In November 2025, Mustafa the Poet announced his third Artists for Aid event to be held in Los Angeles on January 10. The reaction was immediate and garnered over 1.3 million likes on Instagram alone among the hosts, Mustafa, Bella Hadid, and Pedro Pascal. Fans were excited because the lineup featured the most artists the…
We all wake beneath the same sky. The sun rises without favoritism, spreading its light across oceans, deserts, crowded cities and forgotten villages alike. Yet on this same planet, under the same heavens, people live in entirely different worlds. For some, morning begins with ease: a warm home, clean water, a phone buzzing with reminders,…
On a Tuesday morning in April, while the gullies of Kashmir stirred awake with the bleating of shepherds and the soft rise of the call to prayer threading through the cold air, violence tore through a land that has already bled more than any map can hold. Kashmir’s horror is always disguised by its own…
Two prominent figures in American politics have emerged, signaling a new era for South Asian and Muslim leadership in the United States. Zohran Mamdani is the first South Asian and Muslim mayor of New York, representing a significant breakthrough for political representation in one of the world’s most influential cities. In addition, Ghazala Hashmi’s election…
“Should you be paralyzed by fear? I encourage you to look to Palestinians in Gaza, who, in the face of annihilation, turn the hum of drones into music for children, trash into makeshift weights to work out. Who turn tents into classrooms, who strung Eid lights onto the rubble of what once was their homes.…
The first time I walked down the Tongva Steps, I knew it could also be my last. I toured UCLA for the first time as an anxious senior in high school on Accepted Students Day. My head spun with doubt, yet my heart throbbed with possibility as I contemplated being a UCLA student. The unexpected…
Growing up in Saudi Arabia, the rhythmic hum of oil derricks and the vast networks of pipelines were as much a part of my landscape as the desert dunes. The air, at times thick with the scent of hydrocarbons, carried the smell of prosperity, of progress. My education eventually led me to environmental science, a…
Before the war, long before she ever imagined living anywhere else, UCLA Psychobiology student Afnan Gabir woke up each day to the sound of her name being called from downstairs. The voices of neighbors drifted through open windows, the market buzzed in the distance and the Nile hummed softly behind the city. In her world,…
As the leaves turn brown and the wind begins carrying away the last remnants of summer break, the transition between seasons is yet another reminder of the beauty of Allah, the most glorified and the most high “Subhannah wa ta’alla” (SWT)’s, creation. With the 2025 Fall quarter swiftly propelling forward, UCLA’s Muslim Student Association (MSA)…
“I came for a black coffee (somehow got a fig honey matcha latte), stayed for the energy, and left wishing every fundraiser felt this effortless.”— Baara Abu Ghalyoun (Student of Biology) A pop-up home café nestled in a small university apartment, Café 504 radiated a warmth that came not just from the coffee, but from…