How are your MSA meetings?

[Hisb-ul-Rahman]

bismillah, alhamdulillah

I'm thinking of changing up my MSA meetings because we usually sit in a circle...which I don't like.
i'm thinking we should have like, the qiblah rule and if we are having a meeting in a classroom that the sisters sit in the back and brothers in the front.

I go to a community college and a lot of people are leaving so i'm going to try and fine tune the MSA inshaAllah. there are a LOT of muslims in our school, but like, less than 20 in the MSA..maybe less than 15. so I want to expand but still follow the rules of the Qur'an and sunnah when it comes to mixing bi'ithnillah.

(I admire UMD's msa because they have the partition thing at their meetings which is awesome mashaAllah)

what else? inshaAllah we will have a meeting tomorrow so i'll bring it up.

any help would be appreciated, jazakamAllahu khayran :D

wa salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

[Morning]

wow sitting in a circle sounds ... kinda .. umm :niqab:

i went to one of our msa meetings and it was arranged so the brothers sat on one side of the room and the and sisters on the other. there wasn't a physical partition but the brothers sat more to the front and side while the sisters sat more at the back and the other side.

[*amaney*]

I know this is late, but better late than never right?

I have come to notice, and so has Bint Rizwan, that the way u sit at MSA meetings has an effect on the way u act at them, subhanAllah.

So if u could do the Qiblah rule, that would be AWESOME, or even the partitio,(I would never think an MSA would ever do that...subhanAllah awesome for them). But if u cant, then have the sisters sit on on table (like a BIG HUGE TABLE) and the bros on another. You could still sord of be communicating to them, but ur not in there face.

Wa Allahu Alam.

[Melody]

Bismillah

How close is the MSA you admire? maybe you guys can team up and have a joint MSA meeting? or just work with the numbers you have bi'dnillah and sit side-to-side.

In my MSA, we used to sit side by side for the longest time, and then we even put up a partition. in due time we even sat front and back (Durbah style). This year, after a new constitution was written, all our future meetings will be side to side.

Remember, as long as you do what you can to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that should be your goal. Alhamdullilah, our MSA does what it can too. No matter what, people will complain :rolleyes:

I don't really like the circle idea -- it would make me uncomfortable.

wallahu alim
-Melody

[fLoW]

i'm in the exec for next year's msa insha'Allah.. so i know i have establish a proper seating plan. this year i heard, they sit sort of side by side-ish but everyone would just turn around and look at each other while talking (brothers lookin at sisters and vice versa)... so insha'Allah in our meetings for next year i gotta b very strict... i'm all for the qibla rule.

[Hisb-ul-Rahman]

i'm in the exec for next year's msa insha'Allah.. so i know i have establish a proper seating plan. this year i heard, they sit sort of side by side-ish but everyone would just turn around and look at each other while talking (brothers lookin at sisters and vice versa)... so insha'Allah in our meetings for next year i gotta b very strict... i'm all for the qibla rule.

yea the circle thing was just one meeting because there wasnt a room available so we sat in the lobby near the musullah.
And now the meetings are like how you mentioned fLoW, it really bothers me and I don't like to talk either--but now since I am more involved and stuff I voice my opinion but i'm not all cutesy and what now, alhamdulillah, assertive and straight to the point.

The main problem with my MSA--the way I see it--is that the sisters are more "liberal" when it comes to the whole not mixing and lowering the gaze policy, they LIKE to look at the brothers faces to see their expressions....yes, subhanAllah...don't get me wrong, I love my sisters and may Allah grant them goodness in this life and the next, but I don't think they realize a man's mind and how um....well, you know.

So what I usually do is I sit at the end of the table, and i'll either just hide behind my hand when i'm talking or just look straight at the floor--I find that if I don't look at the brothers they will not look at me (usually) and if I happen to gaze up (unintentionally) and catch some eyes, they end up looking at me....like they follow the sisters lead. The sisters also mix with the brothers openly and vice versa, I have a hugeee problem with this but I know they don't see it as harmful because we grew up here and that's just normal. (but that doesn't lessen the problem in anyway) The brothers actually respect you more if you are covered and not talking to them at all, alhamdulillah, I totally ignore them and just keep to myself and stay away from them until the door is unlocked.

InshaAllah i'm going to talk to the sisters about this, mind you though, my msa is veryyy small....last meeting was like, 3 sisters (including me) and 5-7 brothers. and those are the 'regulars'. There are more at the other campus but they don't really come to the meetings but they help out with the events.

I really don't want to say anything about this at the meetings because it would be to hard for me and I would just make the whole room awkward and maybe even embaress some ppl so bi'ithnillah, if it continues further, I will just e-mail the president and ask him not to reply or mention who sent him the e-mail. I just don't want to come off as like, i'm better than them, or think that i'm more 'islamic' then everyone but this is some serious fitan and I do not want to be apart of it.

may Allah ta'ala guide us on the straight path and keep us from straying. ameen

[*HijabiForLife*]

Awww.. you guyz have MSA's!! Uhh my high school... 2 meetings.. and then we were done.. *sigh* Inshallah next year.

[fLoW]

The main problem with my MSA--the way I see it--is that the sisters are more "liberal" when it comes to the whole not mixing and lowering the gaze policy, they LIKE to look at the brothers faces to see their expressions....

yea.. same here.. and i see that brothers really do follow what the sisters do. whenever a brother came to talk to me, i either look at the wall or a garbage can (it always happens to b there) and they dont look at me either. and once i was talking to a sister and brother was coming up to talk to her and i looked at him and just left; no salam to the sister or anything.. cuz i just didnt wanna talk for no reason. so then he understood that i wont talk to him.... sometimes they would take u as being rude but later on they get what u're doing and will respect u for then and will feel guilty when they talk to sisters.

as for sisters, many sisters say that oo they're not fitnah for me.. but they should understand that they might not b fitnah but you might b fitnah for them.

yea..... nonetheless, i'm still tensed about our future meetings.

[Sister Sharah]

great.thread.. Yusra...


actually at my school..im the MSA President for the Sisters Side...However, when we have meetings with the brothers...we kind dont really sit in a circle...just like wherever..and the Brother President stands ath te front and says whatever..but the girls...just me and the vps we sit on the side...ALWAYS...

and wahts the Qiblah rule, Yusra... I never heard of it......

[Sister Sharah]

yea.. same here.. and i see that brothers really do follow what the sisters do. whenever a brother came to talk to me, i either look at the wall or a garbage can (it always happens to b there) and they dont look at me either. and once i was talking to a sister and brother was coming up to talk to her and i looked at him and just left; no salam to the sister or anything.. cuz i just didnt wanna talk for no reason. so then he understood that i wont talk to him.... sometimes they would take u as being rude but later on they get what u're doing and will respect u for then and will feel guilty when they talk to sisters.





i soo agree, nobera...like whenever inthe meeting s i have to talk to a brother regardng some issue...i always look down..but occasinally i just glanc eat them...not like to check them out, AstaghfirAllah.....but just so they're listening.....lol....but yeah...

[fLoW]

o man! we just had our first meeting yesterday!

ok, so this year's MSA was initially "muslim sisters' association" cuz there were NO brothers participating.. so after pickin on them for a while we got 4 brothers and 8 sisters in the msa....... so yesterday's meeting.......... ghhhhh....... i came 10 mins late :s and came in the room and saw everyone sitting around a big table.... ggrrrr :mad:
i was sooo madddd... and alhamdulillah there were only 2 brothers and the rest were sisters.... it wasnt a problem for me cuz i sat behind someone so the bros couldnt see me.... but mannn one table!!!
and unfortunately, we dont have an ameer this year.. no one wants to b a leader. doesnt that make u mad?..we hav an ameerah... so i wanna do the qibla rule but it aint workin.. i donno what to do now. i wanna talk to her and tell her we gotta do the side by side thing and tell the brothers to lower their gaze when the sisters are talking. i gotta do something!

[ummah13]

You guys are so lucky that your MSA's are organized and all. Last year, my first year of high school, we had a MSA for 2/3 of the year. The two presidents were seniors so I guess they didn't really care anymore. We actually were organized for the first half, we had discussions and prayers, etc. But then it got crazy, no one would show up. I became really sad... Do you guys have any tips on how to reform the MSA?