Iqra

February 2013
The Ohio State Universitys Assalamu Alaikum, Spring Semester is upon us and the weather outside is both frightful and fantasticdepending on the hour. Many university wide events will be going on this month, including Taste of OSU (Feb 22nd), which is the most unified multi-cultural event on campus. So attend that, if possible. There will not be an MSA GBM that day due to that event. And with midterms and papers coming up always remember, Allah provides. Inside this Issue
Partition in Mosque #MSAStand13 Top My God, My God

Issue 5: Begin Everything With Bismillah

Allah lifts. 7 6 7 8 10 Allah loves. Allah forgives. Allah guides. Allah blesses. The first of His names and characteristics that we learn are ar-Rahman and ar-Raheem: the most Gracious and the most Merciful.

Is MSA a hook-up spot? 11

Upcoming Events
2/15: Medicine and Islam Lecturer: Malika Haque

So remember me; I will remember you. [2:152]

-Mushtaq Dualeh | Iqra Newsletter Director

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Issue 5: The Last Stand

MUSLIM STUDENT ASSOCIATIONS THE LAST STAND

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I ask forgiveness from Allah, the Great, the One except Whom none has the right to be worshipped. He is the Living, the Ever-Lasting, the Oft-forgiving of sins, the Owner of Majesty and Honor. I return to Him in repentance from all sins, disobedience and offences; from any sin that I have committed knowingly or unknowingly, openly or secretly, by word or act, in all my movements and my thoughts; from the sin which I know, and the sin I am unaware of, I ask for forgiveness as many times as the number of what is contained by knowledge, included in the Book, and written by the pen; and as the number of what has been created by the Power, and intended by the will; and as the amount of the ink of the Words of Allah. I ask for forgiveness that is suitable to the Majesty and Perfectness of the Countenance of our Lord, and in the way our Lord likes and is pleased with. Amen, Ya Allah.

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Issue 5: The Last Stand

Q&A with Zak

Co-President

Q: What's your favorite movie/book line? Cloud Atlas: "...from womb to tomb, our lives are not our own..." Q: Your favorite book/movie? Pandorum Q: Favorite Food? I like shrimp. And calamari. Seafood in general. Q: What do you do in your spare time? I'm going to be honest: I catch up on my shows. Q: If you were a super hero what powers would you have? Stop time. Not time travel. That never ends well. Q: What is your most essential appliance? Microwave. It can do everything. Q: Which is your favorite Pokmon? Cyndaquil. Q: Do you have a favorite Surah? If so, what is it? Why? No. They're all my favorite. Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be? Socotra Q: What was your favorite comedy growing up? Full House/the Fresh Prince of Bell Air Q: Do you have any strange phobias? Suffocating. Q: Who is the funniest person you know? I'm hilarious. If you don't know me... your loss. 4

What do YOU have to say about Zak?

Zak is a dude that can be super serious and mega hilarious in a split second. Its pretty weird. But awesome. Sorry, Mr. President.

If you are interested in watching a show ask Zakaria about it. He probably watched it, is watching it or is considering watching it. If you had to buy him gifts I would suggest food, lots of food.

He really likes these Somali desserts called Qumbo (coconut bars basically). So, if you ever need to appease him or get on his good side..
Zak likes to harass. He is stingy. Hell take half your Chipotle.

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Co-President Q&A with Shine Q: If you were a super hero what powers would you have? A: Power of invisibility Q: Do you have a favorite Surah? If so, what is it? Why? A: Surat Yasin because it has so many amazing metaphors, analogies, and comparisons. For example, Allah S says that we start fires with water, meaning we use wood, which is grown with water, to start fires that used to keep us alive. Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be? A: South Korea, it is has forests, beaches, mountains, multiple climates, valleys, and amazing megacities. Q: What was your favorite comedy growing up? A:The Simpsons (my parents assumed it was ok for kids to watch since it was an animation) Q: Do you have any strange phobias? A: Falling off a high cliff into an ocean Q: What's your favorite movie/book line? A: We all are [on our way out]. Act accordingly. Jack Nicholson, "The Departed" Q:What do you do in your spare time? A: I love to cook, watch Korean TV shows, and reorganize drawers Shines Experience as Co-Prez

What do YOU have to say about Shine?

Her name is actually pronounced SHA-NAY. So be sure to say it correctly next time. Shes a lifesaver. MashAllah. Great Person.

I heard her cooking is horrendous. Actually, no I didnt.

Being MSA president this year has been great alhamdullah. My favorite part was helping to clear up misconceptions about women in Islam that many non-Muslims I met had. I have really enjoyed working with the board members in putting on events, like Fast-a-Thon and the conference, that we thought to be beneficial to other people. I also loved meeting and hanging out with some of my favorite scholars that we brought for our various events.

Shes not as intimidating as she seems.

Shine use to scare me when I was younger. She use to be the bully on the school bus. Now shes nicer

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#MSAStand13

Top Tweets
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Issue 5: The Last Stand

Partition in the Mosque

Any 'Ibaadah (act of worship) that has no evidence from the Book of Allah or the authentic Sunnah is a Bid'ah. For any action that is not in itself a 'Ibaadah, but is done to improve or facilitate performing a 'Ibaadah

Hadith About inclusion

Reported by Ibn `Umar (RA): the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, In the presence of three people, two should not hold secret counsel, to the exclusion of the third. [Bukhari and Muslim]

Q: Is it or is it not a must or Sunnah to erect a partition between the men and the women? A: It is neither a must nor a Sunnah to erect a partition between the rows of men and women in the Masjid because the women used to pray in (Jamaa'ah) congregation in the Masjid at the time of the Prophet (SAW), and he did not erect a wall or anything else between them, nor was this the practice of the companions. Q: What is the ruling concerning the partition between men and women in the Masjid? A: To our knowledge, there was no partition in the Prophet's (SAW) Masjid during the time of the Prophet (SAW) or during the time of the Rightly Guided Khalifas. Also there was no partition made from fabric. The Prophet (SAW) never ordered it nor did any of his Rightly Guided Khalifas. This is supported by the Hadith from Sahl bin Saad when he said, "The people used to pray while tying their (izars) around their necks." Because they were very short, it was said to the women to not lift their heads until the men were fully sitting because it was feared that the women would see the men's private parts. If there was a partition, this fear would not exist. But if there was a fear of Fitnah, there would be no harm in erecting a partition between men and women that would not prevent the women from following the Imam in their Salaat. This would prevent corruption and enable them to preform Salaat in the Masjid, which is allowed for them. Allah's Grace and peace be upon our Prophet, his family and his companions.
Courtesy of www.themodernreligion.com

Surat-Al-Hajj Verse 23 Truly, Allah will admit those who believe and do righteous

My God, my God, why have I forsaken thee?

Abdulrahman Al- Ruwaishan | Journalism 15

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? --Matthew 27:46
So Jesus is said, by those who wrote the Bible, to have cried out at his crucifixion. Christians have debated why Jesus said this; we Muslims have no such issue to deal with, considering the obvious difference in beliefs. These words tell us something different, but still valuable; something not about Jesus, peace be upon him, but about ourselves. About the writers of the Bible. About human nature. In our darkest hours we cry out and curse in a dim paroxysm of rage. We rail against the world and rant at anything that our crazed and fear-addled minds fixate on. We know better than to do so--or at least we should. But what does knowledge hold to stupid, unreasoning desperation? Atheist and believer can agree that the world is a madhouse. We are the inmates. For the atheist, oblivion lies before and without and after. For the believer, God is above and behind all things, and there is purpose in the passing tide, method in the overwhelming anarchy. But with a purpose or without, the madhouse is--well, maddening. And humans are weak, and humans forget. In extremis, even Muslims sometimes let go of their faith in God. Sometimes, we forget that God does not test a soul with what it cannot bear. We forget that to God we belong, and to Him we return. We forget what God said to Muhammad, peace be upon him, in the 186th verse of the second chapter of the Quran: And if my servants ask thee of me, I am near. I answer the call of the caller (in need) if he cries out to me. Let them then respond to me, and believe in Me, that they might gain in discernment. Those who wrote the Bible asked the wrong question; we ourselves, when we are tested, cry out with a misguided query. God has not forgotten us. As Moses said in the 20th chapter of the Quran, my Lord does not stray, nor does he forget. God has not forsaken us. In the 29th chapter of the Quran, God says, And those who strive in Our way, we shall guide them to Our paths; and indeed, God is with those who do good.

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Issue 5: The Last Stand

Materialism and Its Effects on Society

Shine Hawramani |Comparative Studies 13 The 21st century is home to a race of humans in a more socially and emotionally negative state than ever before. The shift of values from community and family to material things like wealth, possessions, and status are just a few of the causes. Evidence shows that that the social and financial inequality that exists, such as the gap between the wealthy and poor, has never been this wide. Even worse, the gap continues to increase by the day. In 2002, there were over 540 billionaires in the world, over 70,000 people with a net worth in the hundred millions, and close to ten million millionaires- comparatively higher than any other time in history, even with a population adjustment. The middle class found itself becoming less wealthy, with the size of the lower class growing rapidly. (Kalouche 366). As a result, the human race finds itself more depressed, lonely, anxious, and stressed than ever, even though some of us now have luxuries and wealth beyond the imagination of our forefathers. (Wilkinson and Pickett 3) Why does this matter? One leading reason is that it has bred a generation of materialistic populations- and this is now what the lower and middle classes aspire to follow and imitate. What exactly is materialism? Materialism is defined as The importance a consumer attaches to worldly possessions. At the highest levels of materialism, such possessions assume a central place in a persons life and are believed to provide the greatest sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. (Belk) The evolution of the materialistic mindset has been a result of the domination of capitalist forces in our markets and economies, the proliferation of immaterial labor, and the mindset that time is money. (Kalouch) Due to the increases in wealth and luxury, many people have lost sight of traditional values, thus losing the sense of what make humans emotionally and mentally healthy.

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Should Classic languages be allowed to die?

Shamiyan Hawramani | Nursing 15
Do you feel it is worth the considerable effort and resources involved to save endangered languages or should we just, in the words of one critic, ''Let Them Die? resources to save these endangered languages. If people themselves, dont care about sustaining the language by passing it on to their children and trying to resist tainting it, why should someone else? There are many more areas that could better use the funding and resources to help those in need. However, I do believe the knowledge and wisdom in these languages do need to be preserved; so funding and resources used to preserve written translations of the content and meaning in these languages would serve better. Forcing people to keep a language will not keep it alive for long.

Language and speech are the most effective forms of communication among humans. Although speech in itself isnt in danger, the different forms, or languages are. The importance of preserving endangered languages is explained: The difference this time is that with each language gone, we may also lose whatever knowledge and history were locked up in its stories and myths, along with the human The difference this time is consciousness embedded in its grammatical structure and that with each language vocabulary. When we lose a gone, we may also lose language, we lose the secrets and whatever knowledge and knowledge also stored within it. This can be in the words themselves history were locked up in its stories and myths, along or in the grammar and sentence with the human structure.

For example, when my family and I moved to the United States from fifteen years ago; my parents made a substantial effort to speak to us only in their mother tongue to preserve the language. A few of us can speak it rather fluently but the language of the younger members is tainted with English grammar and phrases. A negative consciousness embedded in of losing these languages and only These languages humans share are saving translations of content is its grammatical structure not only essential to human there isnt the same power behind and vocabulary. communication but to the translations. When reading old preservation of the social poetry, I cant transcribe the construction of reality. This is potent feelings and thoughts described as the process through without losing some value and feeling in the which facts, knowledge, truth, and so on are discovered, translation. The best example of this is in the made known, reaffirmed and altered by the members of Quran. The English translation is incomparable to a society This definition demonstrates the the beauty, precision and depth found in each implications held in language and it's essential qualities, letter, word and pause. needed for society to function. Another problem with trying to preserve languages Nonetheless, I see the extinction of some languages as is that it may cause other languages to disappear. inevitable. Through progressions in technology and For example, in Say No More, the author talks about travel, societies and cultures have mixed and merged; how bringing spoken Hebrew back to life has this makes it more difficult to isolate what belongs to one caused Yiddish to become endangered. There are culture from the other. Since the global economy is negatives and positives in both saving a language inescapable, interaction with other languages is and letting it die; it's like the human life cycle: inescapable. This makes the stability and isolation death and change are inevitable. necessary to breed not only abundance, but consistency and continuity in language extremely difficult to attain. Hitt, Jack. "Say No More." The New York Times. The New

I dont think it is worth the considerable effort and

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York Times, 29 Feb. 2004. Web. 31 Jan. 2013. Newman, David M. "Chapter 3." Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life. Los Angeles [etc.: Pine Forge, 2010. 56. Print.

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Ayat Aldoori Human Nutrition Graduate Student She wont go to MSA because she thinks its a hook-up place. When my friend, the sisterhood chair at the time, told me her friend said this I was taken aback. I had been involved in our universitys MSA and this came as an insult to the programming and events I helped to plan as education chair. How could she say that? MSA is not some place where you go to hook-up with guys! Or is it? According to Merriam-Webster dictionary a hook-up can refer to an act or an instance of hooking up; especially: a casual sexual encounter.1 However this is not the only way hook-up is defined. In an anonymous survey2 distributed via Facebook and Twitter on MSA groups and other Muslim related pages some respondents described a hook-up place as a: Place where you can meet up with other students and make friends. place to meet and socialize with the opposite gender and engage in haram activity. place where females and males actively go in order to attract the attention of the opposite sex. [Place] where you go to look for potential spouses. When asked if MSA was a hook-up spot 11 responded yes and 7 responded no. It seems that ones personal definition of hook-up determined whether MSA is thought of as a hook-up place or not. Taking

the last definition stated above, what if MSA were a place to go to meet a potential spouse? What would be the implications of this? MSA National strives to facilitate networking, educating, and empowering the students of today to be citizens of tomorrows community.3 Although a national organization might have slightly different goals than those of individual MSA chapters, it would be safe to say that most MSAs purposes are to organize weekly prayers, spiritually uplift, plan awareness events, educate about Islam and to foster community among students. Sometimes the community aspect is overlooked but it is very important. Where else will college students go to be around Muslims and learn more about Islam if a mosque is not within reach? Strong communities need to be built and that means men and women working productively and cooperating with each other to better humanity and themselves. Bonds can be strengthened through charity, volunteering, planning Islamic events, educating and helping those less fortunate together.
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Another person responded: as long as you keep to your boundaries and dont violate the rules of Islam. And you do not drag it out, you let your parents know and move on from there. This response brings up an important point. MSA can be a good place to meet a potential spouse, but there needs to be Islamic guidelines set within the MSA and its members to make it a safe and halal environment. This does not mean completely segregating opposite genders and doing totally separate activities. This means doing productive and purposeful activities like those stated above while maintaining a level of respect and good manners. It is all about intention. If someone goes somewhere with the intent of doing something haram then nothing will stop them except themselves. .It is important that if you do find yourself in a situation where you like someone you need to take the proper steps in getting to know them, i.e. letting parents know and getting permission, never meeting alone, being serious and keeping intentions clear. The reality is that MSA is a hook-up spot. But under Islamic guidelines it is a halal hook-up spot. MSA is a great place to meet someone with similar interests as you and passion to do good. But it should not be the only reason you participate in it. MSA is much more than that. Working together in MSA has the potential to better the community, to educate, and to spread the true spirit of Islam. If you meet the one along the way then say Alhamdullilah, it is all part of Allahs plan after all.

Continued from page 11

As a result of the proximity between males and females involved with doing these activities you may meet someone you like and possibly even get married to them. In the survey, 3 of 9 people who responded that they were either engaged, married, or talking to someone potentially for marriage said they had met the person through MSA. I personally know of two couples who had met through MSA and are now married. When asked whether meeting someone potential for marriage through MSA events is ok most respondents answered yes, as long as it was in an Islamic environment. Some of the responses like the following stated that it was better to meet someone at MSA than at a bar: Both of you are attending the MSA to increase your knowledge in your deen. I honestly don't see anything wrong with meeting a potential partner at an Islamic event. It's better than meeting someone at a bar. 12

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Issue 5: The Last Stand

On the Start of a Revolution Streets paved with concrete Concrete over cobblestones In case the masses get restless and realize the strength Of the floor Rocks through windows Revolution was built on much less Sometimes the softness of a voice Sometimes the heaviness of the silence Sometimes the staleness of the bread Thrown casually at the feet of the people This time the revolution will begin when we realize Perhaps out loud We did not break our backs for your crumbs We deserve the fresh, moist taste Of that freedom You call cake.
Ilhan Dahir|English and Political Science 15

Each blink Dry eyes. An oasis

Dry tongues. Are we alive?

Nima Dahir | Economics and Political Science 16

Always choose to heal, not to hurt, to forgive not to despise, to persevere not to quit, to smile not to frown, and to love not to hate! At the end of life, what really matters is not what we bought, but what we built, not what we got, but what we shared, not our competence but our character, and not our success but our significance. Live a life that matters. Live a life that cares and be Yourself

Mufti Ismail Menk

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ARE YOU A WRITER, AN ARTIST, A COMEDIAN?

Iqra is accepting artwork and poetry for the Creative Corner feature page! Got Stories, Articles, Commentary, Photos? Send them in to msa.ohiostate@gmail.com! Subject Line: IQRA Submission To get involved in the newsletter contact the Editor, Mushtaq Dualeh, at dualeh.2@osu.edu.
The Ohio State Universitys

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