Since the start of Ramadan, the courtyard of the University Religious Center has been filled with a warm and homely atmosphere as people socialize, pray and Muslim community members break their fast with free iftar dinners provided four nights a week by the Muslim Student Union.

Hafeez Mir, president of the MSU, said the organization’s intention was to provide a sense of community for Muslim students during Ramadan, while also taking the pressure of having to prepare an iftar every night off their shoulders. That way, Muslim students can better focus on other aspects of Ramadan, such as self-improvement.

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“I’m away from family right now and without community like this, it would be pretty scary to try Ramadan on my own — I’d have to organize my own food, I’d have to pray on my own, I’d have to fast on my own,” said Mir, a senior majoring in accounting. “Whereas when this community exists, it makes it significantly easier … you don’t feel the sense of loneliness in trying to go about the fast and also wanting to better yourself as a person.”

These community dinners are a relatively new undertaking for MSU, since 2023 marked the first time in over a decade that all of Ramadan fell during the academic year. MSU began hosting iftars four days a week just this year; Mysha Amir, MSU religious activities director, said what MSU offered for the iftars, including religious programming before and afterward, had only grown.

“If [the previous president] could come and see what the community was like now, he would be so happy,” said Amir, a sophomore majoring in psychology. “This time of year builds on the community we already have, makes it so much stronger, and also brings in people that never come in.”

Zain Saquib, an activities director for the MSU, said the MSU orders food from a variety of restaurants in order to best accommodate the diverse population they serve. He said they have catered everything from Indonesian to Bengali food, and try to prioritize mom-and-pop restaurants in the area in order to give back to the local community and embrace the spirit of Ramadan.

Hagar Eldeeb, a junior majoring in neuroscience, said she appreciated these iftars as an opportunity to socialize with people she wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to, as well as being able to pray and eat alongside other Muslims rather than on her own and have access to accessible food.

“[The iftars are] nice because we get halal food, and since a lot of us don’t have cars a lot of us don’t really have a way to get around, so finding halal food is not that accessible to us,” Eldeeb said. “It’s nice to be able to have that catered here.”

Saquib, a junior majoring in economics as well as business administration, said he was grateful he was able to feed so many people throughout Ramadan as well as watch the Muslim community at USC become more tight-knit through these events.

“[The iftars] are the most rewarding experience of the year… they’re such a community bonding event that a lot of the people who come for Ramadan we see through the rest of the events throughout the year,” Saquib said. “Ramadan is a big type of family: I’m originally from Pakistan, so my family is a sixteen-hour flight away, so this has become my adopted family.”

Mir said the iftars served as the gateway into Ramadan, and encouraged non-Muslim people to come by to learn more about the religion and better understand their Muslim classmates.

“You might have a Muslim in your class. But what does that even mean? … What are they more than that? What does Islam show them?” Mir asked. “People on this campus need to see what Islam truly is, and the best way of seeing what Islam truly is, is by being around the people that are going to most commit themselves in the most blessed time of year to make themselves better.”