The UC Santa Barbara Muslim Student Association has planned meals and prayers to build community among Muslim students as they observe Ramadan, which began on Feb. 18 and will end around March 19.
The MSA will host on-campus iftars during which attendees will break their fast with catered or homemade meals. Nexus file image
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is observed by Muslims through fasting, reflection, charity and prayer. During the month, adherents will fast during daylight hours — entailing abstinence from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual relations — to achieve greater consciousness of Allah.
The Muslim Student Association (MSA) aims to create a safe space for Muslim students to build community on campus while finding spiritual and social growth. During Ramadan, the MSA has planned various events to help students observe Ramadan while at school.
According to MSA outreach chair and second-year computer science major Saqif Ayaan Sudheer, their main goal during Ramadan is to support Muslim students as they fast. Sudheer mentioned that one difficulty Muslim students face during Ramadan is a lack of accessibility to food, as dining halls have set schedules which make it difficult for fasting students to get food upon breaking their fast at sunset.
“For a lot of people — especially freshmen — it might be their first year practicing Ramadan away from the family,” Sudheer said. “It can be very tough to be able to get food, especially if they don’t have a dining plan. They can’t even eat in dining halls.”
In order to address this issue while building community, the MSA will host on-campus iftars, the fast-breaking evening meal, on Monday through Thursday. The location of each iftar will be announced weekly on MSA’s Instagram page.
According to Sudheer, the MSA will serve attendees at the iftars with catered food from local restaurants as well as food prepared and donated by community members from the Islamic Society of Santa Barbara (ISSB), a mosque in Goleta. Sudheer mentioned that the MSA is funding these iftars with donations, proceeds from fundraisers and funding from Associated Students (A.S.).
Although the MSA is prioritizing community members who are fasting, Sudheer said that non-Muslims are also welcome to attend iftars.
“We do prioritize people fasting, because obviously they haven’t eaten at all, so we want to let them break their fast. But non-Muslims and people who are not fasting can also pull up, get some food and we will have a communal dinner,” Sudheer said.
In addition to hosting iftars, MSA will also be coordinating a carpool system to participate in Taraweeh — a night prayer observed during Ramadan, which promotes community and spirituality — at the ISSB.
“These prayers are every night of Ramadan, and so what the MSA does is we usually organize rides so that Muslims who want to come to the mosque and pray these extra prayers in the night can do so,” Sudheer said. “People who wanted to go to the mosque could go to the mosque and pray, and then they would get dropped back home.”
Outside of Ramadan, the MSA also holds Jum’ah every Friday, a congregational prayer held around 2 p.m. During Jum’ah, an MSA member delivers a 30-minute khutbah, an Islamic sermon, followed by a five to 10 minute prayer.
In the later parts of Ramadan, the MSA will also be having qiyam nights, during which members will pray and spend the night at the ISSB.
“The board will be there and the members want to come to organize rides and then we’ll go spend a night at the mosque,” Sudheer said. “Meaning that until sunrise, we’ll be at the mosque and we’ll also pray in congregation then [have] breakfast before sunrise to commence the fast.”
According to Sudheer, the MSA has 40 recurring members which make up a “tight-knit community” but expect to see between 100 to 150 Muslim community members observing Ramadan with them.
“It’s beautiful. We have a lot of Muslims come out who may not come to the general MSA meetings but want to have that community to break their fast with,” Sudheer said.
As a second-year student who joined MSA’s board this school year, Sudheer said that he has experienced and enjoyed MSA’s Ramadan activities as an attendee.
“This year is going to be a very different experience, and I’m very excited for it,” Sudheer said. “This time I’ll be at the delivering end, and so I’ll be the one serving the food, so it’s going to be super exciting.”
A version of this article appeared on p. 1 of the Feb. 19, 2026 edition of the Daily Nexus.
