Eastern Michigan University’s Muslim Student Association held a dinner Sunday celebrating the start of Eid al-Adha, which commemorates the willingness of Prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmel to prove his obedience to God.
The event featured Saudi-Arabian speaker Majed Mahmoud, talking about charity, and beat-boxer Hassan Ahmed. The dinner was held in the Student Center’s ballroom A.
After MSA President Nadia Aggour welcomed the audience and reminded all it was “a time for giving,” Mahmoud began his speech.
With his personal life, he also followed the theme of the event. Mahmoud was born in Saudi Arabia, where he learned the basics of Theology, Hadith, Islamic jurisprudence, Tafseer – commentary on the Qur’an – and Tajweed – pronunciation and recitation at a moderate speed – at a private school in Saudi Arabia for nine years.
He later moved to Canada and completed 30 classes at the Almaghrib Institute, the leading
Islamic institution in North American. Mahmoud received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and is working on a master’s degree in business administration at Wayne State
University and a certification in Qur’an memorization.
“It’s a proof that in the moment you give, you don’t doubt the fact your money decreased,”
Mahmoud said. “No, it did not. The moment to give, you aren’t worried, ‘Am I getting
something in return or not?’ Charity is a proof. It’s a way; it’s a gauge to measure yourself; that’s charity.”
Mahmoud said it’s not only money that counts as charity. One of the “strongest charities” he
experienced was the “emotional charity” of a man simply standing by him as he changed a tire on a notoriously dangerous street one late night in Detroit.
“Charity is not limited to the Muslims, to people of other faiths, to animals, to nothing, to the community, to moving a tree branch; that is charity,” Mahmoud said. “There are no limits, absolutely no limits.”
Participating students at the LBC-credit approved event had positive reactions about Mahmoud’s personal accounts.
“I thought [the speaker] did a really good job,” Yusr Elkhoja said. “And under the circumstances, he found a way to keep it light, because the audience wasn’t all Muslims.”
After Mahmoud finished his talk, dinner was served. The table was an array of dishes such as hummus with pita chips and vegetarian lasagna; again, students were satisfied.
Elkhoja not only approved of the dinner but said, “I really liked the hummus, personally.”
Entertainment was provided after dinner in the form of beat-boxing by Ahmed, a student from Chicago. He is a second-year medical student, and he performed with the incorporation of storytelling, hip-hop and comedic insights into modern culture. He portrayed “Adam,” a Muslim high school student practicing Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. Ahmed told Adam’s story by intertwining vocal percussion into Adam’s spoken thoughts and dialog with relatives and friends to create comical insight into the struggles of the young Muslim in modern society.
“It’s like a fresh look on everything,” student Hiba Baghdadi said on Ahmed’s performance.
“Just remembering how high school was … And I didn’t go to a public high school, but we still feel stuff like that, so it was nice getting perspective and being reminded that we are not alone in the sort of, struggle. Plus, the beat-boxing was really entertaining, so I loved it.”
The audience enjoyed Ahmed, as it often broke into a round of applause during the performance.
“I think that was the highlight of the night,” Elkhoja said.
Donations to Somalia and the MSA were requested. There were thanks to EMU’s Center for Multicultural Affairs, Diversity and Community Involvement and Student Government for making the event possible.
