Diaries of an Isoc President: Third time's the charm...

Diaries of an Isoc President: Third time's the charm...: "I had forgotten how hard it can be, going home. The reciprocation of your parents' love, the bitter sweet but mostly sweet feeling of being..."

Third time's the charm...

I had forgotten how hard it can be, going home. The reciprocation of your parents' love, the bitter sweet but mostly sweet feeling of being pampered and not lifting a finger to help, the ties of brotherhood formed in university strengthened by the sight of your blood brothers and sisters, the old friends who you could never imagine replacing...people change.

It is inevitable. Your friends will range from having minor differences to flipping 180 degrees in your eyes, as will you to them. Your parents will be ecstatically proud of changes you have made, and perhaps blatantly hesitant about others, hopefully with your best interests at heart. I am sure my ever decreasing devoted audience is aware of what I am trying to say, but I will indulge you with what some might call an anecdote.
I came to university and found it hard. I loved it, but it was hard. I was not used to washing my dishes, I was absolutely astonished as to how a washing machine is actually operated, I was proud of myself each time I cleaned, only to be annoyed at the exponentially increasing dust particles that gather in every square micrometer of space, I was amazed that food does not actually cook itself, as I was previously misconceived to think, and I was pleasantly surprised and eventually horrified at my new found independance.

I quickly learned that religion was the answer to all problems. I quickly learned that these problems were beyond miniscule. I quickly learned how easy life is at university ; if you let it be. When you join the Islamic Society, it is the easiest thing in the world to be a muslim. Surrounded by muslims, it is more of a chore not to pray than to pray. It is harder to be a bad example for people than a good one. It is genuinely harder not to practice your religion, or atleast the wonderful morals we all have embedded in our souls, than to do so. You just need the right guidance. Here I will bring back a recurring theme from all of these blogs : Seek knowledge. Find answers.

- But I don't believe in God
. Really, which part of the bible didn't you like?
- ...Haven't read it. But it can't make sense
. Right, so is your logic from the Psalms, the Torah or the Quran then?
- ....nope....but religion constricts.
. I feel more liberated than I've ever felt in my life
- You're wrong
. That's a great argument, brother!

Our true tests lie in times when it is harder to follow our Deen. Being amongst a society of friends who are not used to seeing you a certain way, who think you have suddenly become 'boring' or feel that you should 'live your life and just have fun'. These 'open-minded' arguments that aren't even open enough to accept you. It is your job to explain this to people. You have nothing to be ashamed of, and if someone does not understand it, take your time and explain it. Da'awah is an obligation on muslims. I blame the media all the time. But when someone calls me a terrorist, I should blame myself, and my community. Because we are not strong enough to tell people what our religion really stands for. Seek knowledge and educate people. It is not a shameful thing not to drink, it is a moral  belief to be proud of.

Now, since I am not officially president yet, and as mentioned before, our task to focus on is mainly the camping trip, I can elaborate on one more relevant and important point. First off, the camping trip is going smoothly Alhamdulillah. Communication is slightly slow since everyone is preoccupied, but we are currently choosing activities to have, and a recent update shows that we might just have secured an Imam who will be able to give us some educational talks and interactive, inspirational halaqas during the trip.  Everything is currently in the process of being done, or finalised...to be completely honest, there is absolutely no reason for me to be writing a blog...but I feel like testing the tolerance of my rapidly growing loyal fan base. So this next part is for the both of you

Jihaad...
- Did he say what I think he did? Someone call the CIA....NOW!

Sister Sarah Joseph wonderfully says that converts are no better than born muslims. We all make a choice everyday. We choose to follow our religion, we choose to be morally correct, we choose good rather than bad. In spite of struggles that we face, we make this choice everyday. And this is Jihaad. It literally means 'striving in the way of Allah'. This could be absolutely anything. Praying everyday in a society where it is considered bizarre, refraining from stealing where temptation is high, giving a fraction of our hard earned money to charity...this is all Jihaad. In a battle against muslims, where muslims are FIRST provoked, AND given that no innocents die, AND given that the second the enemy asks for peace, we grant that for them, along with asylum, then that is Jihaad in the context of war. I know that anyone reading this, be them Christian, Jew or Hindu, has committed Jihaad at some point, and quite possibly does so on a daily basis. Seeking knowledge is Jihaad of the soul. Seek knowledge!

I will next post when there are more updates about the Isoc. This is not just a platform for my personal thoughts, because the last thing I would ever call myself is the atrocious term 'blogger'. This is strictly business. So even though I am possibly the only person reading these, these blogs will soon become very much oriented with the society. Also, I pray that what I wrote is in accordance with Islam. Whatever is true comes from Allah, and all errors come from me, and I sincerely hope that none of us spreads misinformation and misguides rather than guides. To end on a slightly less bitter note, I have been indulging in Lebanese food and for those who have never tried hummus with some steaming hot mishaawi (mixed grill), get on it!

Part Deux

The world is strange. Has it always been strange? From the beginnings of 'modern' society until now, if we had newspapers for every single day, would they read the same types of things they read nowadays? Perhaps this is simply the first time in my life that I am keeping up with current affairs.

The horrendous situation in Libya, the unannounced repercussions of the Jasmine revolution,  the atrocities that inflicted Japan and that remain  inflicting her, the literally unbelievable events that have been unfolding for the last few months in Cote D'Ivoire....it is very strange. I came home some days ago to find that my father likes occassionally listening to 'Eminem'....strange

Before I get to the point of this blog, I have one 'riveting' personal anecdote to share, and for my ever loyal fanbase of three people, bear with me. For patience is key. No, I am not one to quote cliche expressions all the time, since 'You only live once' is one of the most hideous monstrosities of a sentence i have ever heard, mainly due to its justifications. But looking at the Seerah and the Sunnah, the morals you can obtain can absolutely change your life. "Only those who are patient shall receive their reward in full, without reckoning.'' - Quran (39:10) . Now, to the anecdote :-

There was a time some years ago, possibly around 2009, when Pakistan was in the worst position that it had been in, in quite some time. There was news of bombings every other day, death tolls in double and sometimes even triple digits became quite common and the Economist officially proclaimed Pakistan as the 'World's most dangerous place'. A friend of mine actually told me that she feels Pakistan is the worst place in the world to be at that moment. I visited Pakistan during that time, and I was quite shocked as to what I saw... It.... looked good. The infrastructure of Rawalpindi was far more developed, with roads that were under construction having been completed and slightly less congestion. There were some additional security barricades put in place around the city, but to be completely honest, what I saw impressed me. And when I talked to the people over there, there seemed to be a stronger sense of unity. People were upset about the bombings. People were upset about the deaths. But I feel that the portayal of the country I got in the media would have upset them far more, had they been exposed to Pakistan through the sweet seductive glare of the media's window.

Now that is not to say that nothing was wrong, or that things were great. I can't just go into the middle of a nice city and claim that things are perfect. We went through hard times. Very hard times. But my point is that, people are not interested in neautrality, prosperity or happiness. 'Pakistanis are living their normal lives' or 'Atrocities have inflicted Japan, but most of the country remains hopeful' are not exactly headlines that sell thousands of papers. Perhaps the trend of revolution should spread to certain industries...

Now, to the point of this already too long blog. Our first task as the new Isoc exec : PLAN THE ISOC CAMPING TRIP. Thus far, it seems far less challenging than it sounds, but that might be because, thus far, I have not done any work....in a sense. We are blessed enough to have an old exec that has booked the accomadation for two nights, and for anyone wondering how much it costs to take 55 people camping...it costs ALOT.

So my job,with the ever significant aid of my trusty team, is to get us accomadation to and from, choose activities to do, sort out food and equipment for roughly 9 meals, get speakers to make sure the trip is educational aswell and advertise this all....making sure that this all lies within budget all the while. We have created a Facebook group and a Google document in the hopes of making communication smooth and efficient, but we have had to resort to using emails thus far for one reason or another. I have big opinions on emails, but due to the length of this blog, I will refrain myself.

So the ball is definitely rolling. The main thing I have done is send out a super long, super boring email delegating each task to certain members. My main task from now is working with the treasurer on the budget, working with the Ambassador on the speakers, and the rest of the trip will be due to the sweat and tears of our wonderful exec team . I simply need to offer a lazy stamp of approval...ah, the life of an Isoc President seems quite chilling.

Now this is our main concern for the next two months, however, in a month long break where people have been waiting to see their families and need to balance studying for mega tonnes of exams, the amount of work everyone is doing is quite strenuous, and I feel my worthy team deserves a nice big BRAVA! So BRAVA!

One last thing I feel the need to note. I explained the purpose of this blog in my previous entry, and though this is a public blog, it is made through the eyes of the Islamic Society. However, it is open to all, and all are welcome. I cannot dare to represent Islam, but inshallah I pray that my opinions and writings are as consistent with our religion as possible, and hopefully, we can also share an insight into our lives for the people outside the religion or society. It would be nice if visitors outside our wonderful house viewed us from the shiny, glimmering window of the Islamic Society, rather than the afore-mentioned window of the wonderful media

Pilot

I have just been elected as President of the Islamic Society, elected over a vast group of vicious competitors, yet I have prevailed over this competition of zero quite swiftly.

 It is ofcourse an honour, a much bigger honour than I can convey through text - another of the many reasons why I detest blogs. I would like to have it said on record that I hate blogs...detest them....loathe them. I feel about blogs the same way I feel about Facebook, or Twitter, or the horrid scum that calls itself 'Maths Society'. So let it be known, this is not a blog. This is the antithesis of a blog. This is the antiblog

To be completely fair, I am not a fan of Facebook and Twitter due to the way 99 percent of its users misuse the network. This is arguably to no fault of theirs, but just another prejudice that I have developed and that I feel quite ridiculous about having in the first place. But I guess that is what really thinking about something does for you. It makes you see that any judgements or pre conceived notions you tend to have about topics or even people, are usually products of your own ideologies, which is not necessarily the ideology you should be following, or even the ideology you WANT to be following

I could rant for hours about what I think is wrong about the way humanity thinks and come up with lists on how we can improve ourselves (and in future blogs, I probably will) but I would only be doing what I do best....procrastinating

So why are we here? No, not in the philosophical sense. I mean why am I writing this at all? If you are looking for a comprehensive answer to that question, you're in the wrong place. This was an idea that our 'beloved' future Ex-Officio mentioned to me, and that I quite agree with. The idea is to write about this role, and how it is going to affect the Isoc. The different challenges that the fresh new exec might face, the obstacles that we will inshallah overcome to improve this glorious society,  possibly the sacrifices that we will make in the name of Allah (swt) and how every single member of this society is going to ultimately contribute to form the community, nay, the brotherhood that we have . This is all likely to be sprinkled with dashes of my personality and opinions, perhaps way too many for people's liking, and I will apologise for that...but if you don't want my opinions, don't read my blog...so I'm taking my apology back

I have much to learn. We all do. This applies to everything in life. In the early 1700's, scientists reached a place where they thought they had literally unlocked all of the secrets of the universe...that is until some dude called Newton came and blew everyone out of the water with this weird principle he called 'Gravity'. In the same way, if we think that any of us has sufficient knowledge, then we are simply too arrogant, and that is a part of human nature. I wish to learn as much as I can about Islam, about the way I should be living my life, about how I should be treating others. It brings us back to arrogance when we say things like 'Sheikh Yaqoubi is too strict, obviously the Quran doesn't mean that!' or 'Why is going clubbing wrong if I'm never going to drink?'. Rather than thinking that our vast ocean of knowledge (comprising of having read a book called 'Islam for Dummies') can compare to people who have spent their entire life times analysing every detail of the Quran, Hadith and how its history applies, we should find out why. Find out the reason why so-and-so scholar has taken this opinion and what his backing is. Until we understand why we are doing something, or living a certain way, we won't be able to truly live and breathe our Deen, the way we should be doing. Because Islam is not a chore. All religions are there to liberate rather than constrict

I will genuinely apologise if I sound preachy or like I think I know everything. Our future Ex-Officio will be more than happy to tell you that I really do not know anything at all. But I want to learn. And I want to be a good president. Not because I think I can 'rule' the Islamic Society. But because I feel that being even the smallest part of something that can bring us closer to Allah, is the best thing I could possibly do at university. I love the Islamic Society, and I hope that we can give back even a fraction of what it has given to us.

This is Inshallah the first blog of many. I am getting ahead of myself, for I am not officially President until next year, but I wish to share my experience, and inshallah it can give a bit of insight into what we will be doing next year, and maybe even encourage the next group of enthusiastic individuals to run for president, and not leave just one person in the nominations so that there is no choice but to vote for him.