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.