Farewell Isoc and Ramadhaan Mubarak!!!

Assalamu ‘Alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh,

Dearest and most beloved brothers and sisters, may Allah the Most Merciful shower His grace upon you with abundance and comfort you with His Mercy and Benevolence.

I would like to take this opportunity to greet you, to congratulate you on the advent of a blessed Ramadan, to make my sincere dua for you, to express my deepest friendship and love for you and my sincere care and support for all of you. I make a sincere dua to Allah alone that He makes this month a means to ease your worries, that He replaces it with goodness and transforms your world into a Jannah in this life. May Allah give you what your heart desires and amaze you with His bounty and grace.

Alhamdulillah, as they say all good things comes to an end and the time has now come for me to resign from the blog and the Isoc. Alhamdulillah, it was Allah who enabled me to take part as an author on the blog and to be part of a really great and blessed Isoc. I’d like to say a sincere Jazakumullahu Khairan to everyone, especially the Isoc Members, particularly our beloved headbrother and headsister for making a positive influence in our lives. I truly cannot thank you enough for your generosity and the hard work and effort you have put in establishing an amazing Islamic Society for all of us. May your hard work weigh heavily on the scale of good deeds for all those who contributed to the Isoc in any way, Ameen Thuma Ameen.

These two years have truly been amazing for me. We’ve come a great way and achieved a lot of success both as students and a Society as a whole. So much has happened in these two years, I don’t even know where to start (this is the part you realize this is going to be a long post). I’m just kidding; I won’t give guys another one of my long posts. I’d just like to take this opportunity, since I won’t be seeing you guys anymore, to offer some small advice to the new A2 Students.

One of the great things about having an Islamic Society, apart from having a place to pray, is that it’s a place where you can escape to and meet people of the same beliefs as you when you’re surrounded with every type of fitnah around the campus. This makes you realize how truly blessed we are to have an Isoc, because without it, only Allah truly knows how much our Imaan would have been effected through college life. This is why it’s so important to create an Islamic environment within the campus and call all the Muslim Brothers and Sisters to join the Isoc.

This can start off by making the Islamic Society look and feel like an organisation or student body which means something. Group together as one - put aside differences and work on commonalities. Know that we are more alike than we are different! And this is because of the Bond of Islam. The Bond of Islam is stronger than the bond of blood relation. Also, create an environment in the prayer rooms (let’s pray you guys get a proper prayer room this year InshaAllah) whereby people can chill out. A relaxed area where students can come, do their work, pray, eat, make new friends, etc. This will then mean that a bond of brotherhood and sisterhood is created.

Again I want to stress the part of calling newbies to join the Isoc. You really truly have to be a good example and portray the beauty of Islam through your good behaviour because when people are thinking of joining the Isoc, they’re scared. They think they’re going to be judged. It’s something I’ve noticed. The niqabi thinks the Isoc will think she’s too hardcore. The nonhijabi thinks the Isoc will think she doesn’t belong there. The hijabi who wears jeans will think all the jilbabis are going to judge her, etc etc. So what to do??

This again, is going to seem like common sense–but I’ve observed people: people don’t do this!! —Just smile and say salaam!—to everyone. People for some reason think they should only salaam their friends. This makes the newcomers feel totally outcasted. And most of the time, they’re not thinking that you’re not salaam-ing them because you guys aren’t friends but rather because they’re “not hijabi, not jilbabi, full niqabi, etc etc.” And then that’s it. They tried it out, no one gave them salaam, so Goodbye Isoc!

People don’t realize the seriousness of such a small action. And I’m not talking about only at Isoc events. Some people won’t come to the events. They’ll just observe the Isoc members on campus. They’ll notice that you never salaam them or smile at them, and they’ll already feel judged.

I’ve heard some people say they don’t like salaam-ing new people because a lot of times that person will ignore them, or look at them like “Do I know you?” Ok. That’s sad, I agree. But! Is the reason you’re salaam-ing them because you want a response? Or is it fisabilillah? And isn’t it almost an act of arrogance to think you deserve a response? Maybe you’re not worthy of a response. Give salaams. If you don’t get a response, smile and walk away. If you see the person again, Give salaams again. The third time, maybe try and start a conversation: “Hey, assalaamu alaykum! I’ve seen you around college a couple of times, and wanted to meet you. You’re the mysterious sister running around who I don’t know! I’m [fill in name here]”

Chances are, you’ll realize the person’s not half bad. And if they still don’t respond, Hey – you did your part right? ;) And you got reward for it InshaAllah. Next time you see them, smile and say salaam again. Don’t be so full of pride.

And you know what else? It’s great da’wah too. Sometimes I’d be walking with my non-muslim friends, and a sister would smile at me and we’d exchange salaams. My friends would ask me if we knew each other, and I’d tell them we didn’t. “That’s so beautiful”, they’d remark. It showed them the unity of the Muslims. Alhamdulillah.

Speaking of da’wah, this brings me to my next point. Alhamdulillah, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and this has only been achieved by Muslims giving da’wah, whether verbally or non-verbally. These days, us youth don’t realize the importance of giving da’wah to non-muslims and calling them to the path of Islam. I’ll admit, even am scared of approaching non-muslims and speaking to them about Islam. But one thing encouraged me and I hope it encourages you guys to do the same InshaAllah.

It just so happened that the teacher of the Islamic Studies course I was doing this summer happened to be a Revert. He just finished his studies and graduated from Madinah University after studying there for seven years. You wanna know how he reverted to Islam?? He reverted from Christianity in his second year at Leyton Sixth Form all because a brother came and sat next to him and asked him what he knew about Islam. He basically told us that he didn’t know jack about Islam and thought we were all Hindus. So the brother told him a bit about Islam and everything made sense to him so he requested a copy of the Qur’aan and said he would look into it. He went home and started to read the Qur’aan and compared the Bible with it and found out that everything in the Qur’aan was true and made sense whereas the Bible was the other way around. After that he declared his Shahadah and he told the brother that he wants to study more about Islam so I think the brother helped him in applying to Madinah University after he finished his college studies. He got a Scholarship, moved to Madinah, studied Arabic for 3years and then Shariah for another 4 yrs and Voila, he’s now MashaAllah a very knowledgeable brother and is teaching Arabic and Islamic Studies (inc Uloom ul Quran, Uloom ul Hadith, Fiqh and Usool and Shariah). He’s MashaAllah a very good teacher and if anyone is thinking of studying Arabic or Islamic Studies I would definitely recommend him.

Now going back to the topic of da’wah, can you just imagine the rewards that this brother must be receiving for presenting Islam to this revert? Not only did he receive the reward for making him a Muslim but also the ongoing reward for all the good deeds that he does. SubhanAllah if that doesn’t encourage us to do the same then I don’t know what will. May Allah give us all the ability to fulfill our obligations in doing da’wah and calling others to Allah’s Path, Ameen.

One of the ayaahs about Ramadan:

‘O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may gain God-consciousness.’ (Qur'an 2:183)

One lesson we can take out of this is that Ramadan and fasting is something that connects us to other faiths... i.e, a great opportunity to start giving da’wah. :)

Wow, SubhanAllah this has turned into a long post, I told you guys it’s a habit that I can’t help. I didn’t even talk about Ramadan and how we can truly maximise our Ibadah during this month. Khair InshaAllah I’m sure we’ll be hearing loads of talks regarding this anyways in this month so I’ll just mention a single point of benefit. Know that Ramadan is not a singled-out month of worship and taqwa. It is to IMPROVE ourselves, to come out as better Muslims with better characters and to ask for forgiveness for our shortcomings of the past eleven months. Ramadan comes only once a year; therefore, we should host it in the best possible way and take advantage to reap its rewards. If you don't make the best of the opportunity of Ramadan, you are truly DEPRIVED.

I ask that those who read this to forgive me if I’ve ever wronged you or offended you in any way. Please forgive my shortcomings and I humbly request to all that read this to make a sincere dua for me when breaking your fast, since the fasting person’s supplications are not rejected. Specific request are that Allah forgive all my sins, grant me taqwa and increase me in sabr and for Allah to aid me in my studies of both the dunya knowledge and the akhirah knowledge. InshaAllah you will all be in my duas.

O Allah make us and all Muslims of those who fast and stand in prayer during the month of Ramadan based on belief and truly seeking Your reward so that we are forgiven our past and future sins.

O Allah make us of those who fasted the month, attained full reward, witnessed Layatul-Qadr and attained success by permission of the Lord, Blessed and Most High.

O Allah, verily you are Forgiver, like to forgive, so forgive us.

O Lord, accept from us, verily you are the All-Hearing, All-Seeing, O Living, O Independent, O Owner of all majesty and honor.

And may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon Muhammad, his family and his Companions.

Wassalamu Alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh