During the early hours of March 14, students from Brown Muslim Students Association, or BMSA, returned to the basement of Champlin House to perform their daily Fajr prayer after a 3 a.m. feast at IHOP.
From the evening of Feb. 28 to around March 30, Muslim communities around the world are observing the holy month of Ramadan, which commemorates the revelation of the Quran — the Muslim holy book — to Prophet Muhammad. During this month, many Muslims choose to fast between the hours of sunrise and sunset while engaging in prayers, spiritual reflection and community connection.
At Brown, Saja Alaggad ’28 and her friends hover over various mobile apps in the evening, debating over the exact time of sunset, which marks the beginning of iftar — the meal Muslims share to break their fast.
“Back home, you would listen out the window to hear the mosque and if the prayer was called,” said Alaggad, a Palestinian who grew up in Jordan.
For many Muslims, iftar offers an opportunity for family and friends to gather after a day of fasting. “One of my favorite things back home was hosting an iftar,” Alaggad said. “It just made me feel happy, and it was a way to bring everyone together.”
Alaggad continues finding community through spending quality time with friends when gathering for iftar. On one occasion, Alaggad sat together with a group of students to share traditional Arabic food that her friend cooked from ingredients, such as grape leaves and lamb, that her mother mailed from home.
For Sarah Wafa ’28, a first-year student from California, the celebration of Ramadan also reminded her of home. “You lose an aspect of Ramadan when you’re away at college because so much of the emphasis is on spending time with your family and growing your relationships with them,” Wafa said. But at Brown, she’s found belonging in the Muslim student community “because we’ve bonded so much over Ramadan.”
At 4 a.m., she eats Suhoor in Woolley kitchen with her friends, cracking jokes while attempting to slice through a stack of parathas that fused together in the fridge.
“It’s just a funny time to be awake together,” Wafa said. “You feel like you’re the only people on campus awake at 4 or 5 a.m. eating.”
During Ramadan, BMSA aims to foster community through religious programming, informal gatherings and nightly community iftars hosted in coordination with the Chaplains Office and Brown Dining Services, according to BMSA Service Chair Layla Ahmed ’27.
Hosted in the Brown Muslim Student Center from Monday to Thursday and the Leung Gallery on weekend evenings, BMSA’s community iftars bring together “60 to 100 people each night,” Associate Chaplain of the University for the Muslim Community Imam Amir Toft wrote in an email to The Herald.
A box of dates sits at a table for people to share at each iftar. After breaking fast with a date and a drink, the community members perform Maghrib, the sunset prayer, and share dinner. “It’s also kind of a casual thing,” Ahmed said. “We all get to sit together and catch up.”
On March 9, BMSA collaborated with the Muslim Student Associations at the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and Johnson and Wales University to host a joint iftar at the Leung Gallery.
A lot of students show up in “their nice abayas, which is a cultural dress,” Ahmed said. “It was really cool to see everyone and to be able to meet other Muslim students in the area.”
