asSalamu Alaykum waRahmatullah! May peace, blessings, and mercy from God be upon you! Ramadan Mubarak to our MSA family! May Allah make this month the best month for us spiritually and allow us to gain closeness to Him in this month that will stay with us until the next Ramadan. May He accept from us our fasting, praying, reading of the Quran, supplications to Him, and our prostrations at night! Enjoy the following newsletter recapping the month of March where we celebrated Women’s History Month and welcomed renowned speakers to our campus!

March Donation Drive: Feminine Care

In the spirit of women’s history month, we hosted a feminine care drive to collect donations of feminine care items that are oftentimes expensive and hard to acquire for the underserved. All items collected will be donated to The Nest Lexington, a local support center for women, children, and families. JazakAllah khayr MSA for all your generous donations. May Allah reward you all!  

SHARE Lunch 

MSA volunteers joined us in packaging and distributing free lunches at SHARE Center Lexington on March 4th and 18th. Alhamdulillah, we served a total of around 140 lunches to the community surrounding the Georgetown St. area this month. 

LUA Tutoring

Since October 2022, MSA members have volunteered as tutors at the local Islamic school, Lexington Universal Academy. March marks the end of LUA tutoring for the 2022-23 year. Thank you to all of our tutors for dedicating your time in supporting the education and enrichment of the future generation of Muslim leaders, iA. May Allah reward you all!  

Salam y’all! Ramadan Mubarak:)

I wanted to share a recap of Islamic Awareness Week with everyone. We had a very beneficial and successful week of events Alhamdulillah! We started off the week on Monday with an Abrahamic Faiths Jeopardy Night. This was in collaboration with St. Augustine Chapel and Kentucky Hillel. It was very fun and informative, and got very very competitive! On Tuesday, we hosted Meet A Muslim. This event was more informative and interactive as we catered the event to what passersby wanted to discuss. We had questions they could answer for a donut to spark conversation. We also had translated Qurans and hijabs to give away to whoever showed interest in them. We used this day to PR our speaker events as well with little flyers.

On Wednesday, we had the privilege of hosting Ustadha Lobna Mulla for International Women’s Day in collaboration with the Martin Luther King Jr. Center. She spoke about Prominent Women in Islam. The turnout was wonderful and the conversations were even better. She gave a very insightful lecture and in sha Allah everyone who went benefited tremendously from her wealth of knowledge. She was very charismatic and personable and we enjoyed every second with her! On Thursday, we hosted our culminating event featuring two great speakers MashaAllah. Dr. Tesneem Alkiek and Ustadh Ubaydullah Evans joined us for the evening to discuss Confidence in the face of the American Muslim Struggle. The turnout for that event was amazing as well and in sha Allah everyone who attended benefited from it! 

We can’t wait for next year’s Islamic Awareness Week:) Thank you all for coming and thank you to everyone who made these events possible. We couldn’t have done it without y’all (you know who you are)! 

Fajr & (no) Folgers!

Alhamdulillah the best month of the year is upon us again! Our Fajr & Folgers series kick-started our Ramadan spirits with our members praying Fajr Salah at the Limestone Masjid and included a recitation of Surah al-Kahf and a tafsir-based discussion on the cave sleepers. Despite not having our favorite coffee or chai, we were invigorated by this holy month and had fruitful discussion!

The Spirit of Ramadan

This month, we had the pleasure of hosting UK Graduate Osama Abdl Haleem who gave us a lecture on the nature of Ramadan and the purpose of the holy month. He tells us that while we each have our own goals and aspirations for the month, we should also be focusing on accepting the love and mercy of Allah subhanu wa ta’ala. His mercy is emphasized on His throne which states: “Verily, My mercy prevails over My wrath.” Ponder and invoke the divine qualities of Allah subhanu wa ta’ala as He is ar-Rahman, ar-Raheem, and al-Wadud. May Allah subhanu wa ta’ala accept our fasts and good deeds this Ramadan and continue to bless us with His mercy and love.

This month’s social events coincided with IAW (refer to campus outreach). With Ramadan beginning this month, it was only appropriate that one of our social events be an iftar potluck. Alhumdulillah we had a successful iftar event on March 31st and revealed the election results for the 2023-2024 MSA board!

This month, we would like to highlight an up-and-coming halal restaurant in town, Chic Charc. Elias Guzman is the owner of this family-owned business that specializes in Peruvian-style chicken cuisine. Guzman is originally from Washington, D.C. and frequented a Peruvian-style corner store during his time living there. After moving to Lexington, Guzman was upset to find that there weren’t any places that sell the chicken he loves. Fueled by a desire to share the food he loves with the Lexington community, Guzman reached out to his old friend at the corner store in D.C., who later became his mentor. Guzman set course to Peru where he met with manufacturers of special ovens and began customizing his own oven. Bringing this oven back to the states, Guzman and his family soon opened up their restaurant. When asked about his motivations and goals, Guzman responds that he one day hopes to bring Chic Charc to downtown Lexington. To help Guzman and his family realize their dreams, you can help by making your way to the store and getting a taste of the juiciest chicken in town! The Chic Charc family sends their thanks to the Muslim community who have already given their love and support and ask that we continue spreading the word so we can all share in the cheer!

To learn more, visit Chic Charc at https://chiccharc.com/ 

OR visit in store at 1474 Anniston Dr, Unit B1

More pictures from March:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-6tO4ruZ5AtZn5ADRklT1LGzKG-ccQkb?usp=share_link

Salaam! If you are a graduating student this May please let the MSA know ASAP if you would like a graduation cord for being a part of our organization! Also…Please join us in welcoming our newly elected MSA Board for the 2023-2024 school year! 

• President: Iman Hassan

• Vice President: Elaf Ghoneim

• Secretary: Zohaib Iqbal

• Treasurer: Ahmed Khan

• Public Relations: Najma Amarkhail

• Community Service: Amel Kredan

• Halaqa: Areeda Aftab

• Social: Jenna Gorman

• Campus Outreach: Junaid Ahmed

Salaam, no updates at this time! I am still hard at work at fulfilling my goals for this year so please check the website occasionally for new additions! Speaking of which, the newly redesigned website is now live! As always, please send us an email if you think the organization or the website could benefit in any way. JazakumAllahu Khayr.

Ramadan Mubarak ! ☪️

Alhamdulillah for a successful and blessed past month! I hope that Ramadan has been a time of renewal, peace, and joy for everyone so far inshaAllah. We are so excited for what we have planned in our LAST(😢) month of the semester inA. I wanted to share a short little du’a with you all:

'Aishah (May Allah be pleased with her) reported:

I asked: "O Messenger of Allah! If I realize Lailat-ul-Qadr (Night of Decree), what should I supplicate in it?" He (ﷺ) replied, "You should supplicate: Allahumma innaka 'afuwwun, tuhibbul-'afwa, fa'fu 'anni (O Allah, You are Most Forgiving, and You love forgiveness; so forgive me)."

[At-Tirmidhi].

This is one of the most important and powerful du’as to recite during the last ten nights. Specifically, it is best to say this du’a in the last third of the night.  May Allah accept 🤲. May Allah allow us to benefit from this blessed month and accept our du’as. May He protect us from what is good and keep us away from what is evil, Allahumma Ameen.

JazakAllahu Khairan! 😊