Ireland Blog

Ireland Chair- October 2009

Assalamualaikum wbt.

October has been a busy, busy month for FOSIS Ireland- we're literally drained! (for good reasons, alhamdulillah!:) )

After the Regional Council Meeting and Training on the first week, we were busy trying to get every opportunity we can to pop our faces in fresher's events and activities. Together with many other societies who share the same concerns, we advocated the cult of 'getting involved.'- hopefully we've made slick enough impressions to get as many brothers and sisters on board our isoc sphere. So we thank PPIMI, PMCSA and all our ISOCs for inviting us into their fresher's events and societies day.

I remembered when I was a fresher, doing medicine made me feel like I have to put all my time into studying. Thankfully, after a while the idea sank in- I cannot be like that or else I'll go insane. And I have so many inspiring seniors, FOSISers, ISOCers etc to thank to for making me realize all these. Point being, if you wanna give your society a good kickstart, make fresher's week massive! Verily, freshers need to be 'nagged' all these lest they will end up finishing off their uni days with just a scroll in hand- which is totally unjust for us to let happen.

Moving on, the very next week myself, Fathima and Hozaifa managed to get ourselves to Galway to join in their super satisfying Eid party and then a meeting between the old committee and some potential individuals for the ISOCs. Among higlighted issues that I would like to highlight from this is the fact that in many than not, ISOC still has got HUGE, HUGE room of improvements in terms of making themselves 'THAT' common ground for all brothers and sisters to get together into, regardless of our culture, nationality and background. What is usually happening now is, if one group of people lead, it would then be hard to get a different group to join in the bandwagon and chip in some efforts, etc. I say that we should, under all circumstances make it a priority to cater for EVERYONE through our ISOC. If this balance is not met, it will be hard for us to maximize our potential. 'Alakullihal, Galway ISOC has consequently done their membership drive and is now a mix of fresh faces of a commiittee on campus! Kudos! We look forward to seeing MYS bloom. :)

The very next day, in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month by Irish Cancer society and in conjunction with Islamic Cultural Centre Ireland ICCI's Health Awareness Month, the sisters organized a fundraiser tea party where everyone GLOWED in pink. :) Alhamdulillah, besides fundraising for ICS, we raised awareness about Breast Cancer screening and prevention amongst the Muslim community.



That done, the next weekend, the legendary Charity Week begins on the 26th in Ireland. Being the coordinator for last year, I was really amazed by the depth of improvements and involvements this year, masyaAllah. ISOCs are really taking the opportunity and potential of it all! From Cake Sales to Hair Shaving, I was very proud of Ireland's 'heroes' this year! They made me count sweets, listen to Adam Deen, let people draw henna on my hands, eat as many ferrerro roche in a minute (this was hard!!) and play tennis in Wii! Whilst last year, the struggle in advocating the alien idea in Ireland was personally very tough for me and lat year's committee, this time around the job gets much, much easier. And subhanallah, I can't wait to know how much we have raised! Lesson learnt? We often despair over the fact that we don't see immediate results of our eforrt. But astagfirullah, success and results are only in His hands, and He knows best how much success is a balanced and adequate one for us and we are only judged by our intention and sincerity.

And....guess what? BANG ON!Right at the moment, just as everyone rise above the water to gasp for air from Charity Week, we are today, officially starting our Speaker's Tour 2009! We are going to have our speaker, Sheikh Yusha Evans to come to town today at 9a.m. As I have mentioned in my last post, we have very high hopes that this tour would be one that could insyaAllah reawaken the many of us upon realizing the Omar Al Khattab, Salahudin Al Ayoubi, and Muhammad Al Fateh in us- all of whom were youth when they mark success in our glorious history of civilization and to make us realize that there is such a task as restoring peace on the face of this earth and there are no better people who should work on that but the youth. And as Muslims, we should realize that this is the core responsibility we are meant to fulfill as khalifah.

This tour are not like many others we have had before, the theme: The Sleeping Giant is one that all of us in ISOCs in Ireland feel are the issue at the bottom of the iceberg for so many presenting symptoms of ignorance and oblivion amongst many of us. I seek for your well wishes and du'a that these 11 days goes very smooth and is blessed by Allah the success in propagating the message of coming back to Allah in many of us in Ireland- a 'simple' yet most crucial element in curing all illness of the world today. And I ask the organizing team to realize this for themselves first before anybody else-Get the most out of what you propagate.

For that, I have, in between my studying (and facebooking, and checking out the fridge every 30 minutes or so..) been able to make a video as a trailer for this tour. Although qadarallah, my PC froze as I was in the middle of it before I managed to save it and never unfreeze until the next morning (la khawlawala quwata illa billah...) so I had to do it all over again to mend my devastation..:P

The intro bit, I took from a very famous independent video which made a phenomena in may schools and colleges in Malaysia a few years back. (when the youtube cult just started) I hope you take home the message from it insyaAllah - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THkNQVtZ2zw

Enjoy the video! and be up for our speaker's tour recordings in case you miss coming to any of them! ;-)
Here's the link to FOSIS Ireland Youtube Channel- http://www.youtube.com/user/FosisIreland

Jazakum Allahu Khayran Kathira

Wasalamu'alaykum warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

Munirah Hishamshah
3rd Nov 2009- 15 Dhulkaedah 1430H

Ireland Chair- September 2009

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Assalamualaykum wbt.

Alhamdulillah, we're over September. A month full of feeling-in-denial...: P in denial over the end of Ramadan, end of summer holiday, start of class and.........works. FOSIS Ireland committee Alhamdulillah slowly but happily welcomed ourselves to the work and amanah.
Upon reminder from the president-FaisaHanjra on weaning ourselves off our FOSIS and email addiction and concentrate on savoring the last bits of Ramadan especially the last 10 days, we limited ourselves upon concentrating on planning and tarbiyah during the 1st two weeks.

As Eid came and everyone opens up their houses for friends to visit and eat good food, killing off their soberness upon missing eid with family back at home...a lot of time was used to make up with friends and family- not to forget utilizing the endless eid parties to network and socialize. I don't know about the rest of the world precisely, but I know that Malaysians take Eid Fitr quite seriously- as in, every weekend, there would be open houses and parties with family, foods and friends until literally the end of Syawal. A bit unmoderate on the surface, but being one, I realized that for many of us isn't really about celebrating-the-success-of-going-through-a-month-of-tarbiyah anymore (this is honestly only felt at the 1st day) it's really about taking the spirit of the occasion to bring people together, harness the silaturrahim (brotherhood/ sisterhood bond) amongst us. And since we don't have families here, we do it amongst friends. While the trend was only followed by Malaysians, I am seeing people-the local and international students alike warming up to the idea-which is very sweet. For one, I learned that the best-liked food a Malaysian can cook for the rest of the world is Satay (a special BBQ on a stick), Nasi Impit (cube rice) andKuah Kacang (peanut sauce).

As Fresher's Fayre continue, the ISCC team tried to keep on top of everything with a lot of reminders and guides to ISocs regarding the importance of kick-starting well for the term by making the best out of Fresher's Week and the delivery of Fresher's packs. Overall, it was a huge plus for all the ISoc Stalls who had them Alhamdulillah. I have not yet been able to see pictures or reports from all ISocs on their stalls but have managed to go and visit one in RCSI. Subhanallah, talk about being opportunistic! Their stall won the best stall on the day! InsyaAllah we will have reports about it in due time.

As various societies and individuals take the hype of the week to relay it to the freshers of how they could and should do well and get the most out of their Uni life by offering advices, helping them out with accommodation, settling down (including showing how to use the water heater and radiators!), showing them around, sharing study tips, and convincing them to keep themselves sane the healthiest way- i.e. by getting involved...I thank the PPIMI, PMCSA and SU for allowing me various chances in their fresher's programme to offer my help to the freshers in all of the above-both on a personal and organizational level. I hope the freshers don't get bored of me talking bout being ‘ummatan wasatan' (nation of just and balance- Al Baqarah 143) again and again! LOL.

Last but not least, after a lot of chasing around for deadlines of budgets, proposals and action plans, Alhamdulillah we have managed to put into calendar everything we wanted to do this year, all stemming from and seeking to cater for the ‘bottom-of-the-ice-berg' underlying reasons why the Muslim students present with everything they present now that could-do-with-some-improvements. No more events for the sake of events and projects for the sake of projects insyaAllah.

With that, we welcomed the start of a new term with a Regional Council Meeting and Training in Dublin. Detailed report about the meeting may follow suit in the news section, but all I wanted to highlight from this is my gratefulness upon the passion for excellence that is beginning to show in many of the brothers and sisters in the ISoc sphere in Ireland. During the meeting and training we also had very god discussions which resolved into very positive outcomes, not forgetting a boost in our Iman and unity. Alhamdulillah.

A lot will be coming up, in the month of October, as a part of our FOSIS Community Project (FCP) Ireland, we'll next weekend be pinked with the Irish Cancer Society by hosting a social evening for the sisters- raising fund and awareness regarding Breast Cancer amongst the community. Sisters from various ISOCs will insyaAllah get together and while helping out with the evening present their cooking and baking skills! Next is of course, Charity Week which will be from 26th October to 1st November. Hopefully all will go well, please do take part and check out our website for more info. (although, on the sidenote, the website has just been newly upgraded, so it needs a huge makeover! Hopefully that will get sorted soon! J).

Not to forget, as Allah opened the hearts of more and more brothers and sisters into realizing the importance of ajamaah on campus a lot of ISocs are beginning to bud in various universities and institutes and as we should, we would insyaAllah be very keen on helping them with setting up their society. Hopefully, this becomes one of the best investment we make in FOSIS.

Munirah Hishamshah

 

Ireland Blog- August 2009

Assalamualaikum wbt.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

August seems to fly by very fast- as do most holidays!!

The ISOC sphere in Ireland, especially Dublin- which is known for its massive population of students has been very quiet. As usual, most of the FOSIS Ireland committee flew off to various exotic parts of the world - Far East, Africa and Middle East…However, as schools start to open, colours begin to fill the streets. Amidst all the but-I’m-not-ready-for-class-yet groans and moans, for someone who didn’t have the luxury of spending as much time back home as the rest of the committee, having more peeps around has indeed made days a lot more enjoyable! :-D Let’s just hope nobody gets affected by/ brings in H1N1 insyaAllah!

A lot of ideas have been discussed and put on the table, promising a very exciting year ahead! But here are the major ones we are ready to strike for very soon:-

Naturally, we are all looking forward to the Fresher’s Fayres around this time…While being very grateful for the unresting effort made by the national ISCC and Finance team for our Fresher’s Pack, FOSIS Ireland do hope to be able to assist the ISOCs as best as we could with maximizing the utilization of  Fresher’s Fayre in recruiting as much as they can to win muslim students throughout colleges and universities, freshman and returning students alike. Iftar and eid parties are wide opportunities to be doing this. Let’s see what our ISOCs have up their sleeves in weeks to come, biiznillah and measure the results ourselves by the number of members signing up to ISOC and picture galleries! ;-)

Soon after, parallel with Imam Ghazali’s  suggestion that nobody can give what they themselves have not experienced, we are hoping to get a kickstart with a training and discussion weekend for ourselves and ISOC presidents. And the next two weekends after that hope to provide ISOCs throughout Ireland trainings through ISOC 101 insyaAllah.

I myself look forward to another round of ISOC visiting biiznillah- to see how ISOCs are keeping and being point of reference for FOSIS to be offering as much assistance as possible to all of them.

Up after that would insyaAllah be Charity Week which seeks to bring muslim community together for one week fundraising through various means to be forwarded to orphans around the world!

Well, I guess I better stop hands from typing more projects and events we have in store for now just to keep everyone on the look-out! ;-)

Hopefully, everyone is having a good time, savouring the last bit of summer and especially for muslims, the last two parts of ramadhan, Maghfirah (forgiveness from Allah) and Ma’rifah (knowledge and enlightenment of Allah’s greatness) after the first part of Rahmah (blessings) has gone by.

Subhanallah, time does fly, don’t it? May we be amongst those Allah bless barakah (blessings) in the time we are bestowed with in this very short life. Ameen.

Until Next,
Your Sister- Munirah Hishamshah.