On March 18, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) organized various activities as part of Fast-A-Thon in Room 2104 from 6-9 p.m, available to students of all backgrounds. At Fast-A-Thon, students engaged in various activities, including games, Adhan, and Iftar, as well as listening to four guest speakers, including Azhaan Mohammed, founder of Sacred Haqq, and Nabeela Syed, member of the Illinois House of Representatives, who talked about the significance of Ramadan.
To participate in Fast-A-Thon, students were required to R.S.V.P. through a Google Form posted on social media outlets like the Stevenson Daily Digest. For Arsh Attar ’25, he connected with the Muslim student community at Stevenson through Fast-A-Thon, something he did not have at his previous school.
“This year, I’m just looking forward to making more connections,” Attar said. “At my old school, there wasn’t much of that because I was just one among like two or three other Muslims, so I was looking forward to talking to more people and making more friends.”
In addition to students like Attar seeing Fast-A-Thon as an opportunity for Muslim students to come together and collectively celebrate their religious faith, Sabira Appas ’25, Internal Communications Director of MSA, adds that Fast-A-Thon is not exclusive to Muslim students. Appas notes that ultimately, Fast-A-Thon’s welcoming environment also comes from other students’ interest in learning more about Ramadan, even if they aren’t necessarily Muslim.
“Fast-A-Thon, to me, is community,” Appas said. “So many people are willing to come here, willing to learn, and I feel like that’s what Fast-A-Thon is because as a community, it’s important to foster our beliefs, express our feelings, and also teach others why we believe in Ramadan.”
At Fast-A-Thon, students learned messages like the purpose of fasting from various guest speakers that night. Farzaan Aleem, social media influencer and guest speaker at Fast-A-Thon, appreciates how Fast-A-Thon enabled him to share his experiences with the Muslim faith with students and young individuals like himself.
“When I would come [to] speak at these schools, it was always overwhelming to see the amount of love that I was getting from people I can completely relate to,” Aleem said. “I’m in the same shoes as everyone here, and so to be able to give back to my community with the knowledge and experiences that I’ve gained in the past three [to] four years of me making content, me traveling the world, and trying to live this independent life and try to make something of myself, I’m very grateful to God for giving me this opportunity to give back to my community and also see the fruits of my labor.”
Along with inviting guest speakers like Aleem, MSA also planned many other activities like Maghrib and dinner. In organizing the events for Fast-A-Thon, Appas notes how the MSA executive board had to overcome various difficulties, like date placement.
“As an executive board member, there were a lot of obstacles that we had to face,” Appas said. “We faced budgeting issues and issues in terms of availability. We changed the date three or four times, but despite all of these troubles, we all came together and came up with concrete solutions. We split up work, and I feel like by having all of us together, we alleviated most of our stress and most of our problems.”
Even though Appas and MSA did have to work around many challenges for the logistical planning of Fast-A-Thon, Appas sees how MSA’s work through Fast-A-Thon has helped to spread the message of Ramadan to students and peers.
“This month of fasting is probably our most viable way we can express ourselves by having such an event that can educate people about our faith and about our fasting,” Appas said. “Typically, fasting is a unique experience for most people because you wouldn’t expect to not eat from sunrise to sunset. By allowing kids to learn about why we do this and our purpose, it just takes away our worries about discrimination and stuff because people are now more educated.”