What started off as a humble effort by a small group of Muslim students and staff in the summer of 1972 has flourished into an integral part of every Muslim studying at the University of Sydney. Muslim students in the beginning of SUMSA’s fruitful history, was largely comprised of international students from Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh who required the establishment of Jummu’ah prayers. So by the will of Allah, our first Annual General Meeting in the summer of 1972 adopted the SUMSA constitution and elected our primary office bearers. The following years saw an influx of Muslim students, contributing to the growing need of a permanent prayer room and events catering to spiritual and educational development. In 1975, there was a unique rotational system for training purposes, where each SUMSA member had to take turn in acting as a Khateeb, Imam and Mu-Addin, building not only public speaking dexterity but also sermon preparation skills. This was further carried out by established Friday night study circles and regular lunchtime talks and seminars on religious topics and current affairs. The year of 1990 saw the successful attainment for a small but permanent room from the Student’s Union for Zuhur and Asr prayers, committee meetings and for maintaining the SUMSA office. Yet this was not sufficient for the ever growing Muslim population on campus. Thus followed the allocation of two permanent rooms in the Old Teachers College as prayer facilities. Today, SUMSA continues to host weekly halaqa’s, dawah stalls and the annual Islamic Awareness Week. The number of attendees at Friday prayers have increased close to 500, with the shura working constantly to meet the ever growing needs of the community.
