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"The sky was a brilliant blue tempered by thin shreds of cloud. Rasil was showing his full face. Flowers of all kinds and colors ran wild, encircling the bases of trees, growing in small stands along the path that ran from the house. Vines trailed up blossom-laden trunks, putting out brilliant red buds.
Lae grinned refreshed.
Without a backwards look at the dilapidated house, he strode down the path, curious about what other surprises the magai might be hiding. He had not realized how much the desolation weighed on him until he saw green grass again."
Maryam Sharron Muhammad was an accomplished scholar, historian, author, community volunteer, education advocate, creative and brilliant woman with a big heart who was first and foremost a student. She loved to study and she loved to create, and her pursuit of knowledge was both in the classroom and in the world around her. She saw life itself as an opportunity to study and read voraciously, questioning everything. Her love of learning led her to the heights of academia and international affairs, achieving distinguished awards, global fellowships, international assignments, academic titles, and on personal journeys.
Deeply spiritual, Maryam Sharron studied the philosophies of many of the world's religions. She found solace in spiritual teachings and in a variety of religious institutions that she visited and prayed at often. She believed in the essential unity of all great spiritual teachings .
She was as much a renaissance woman, rebel and creative spirit as she was humble, well rounded and traditional, and passionately advocated for education, against injustice and for helping those less fortunate.
Maryam Sharron's practice of personal philanthropy came from her belief to always give back, no matter the amount. She regularly volunteered with and made donations to a number of charitable, community, youth-focused and religious organizations - even after she herself became ill, fell on hard times, had very little, and suffered tragedy and injustice resulting from medical discrimination, stigma, racial and religious prejudice and sexism.
Yet even in this, she studied and found her way out.
Ever an advocate for education and the acquirement of knowledge, Maryam Sharron was a true practitioner of lifelong learning.
In that spirit of lifelong learning and giving back, The MSM Bright Suns Scholarship was started to honor Maryam Sharron Muhammad and to encourage other lifelong learners who value the practice of study (in all its forms).
Maryam Sharron was an avid explorer and sought opportunities to travel the globe.
A favorite activity of hers was to walk her city for miles a day, and then wind down with boatloads of black tea and honey. But she did not limit her travels to walking in her city. In 2001, Maryam Sharron traveled to Barcelona, Spain while working with Rotary International. In addition to her work duties, she always carved out time to explore the surrounding sites, hike, and tour for fun.
Maryam Sharron was a historian and a scholar. She received her M.A. in History from Howard University and her writing is featured in many publications.
These include The Oxford Encyclopedia of African American History, Africology: Journal of Pan African Studies, The African Diaspora Network Journal, The Black Commentator web magazine, Trans Africa Forum, The Liberator magazine, The Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora, and The Encyclopedia of Blacks in European History.
Read more...Maryam Sharron loved languages and linguistics and studied them with gusto.
In the photo above, she can be seen in Egypt with companion Howard University Arabic language Fellows.
As a proud recipient of a prestigious Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Arabic Language Summer Grant to Egypt, Maryam Sharron would regularly power through late night study sessions of Arabic grammar in her Cairo apartment. She was awarded the Bunche Fellowship while a Master’s student at Howard University. Read more...
Being active in her community (both in the U.S. and overseas) was important to Maryam Sharron.
She was a member of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC) and Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), as well as professionally affiliated with the African Studies Association, Middle Eastern Studies Association, National Women's Studies Association and Global African Presence WebRing.
While the bulk of Maryam Sharron’s work is scholarly, she was also a passionate creative writer.
From a very young age, Maryam Sharron liked to write. She wrote poems and short stories at home and in school. She continued writing once in college and contributed poems to the Poetry Corner while an English major at the University of Toledo. In 2007, she self-published an original work of fantasy-fiction, “Choosing Deceit: The Shun-Ur Book I”, authored under her pen name S.R. Sarai.
Read more...Maryam Sharron attended medical school at the University of Illinois College of Medicine for 3 years before deciding that history and languages were her true calling.
Her earliest foray into the medical field was as a lab assistant with Northwestern University School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology in Chicago. Starting there at just the age of 15, she was the youngest person at that time to work and conduct research in that lab.
