As the sun sank behind the Quarry walls, the amphitheater stage lay covered in prayer mats facing Mecca, set before rows of tables filled with the evening’s meal. UC Santa Cruz’s Muslim Student Association (MSA), announced the end of the day’s fast to the crowd and the start of the annual “Iftar in the Quarry.”
On the eighth day of Ramadan, MSA members and the grassroots Muslim empowerment non-profit Manara West broke their fast alongside over 100 community members of varying faiths.
“To watch the smiles on everybody’s face and those faces of pain because of hunger turn into faces of satisfaction because of how great the food and speeches were, it meant a lot to every single one of us,” said MSA board member and UCSC second-year Muneeb Syed. 
Members of UCSC’s MSA serve food for the evenings Iftar.
During Ramadan, Muslims must abstain from eating food or drinking water during daylight hours for the entirety of March. Most Muslims eat their first meal of the day, “suhoor” or “sehri,” in the early morning hours. Once the sun sets, the day-long fast is broken with a meal called “iftar.” Typically, iftar begins with the consumption of palm dates, which were in ample supply at Friday’s event. This type of fasting is meant to increase “taqwa,” or consciousness of Allah, as well as practice self-discipline and empathy for the less fortunate.
“Ramadan is the month where our holy book was revealed to our prophet … a time where we fast from sunrise to sunset,” Syed explained. “We focus on our prayers and we try to really get in tune with our spiritual, mental and physical health.”
While food is distributed in the back, individual community members pray.
Iftars like Friday’s are usually celebrated with family and friends in smaller settings. But with many students being away from home, student organizers have made the effort, year after year, to host a larger-scale event within their community. With two percent of UCSC’s student population identifying as Muslim, finding and fostering community remains a crucial facet of campus life.
“I think the community-building aspect of Islam is very overlooked sometimes,” Syed said. “And so an event like this is really, really important,”
Alongside the meal, the night included group prayer, readings of the Quran, both in English and Arabic, and a guest speaker provided by Manara West.
This event was the product of months of planning, continuing a tradition of community iftars spanning the last 10 years. UCSC’s MSA works closely with the university to provide a welcoming space for observance to anyone interested.
Community members pray on the quarry amphitheater stage.
“The community has been very supportive, and we’ve been blessed to have this opportunity,” said event organizer and MSA president Hadi Mirza. “Garrett, the dean of students, and everyone else help[s] support us with the dining halls, making sure there’s halal options with the Slug Stops and dates to break our fast with.”
During the month of March, UCSC offers accommodations and support to observing students by providing halal meals for iftar at the College Nine/John R. Lewis, Porter/Kresge and Rachel Carson/Oakes Dining Halls from sunset to 11 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday. Campus markets and Slug Stop will carry halal options like cereals, oatmeal, yogurt and hard-boiled eggs to purchase for the following mornings’ suhoor.
“Being kind of far [from home], it’s kind of hard to have that sense of community,” Mirza said. “But with the MSA, going to the dining hall and eating, that kind of makes up for it.”
UCSC also maintains The Reflection Center in Quarry Plaza, and College Nine/John R. Lewis Community Room as a space for students to perform the extended prayer routine of Ramadan. The normal Islamic prayer routine includes five prayers throughout the day: Fajr takes place before sunrise, Dhuhr after noon, Asr in the late afternoon, Maghrib immediately after sunset and Isha at night. During Ramadan, an additional reading of passages from the Quran is added during iftar as a sixth prayer called Taraweeh.
During Friday’s iftar, the MSA led Maghrib for nearly 75 participating students, and UCSC graduate student Mohamed Oussama Najar read the night’s Taraweeh to an audience composed of students from the greater bay area. 
UCSC graduate student Mohamed Oussama Najar reads passages from the Quran for the nights Taraweeh
“We invited off-campus Muslims to come to our event from SJSU, SF State and all throughout the Bay Area,” Mirza said. “We also had some non-Muslims from Santa Cruz pull up. It was a great event and I really liked the turnout.”
As temperatures began to drop as the night went on, traditional Islamic garb was layered beneath coats and jackets while spectators huddled closely in groups. By the end of the night, there were no stragglers, as attendees filled the Quarry seats in groups of five to 10. The scene at the Quarry represented Ramadan’s themes of community, bringing many together to celebrate with good food and great company.
“The people I met have all been amazing, and they’re super welcoming. We all have very similar ideas, even though we’re different people. We got brought up differently,” Syed said. “We all share something special, and that creates the most special bonds that I’ve ever experienced so far in my life.”
