ideals, MSA hosts an annual fundraising event, the Triangle MSA Iftar, with the Duke and N.C. State’s MSAs. In 2005, the event raised over $18,000 for the victims of the South Asian earthquake. This year’s money will go to an orphan drive.

MSA also hosts Islamic Awareness Week in the campus’ student center, where they hand out brochures on topics like ‘Women in Islam’ and ‘Islam 101.’ A few courageous female students agree to wear a hijab (headscarf) around campus and record their thoughts in a journal, as part of the successful “A Walk in My Hijab” initiative started a couple of years ago. MSA also holds another interfaith-service event, Fast-a-thon, in which non-Muslim students pledge to fast for one day. For every person who pledges to fast, MSA asks local businesses to donate money to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. Last year, over 470 students pledged to fast and $2,200 was donated to the food bank.

I have been on the MSA board for two years. All of a sudden, however, I was responsible for overseeing all of these events. For the first time in my life, preparing for Ramadan didn’t just mean packing onions in freezer bags or happily revisiting the verses in the Qur’an about why we fast on a lazy afternoon. Preparing for Ramadan this year meant preparing for a community of over 200 students. It meant coordinating sometimes agonizing details for numerous iftars, large speaker events and inter-organizational meetings.

As Ramadan races ever-closer, I come to a reassuring realization. Preparing for Ramadan is not about stocking on food, but the culture of food is very much a part of Ramadan. Ramadan would not be the same to me without apricot juice, dates and oven-baked Egyptian dinners. Likewise, Ramadan is not exclusively about spiritual meditation, but Ramadan without reading the Qur’an and reflecting on its beauty in prayer would definitely not feel like Ramadan. Ramadan is also not all about MSA iftars and campus events, but Ramadan without a sense of community and without a passion to share its spirit with the poor would be a Ramadan lacking life. Thus, preparing for Ramadan is all of these things together. It is preparing the soul, the family and the community for a month of deep connection, reflection and renewal with Allah.