An Extraordinary Year

28 December 2020 / 13 Jumada al-Awwal 1442

Dear friends and supporters, as-salamu ’alaykum,

There is little doubt that this past year has been extraordinary for all of us.

The unfolding of what rapidly became a worldwide pandemic forced workplaces and academic institutions like ours to close abruptly and for an unexpectedly long period of time. This pales in comparison to the number of lives lost and livelihoods affected. So complete was this disruption that the pilgrimage to Makkah was inaccessible to the global Muslim community for the first time in over two centuries.

The significance of this event – of a microscopic virus bringing the entire world to a virtual standstill – was eloquently articulated by our Dean, Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad. It was a clear reminder of our duty to acknowledge the Power of Allah and respond as believers.

Accordingly, and by the Grace of Allah, this year has been perhaps even more extraordinary for our college in immensely positive ways.

We will remember Ramadan not for the lost congregational night prayers and proscribed group iftars, but for ‘Ramadan Live’, an unprecedented online gathering of people in every time zone, intending to learn with open hearts and minds from an incredible ensemble of teachers on a carefully curated set of inspiring topics – from the Qur’an, Prophetic tradition and self-improvement, to arts, culture and astronomy.

So incredible was the response to those live online sessions that we decided to do it again during the Hajj season with ‘The Fifth Pillar’. The programme included new teachers and topics, but brought back that familiar sense of community, unfazed by physical distances and digital limitations.

Though our annual retreat at Alqueria de Rosales in Spain could not go ahead this year, Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad was privately recorded continuing his illuminating lectures on another volume of al-Ghazali’s ‘Ihya ‘Ulum al-Din’. His series on exemplary figures in Islamic history, ‘Paradigms of Leadership’, also continued in this way, and both were added to our burgeoning publicly accessible Online Learning Platform.

Upheaval could not distract our dedicated students who worked fastidiously to pass their final exams this summer, making them the first graduated class of our BA (Hons) degree in Islamic Studies accredited by The Open University. To honour their prodigious achievement, we were reluctant to award their degrees virtually and instead orchestrated a meticulously planned socially distanced graduation ceremony: a unique one-off event befitting their special achievement.

Meanwhile, we welcomed our new BA cohort, most of whom were studying Arabic in Morocco to prepare for their first year in Cambridge. At eighteen students, double the size of the inaugural cohort, they have been settling in well, acclimating to on-campus classes organised in alternating batches according to public health guidelines. We watch with patience and prayers as they continue on their journey of learning.

We ended the year with the launch of a three-year research project funded by the Templeton Foundation entitled Beyond Foundationalism: New Horizons in Muslim Analytic Theology, led by Dr Ramon Harvey, Aziz Foundation Lecturer in Islamic Studies.

On a personal note, my appointment as Principal during these developments is both humbling and deeply exciting. We are working hard towards a vision for Cambridge Muslim College that transcends the walls of Unity House and the cobbled streets of this historic town. As we emerge from the pandemic, this will mark an important transition from the illustrious history of our college and set the tone for the future.

With your continued prayers and support, we hope the months and years to come will be more extraordinary yet.

Dr Abdallah Rothman
Principal