So we know U of T can get to be a super stressful place, and even though its pretty cold outside, we still feel the heat of expectations and pressure from the university. If you're into meditation, just like your friendly neighborhood Muslim, try performing ablution before you meditate, like we do! Its called, wu'du in Arabic, and its performed by hundreds if not thousands of fellow U of T students across the campus. The purpose of Wu'du is to physically and spiritually cleanse yourself before you meditate and strive to find that spirituality. Its intent is to calm and cleanse yourself before you go in to pray and/or meditate. The image below demonstrates the steps to perform wudu, perform each step 3 times for each limb, and remember, next time you see someone in the washroom with their foot in the tub, they're simply trying to find their spirituality.

"I don’t get it, why don’t Muslims and Buddhists go home to pray or meditate? What is the importance of having prayer spaces, meditation spots and moreover ablution facilities and foot wash areas on campus?" - Asked by a student during Muffin Madness at the Multi-Faith Centre, an event in which faith based groups and clubs share free muffins, fruit and coffee to causally meet and talk. I knew he wasn't asking with malicious intent. The answer is that we, and specifically I am at home. I spend more time at the University than I do at home. I learn here, eat here, am with my friends and community here. It is so important to a space on campus to pray so that students like myself can practice our faith, an integral part of our identity, like we are at home. We then learn to sincerely love the university more, and feel that it in itself is a part of our identity as well. This will lead to us doing our best in benefiting and helping the University community.

In the 90's there was a surge of acceptance for gender, racial, and sexual differences that drew its roots from previous generations. Religious differences, albeit a social decision and not physical reality, is a new contention line students and faculty differ over. Eboo Patel, and myself, believe that religious accommodation and acceptance is an opportunity that has been, and should be continued to be, promoted. By accepting our ideological differences, we gain to learn very much from each side. By facilitating faith based needs, we facilitate the loyalty and comfort of religious students in a secular school. We strengthen the bonds of the University community to deeper roots, and therefore our graduates are able to go to society and connect bridges with communities that they have learned about, here in University.