The Muslim Student Association, Hillel and Unite EMU hosted an Interfaith Dinner Monday evening in McKenny Hall.
Ahnas Alzahabi, president and founder of Eastern Michigan University’s chapter of Students Organize for Syria, hosted the event. The first thing he did was mix the students up to make sure each table had a cross section of faiths. This gathering was a comparative panel between the three major Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The topic was charity.
Six big lights in the ceiling lit up 13 round tables where around 45-50 students sat. There was a lengthy annex against one side of the room where prayer rugs were available. They were later removed and this became the buffet area. Against the other wall was a raised podium for the three speakers: Pastor Bryan Schindel, Imam Amir Naeem and Rabbi Dana Benson.
Benson, as part of her speech about charity from a Jewish perspective, talked about a concept of the brokenness of the world. She said the Torah says that there will always be poor around you.
“One of the concepts of that is that we, as human beings, are in a partnership with God, to help fix that brokenness,” Benson said.
Students were encouraged to give donations at this free dinner. The organizers said they raised $150.
“God is telling us that righteousness is not that you turn your face towards the east or the west,” Naeem quoted Quran Chapter 2, Verse 177 in Arabic and then English.
“So the concept that righteousness is[n't] ‘I do something a certain way and you don't do this,’” Naeem said. “This is not what God is declaring as righteousness. But true righteousness is ‘believe in God.’ [...]But the interesting thing is what follows. [...] But what he says right after that ‘is those who give their wealth.’ The very first action he mentions as an action of righteousness is those who spend their wealth. [...] Acts of charity.”
The donations went to Food Gatherers. Food Gatherers is a charity based in the north side of Ann Arbor and, according to theirwebsite, “exists to alleviate hunger and eliminate its causes in our community.”
“What Jesus said in Sermon on the Mount was to ‘give to him that asks,’” Schindel said. “You can't out-give God. Everything you give God blesses. Jesus said when he was talking to his disciples, ‘the measure you give is the measure you'll receive.’ If you give generously, you'll receive generously.”
While the students and their guests ate, they were encouraged to talk about their faiths, how their faiths interpret charity as a concept and their experiences with charity. Immad Ansari, a senior majoring in biology, talked about his experience in Pakistan, where he went last summer.
“In Pakistan, especially when I went to like Karachi, always has problems with electricity,” Ansari said. “[...] The city I went to does not have continuous electricity. There would be whole days and nights in a row where you would sleep without electricity in the warmest temperature. I think the average was 100 or 95. You need air conditioning to sleep in that heat. Being there and not having the same facilities you have over here made you realize the importance of the lifestyle you live over here. Over there, even though they don't have the same facilities we have over here, they are still thankful for what they have.”
Naeem sat at one of the tables. He talked about a program he did once where he went to deliver food to the homeless.
“I used to do a program called Project Downtown,” Naeem said. “We would go, buy some pizzas, some sodas and invite some of the homeless people in downtown Ann Arbor to eat with us. One time in the spring, while we were talking with them, because we would often spend a couple of hours talking with them, they told us that a few of the people that we had seen the fall before, were dead – because they froze to death. It just highlights the importance of doing things for those in need, whether we know them or not.”
Andrew Moeller, a junior majoring in early childhood education, talked about charity in a trip he took to Tennessee. During the trip he helped rebuild the house of a woman who didn't have electricity for six months.
“We went down there to renovate her house and clear some forest outside her house,” Moeller said. “Just the feeling of coming back, showing her love. That feeling is unexplainable.”
