Educator profile: Nora Zaki

Nora Zaki is Advisor for Muslim Student Life at Vassar College. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Arabic, Religion, and Political Science at the University of Florida in 2013 and a Masters in Divinity from The University of Chicago in 2017. She has served as a chaplain at Dominican University in Chicago and was a volunteer chaplain at the Cook County (IL) Jail and worked as a chaplain at Tampa General Hospital.

Q: What most excites you about the field of chaplaincy?

A: I’m noticing more chaplain positions such as in airports, fire departments and street chaplains open up. It’s exciting to see that many places request a chaplain beyond even brick and mortar facilities, like street chaplains who also work at protests and rallies. Additionally, since many chaplains are working from home due to COVID-19, we are able to collaborate with other guest speakers all over the country and the world!

Q: What do you see as challenges to the field at present?

A: Many liberal arts colleges are “secular” and the term secular is more nuanced than we all may think. Students still seek religious and spiritual support in the personage of a chaplain. But, do we keep the term “chaplain”? Or, do we use a term like Advisor for Muslim Student Life? With COVID-19 now, there are reduced hours for chaplains, budget cuts and even termination of some chaplains at colleges. Another challenge is that while interfaith work is important, we must be careful to include socio-economic perspectives with such interfaith work. I believe chaplains should be at the forefront of social justice change in their communities.

Q: What do you consider to be the most important skills to cultivate in future chaplains?

A: Several skills and competencies include an ongoing commitment to self knowledge, humility, deep listening skills and the ability to deal with conflict, from students and/or colleagues.

There is an Islamic saying, “Whoever knows oneself knows their Lord.” The more a chaplain knows oneself in an intimate way, the more they can give to the community in a way that’s sincere to their values but meets students where the students are at in their own meaning making. There’s a beautiful line from the movie Bab’Aziz in which Bab’Aziz, the blind man on a spiritual journey, tells his 8-year old granddaughter to “see with the eyes of your heart.” Our society is so focused on the cognitive but we can forget about integrating that with our heart and intuition.

Humility helps to learn from our mistakes, including good willed intentions and remind us that God is working through us. Deep listening skills enable us to ensure we are hearing what students, staff and others are telling us in addition to being able to listen to ourselves. And, there will always be conflict in any position.

Q: What should educators who are preparing Muslim chaplains, whether working from Muslim institutions or otherwise, help their students understand given that chaplaincy education in the US has historically been very strongly Protestant Christian? And what does that element of the field need to understand in terms of opening up to be more inclusive of non-Christian traditions in education?

A: My suggestion to educators is to ensure there are either courses or resources to learn about pastoral care from an Islamic perspective rather than a broadly Christian perspective. Be mindful of “Jesus” language that presents Jesus as God. Muslims love Jesus and view him as a prophet, upon him peace, but language that associates him with God can be unsettling for Muslim students.

Islam is a continuation of the Abrahamic way, the way that all prophets preached on the oneness of God and creating, maintaining and sustaining a just and ethical society. Many Muslim chaplains come from international backgrounds to serve the diverse American public and they will need to quickly learn terms like BIPOC, LGBTQIA, and pronouns, for example, especially when working on a college campus. Muslims are so diverse in their outlook too and educators need to understand that Muslims are not monolithic, so educators should strive to break away from the stereotypes that have unfortunately hurt many Muslim communities.

Rachel Payne is Project Assistant for the Educating Effective Chaplains project and an MDiv student at Boston University.