By Liv Dunleavy Staff Writer The Muslim Student Association held their first event, “Dinner + Dialogue: Come Learn About Islam” on Nov. 19 in the Center for Inclusive Excellence (CIE). The event featured guest speaker Taimur Khan and dinner. Hadiya Jallow, one of three co-founders of the Muslim Student Association (MSA), began the event with the Islamic greeting, “As-salamu alaikum” meaning “peace be upon you” in Arabic. She then thanked the attendees and introduced the two other co-founders, Taimoor Khan and Abdallah Mohamed. She said the MSA recently formed “in hopes of creating and building a Muslim community on campus while educating everyone here.” Jallow then introduced Taimur Khan. She said, “He is originally from Pakistan, but raised in Burlington, Massachusetts - a son, a brother, a father. “He’s a graduate of Northeastern University with a bachelor in science and accounting and finance, and he works as an AGM in the transportation industry with a focus on data analysis and performance management,” she added. “He’s involved in Islamic circles across Massachusetts and nationally, and working to bridge the gap between Islam and the local communities. His goal is to make education accessible to the masses locally and internationally, while adhering to Islamic practices and social justice, which would contribute to the betterment of society,” she continued. Taimur Khan opened by stating one of his goals when he conducts talks is to make the talk very informal. He said he prefers it to be “sort of a discussion rather than a speech or a talk.” He mentioned that co-founder Taimoor Khan messaged him the day prior asking for an introduction and he struggled to come up with something on the spot. Taimur Khan added, “By the way, we share the same name. It is a common Pakistani name. “I have two young kids. I dedicate a lot of time to them. I try to be connected to the Masjid [mosque] because I feel that is where I can really build my morality, and my personality is being close to Allah, being close to God, and being close to the Masjid,” he then added. After reciting a few verses of the Quran in Arabic, Taimur Khan thanked “the one and only lord and God for allowing us to be here today - everything we have, because everything we have is really a privilege. It’s not really a right that we have. “We thank him for our life. We thank him for the comforts that we have. We thank him for our health. We thank him for our safety and security. We thank him for our family and our friends. We thank him for the network of our colleagues that we have. We thank him for the positions we hold. We thank him for the immense amount of opportunities we have.” He added, “Opportunities in education, opportunities in our career, opportunities in entrepreneurship, humanitarian opportunities - because so many of the people around the world don’t have these opportunities. “So many of the people around the world are living under very difficult situations - oppression, poverty, hunger. We are probably the few individuals living like kings, right?” he asked. Taimur Khan told a story about a friend of his, who, after having three sons, wanted a baby girl with his wife. They were then blessed by Allah when Allah gave them a baby girl recently. He said that as he was driving home from work a few days ago, his friend called him and they chatted about his daughter, and his friend said she was doing well. The day before the event, Taimur Khan received a phone call from a mutual friend inquiring about this friend, asking if he had heard from him. He replied that he had just spoken to him a few days ago. The mutual friend then replied that the father’s daughter had passed. Taimur Khan said, “Our moments are precious. There is no guarantee that any of us will live another day.” He added, “Every moment, every interaction is very precious. Every second, every breath, every blink of the eye, every beat of the heart is precious. “I know we take it for granted - it’s human nature - but if we really sit down and reflect, everything we have around us is precious,” he said. Taimur Khan asked if any non-Muslims in the room had noticed how a lot of Muslims look or dress similarly, with long robes, varying styles of headscarves, and different lengths of men’s beards. He pointed out also that non-Muslims may notice Muslims bowing and carrying prayer mats to pray in different settings. “There is a perfect response to all of this, and the response is that all of the Muslims, the 1.6 billion to 2 billion Muslims in the world, we all work tirelessly. “We work hard to be like the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and everything - all of these actions you see - are lessons that he has taught us on how to live our life to be successful in this world and in the next life.” He added, “How to be excellent students, how to be excellent businessmen, how to be good fathers, how to be good community members, how to be leaders, how to be good neighbors, how to deal, how to talk, how to stand, how to sit. “He has taught us all this, and we work hard because we have this conviction that our key to success is following that example,” he said. Taimur Khan explained the story of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, his beliefs, his values, and his life. He shared that Muhammad, peace be upon him, grew up with moral excellence. He was a soft-spoken person who never met the eyes of someone unless it was out of respect. He treated all with kindness, and made sure that the people he interacted with felt valued. Muhammad, peace be upon him, was precise with his words, but articulate, and they had a lasting impact. Regardless of age, he gave everyone proper attention, Taimur Khan said. “He really disliked oppression. … He hated when somebody like the weak didn’t have anybody to stand up for them, so he would stand up for them,” he said. He added, “When he was blessed with the opportunity of prophethood … a prophecy was made that, as respected as he was, he would be boycotted - he would be shunned. “When he started preaching his message, that’s when everything changed. … He lost his supporters. He lost people who took care of him, he suffered from grief and pain and hunger. But despite all that, he is referred to as a mercy to mankind,” he added. “What’s his message? His message is the same message as all the prophets before him,” Taimur Khan said. “The message is that there’s no God except one Allah, one God. “Allah means God. And the message [Muhammad] proclaimed, that he preached, that he propagated, was that there is nothing else that has created us, that preserves us, that maintains us, except Allah, except God. He has created us, and it is up to him when he wants to take us back,” he said.