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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Rania Hafez, senior lecturer at the University of Greenwich.

Good Morning!

I don’t know about you but I get terribly anxious when a new academic year starts and I find my calendar filled with new teaching duties I need to prepare for. But it’s also exciting, meeting new cohorts of students, being their guide on their special journey, and knowing that in a year’s time, they’ll be leaving on a new path.

The Islamic new year which started last Saturday also holds the same excitement and trepidation for me. I know I’ll need to work hard to be just a little more of the person I wish to be, but I’m also grateful the year will bring many occasions and reminders that will help me on my way.

In Islam we’re encouraged to see every day as having the potential to be a fresh start. From the moment we open our eyes with appreciation for another morning, until late at night when we reflect with gratitude on the day, we have the opportunity to refresh, refocus, and resolve. God tells us in the scared tradition that if we come to him walking, he’ll come to us running, and should we present him with an earth’s full of failings, he’ll grant us an earth’s full of redemption. All we need do is embrace every moment as a fresh start.

The academic year will begin with a lovely occasion that brings the past year full circle, the graduation ceremony. Seeing my students graduate fills me with gratitude…for the opportunity to have made a difference.

As the Sufi poet Hafiz says:
After all this time the sun never says to the earth you owe me.
Look what happens with a love like this. It lights the whole sky.

May the Beloved’s light brighten your every moment today.

Amen

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